The company I work for is in need of a Filemaker Server (hardware). Our current Filemaker server is also our file server for the office and we would like to purchase some hardware to use only for Filemaker. We are serving about 14 databases with a total of 71 files (about 200 mg of data). There are about 5 users in this office (LAN), and 3 in an out-of-state office (WAN).

Because of our modest needs we were considering a Apple Mini to use as a Filemaker server. But many people have stated that because of the poor disk drives in the Mini, it is a poor choice for a Filemaker server. An xserve or Mac Pro seem like such overkill for our needs. What kind of hardware are others using as a Filemaker server? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Get one of the towers and replace the SATA drives with SCSI drives.

Steven

Until recently I was running a G4/450 with FMS 5.5 on OS 9. 800Mb of data spread across 45 files - no problems EVER.

I moved this to FMS 8 on G5 Xserve - very fast, no problems. Never even see the hourly backups!

Your 5 + 3 user network is tiny for FMS and I suspect that no one will notice performance problems on lesser equipment.

Get a Mac Mini and try it. If you're wrong then you only inflated the cost of the Xserve or PowerMac a little bit - but then you also end up with another work station.

Actually, I'd recommend an older G5 or G4 Xserve - they can be had for around $1000 these days and would be more than enough horsepower for your task. SCSI drives are unnecessary based on your requirements - SATA should be able to easily handle the load with perfectly fine performance.

The Xserve has many advantages over a tower, in particular its extensive hardware monitoring and hardware-based fault detection.

- John

And remember that XServe's have an option for a second power supply. Connect one to a UPS (you do have one there right?) and the second to a power outlet from a different group.