Hi

I have had conflicting contributions as to what the system requirements are for FM Server 7. I am running a 50-user network and am in the process of upgrading to server 7. I will be running version 8 on the client PC's.

What is the best OS for this set up? Windows 2003 Server Small Business or am i able to run it on Windows XP Pro?

Regards

Shaun

Why not upgrade to Server v8? Supposedly it has performance improvements and permits some advanced features in FMPro 8.

I don't know the answer to your question since both versions of the Windows OS are supported. I found it interesting that the FM website lists ranks FMServer performance as follows:

1. iMac Intel 1.8 GHz core duo

2. Windows Server 2003 dual 3.6 GHz Xeon

3. Mac OS X Server PowerPC G5 dual 2.3 GHz

It's mainly a matter of familiarity and not disrupting the users unnecessarily on the network. In time we will however.

If possible I would rather use XP Pro to run the server as I don't want to have to set up PDC's and BDC's as I am already running Windows Server Small Business on another server.

Windows XP Pro [color:red]is not a server OS. I strongly recommend that you use the certified OS, namely Windows Server 2003 SP 1 and that you run it--as recommended--on a dedicated machine.

Steven

Thanks for your input. I realise it is not a server OS, but I wanted to clarify how it would run FM Server 7 as I have been running Filemaker Server 5.5 on a dedicated box with Win XP Pro for sometime now without any problems.

I will however go ahead with Windows Server 2003 as you have recommended.

Shaun

Steven,

I came across this post which relates directly to my question. You say that Windows XP Pro is not a Server OS which of course it isn't, but on the Filemaker Server 9 Tech Specs page it is listed under the System Requirements, so FMS9 will run on WinXP Pro.

If one is running a FM Server 9 (which is handling the serving of Filemaker files) on dedicated hardware, with no other software being served on that machine, why not use Win XP Pro?

Just would like a bit more info on what the reasons are, as I don't want to use Windows Server if I don't need to.

Thanks for you help.

Cheers, Dom.

FileMaker, Inc. occasionally makes incorrect decisions for various reasons, sometimes marketing related. In my view this was one of them. I registered a very strong demarche when this was first revealed before the announcement of Server's release.

Server management and troubleshooting tools are present in the Server OS; they are not present in XP. Windows XP is an excellent OS. I use it every day. I do not use it for FileMaker Server, or any other server type process.

Steven