What would cause the Web Publishing to keep stopping?

[HALBURN]

For some reason our FileMaker Web Publishing engine keeps stopping. I try to restart it through the Web Admin Console but it does not get it going again. It works sometimes after I reboot the computer...but hours later when I check it from my browser it tells me that Web Publishing has stopped again.

I have reinstalled the Web Publishing Engine twice (using the latest available update) but I keep running into the same problem. Does anyone know what could be causing this problem?

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Lots of stuff might contribute to this problem:

1. An errant OS patch.

2. Wrong version of IIS or Apache.

3. Wrong OS.

4. Not enough RAM memory.

5. Incorrect Server cache allocation. (Should be set at max amount allowed).

6. Bad memory.

7. Bad drive.

What configuration are you using for your FMSA?

Steven

[fmlawl]

This issue could be involving a lot of factors as the previous poster said.

Personally, with an issue like this I would contacting tech support so that the issue can be worked through and not relaying on replies as it is a live server and may take a more indepth troubleshooting.

[Hammerton]

Richard Carlton, from RC Consulting, emailed me from the Filemaker developers conference with news that FMSA9 web publishing is extremely unstable on the Mac platform - quiting every 3-5 days for no reason. Don't go messing with your system if it may be the FMSA software that needs fixing. He actually adviced my to stay away from 9 until the next release.

jim

[wplate]

I'm experiencing the joy of FMSA 9's Web Publishing Engine dying as well.

I will take the advice here and contact tech support.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Please do contact Tech Support with this issue. They need to know about as many variations of this scenario as possible.

Steven

[wplate]

I'm on the phone with them right now. A) This guy doesn't seem to be aware of the problem and This guy seems to think that a Quad-core 2GHZ MacIntel Xserve may not meet the system requirements for FMSA9.

UPDATE: They had me save my databases as compacted to "rule out data corruption" and then restart the server. If the problem happens again I'm supposed to call them back.

Edited August 20, 2007 by Guest
updated

[wplate]

5 days since the last time Web Publishing died, today it did again. It is Saturday and I don't have time to call Tech Support (I don't even know if they're open on weekends) so I just rebooted the system.

:-(

I'll call them Monday.

FYI.

This is FileMaker Server Advanced 9.01 running on an Xserve 2.0 Quad Core with 2GB RAM.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

There are widespread reports of issues with the WPE in FileMaker Server 9 running on OS X dying. In some instances this apparently causes the database server daemon to die as well.

FMI has said they are investigating this.

Steven

[wplate]

Good to know. My Database Server died as well yesterday, a second reboot brought everything back to life.

[cbum]

I am seeing something similar -repeated instances of the IWP shutting down, while the DB server continues normally. The browser returns an error message, and the Admin console tells me there is a problem communicating with the server, showing me a red button for the WPE (only).

Possibly related are instances where the safari browser (don't know about others) falls into an infinite loop of an error message window when trying to log in. Dismisssing the message with ok loops back to the same error before any action can be taken, with a force quit from safari the only remedy...

When that occurs, checking the Admin console shows a red button for WPE, but this had not been consistent.

Turning the WPE off & on has no effect. The only remedy is to restart the entire computer.

This is occurring with a file that was in use on FMSA8 for 2 years without the slightest problem.

Config: OS X.4.10 on a dual G5PMac, FMSA 9.0.1.132

Any insights welcome.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Version of Safari that is causing the problem?

Steven

[cbum]

Steven,

the one I was using when the problem occurred was 2.0.4, the one you get with X.4.10.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

OK, so long as it was not v3, with which there appear to be a number of issues and problems.

Steven

[cbum]

Steven,

I just got off the phone with a FM regional account rep, who told me that the problem is being tracked down, and a fix is forthcoming.

He said he knew when (!), but if he told me he'd have to shoot me.

In the meantime, the workaround is to restart the computer yourself every 3 days or so, since this appears to be happening after about 4 days uptime.

[wplate]

Update from me: Every 5 days the Web Publishing Engine quits. I called FileMaker back today to update my ticket with more historical data. The tech I spoke with first said he was not familiar with this, then went away and came back and said that it is a known issue with FM Server 9 on OS X, the only known workaround at this time is to reboot the server every 3-4 days.

This sucks for me as I have at least one zombie client that once it loses the connection to the server can't get it back all by itself, I have to manually reestablish the connection.

I hope FileMaker figures this out soon.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

FMI has said this is a known issue. Stay tuned.

Steven

[Stephen Douglas]

I can report much the same thing. Win 2003. lasts a day dies at night. Very strange. I get the following error on reboot:

Event Type: Information

Event Source: Application Error

Event Category: (100)

Event ID: 1004

Date: 9/12/2007

Time: 9:05:51 AM

User: N/A

Computer: LON-FEP-ADMIN1

Description:

Reporting queued error: faulting application fmswpc.exe, version 9.0.1.74, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.2.3790.3959, fault address 0x0004afb2.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat

0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail

0010: 75 72 65 20 20 66 6d 73 ure fms

0018: 77 70 63 2e 65 78 65 20 wpc.exe

0020: 39 2e 30 2e 31 2e 37 34 9.0.1.74

0028: 20 69 6e 20 6e 74 64 6c in ntdl

0030: 6c 2e 64 6c 6c 20 35 2e l.dll 5.

0038: 32 2e 33 37 39 30 2e 33 2.3790.3

0040: 39 35 39 20 61 74 20 6f 959 at o

0048: 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 ffset 00

0050: 30 34 61 66 62 32 04afb2

I get this message in sys event log

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Application Error

Event Category: (100)

Event ID: 1000

Date: 9/11/2007

Time: 3:41:11 AM

User: N/A

Computer: LON-FEP-ADMIN1

Description:

Faulting application fmserver.exe, version 9.0.1.84, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.2.3790.3959, fault address 0x0004afb2.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat

0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail

0010: 75 72 65 20 20 66 6d 73 ure fms

0018: 65 72 76 65 72 2e 65 78 erver.ex

0020: 65 20 39 2e 30 2e 31 2e e 9.0.1.

0028: 38 34 20 69 6e 20 6e 74 84 in nt

0030: 64 6c 6c 2e 64 6c 6c 20 dll.dll

0038: 35 2e 32 2e 33 37 39 30 5.2.3790

0040: 2e 33 39 35 39 20 61 74 .3959 at

0048: 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74 20 offset

0050: 30 30 30 34 61 66 62 32 0004afb2

I get this e-mail from system

FileMaker Server 9.0.1.132 on LON-FEP-ADMIN1 reported the following event:

Wed Sep 12 08:52:29 BST 2007 FMS ERROR wpe1

Some problems were detected in the WPE COMPONENT: COMPONENT IS NOT RESPONDING.

I have turned off firewall but no effect. My server also runs microsoft SQL and IIS but apart from that is only hosting FM. Im baffled, the error on startup also concerns me as a simple reboot may not fix the issue - sometimes i have to start the service from the admin panel manually.

Any ideas?

[Stephen Douglas]

System as above post

On another note Im seeing other strange behaviour. When I installed v9 I turned on e-mail warning system - get mails of errors etc to see what happened.

I now constantly get messages like the following

FileMaker Server 9.0.1.132 on LON-FEP-ADMIN1 reported the following event:

2007-09-12 10:09:23.355 +0000 Warning 661 LON-FEP-ADMIN1 Client "Louise Clear" authentication failed on database "StaffAVEDA.fp7" using "Louise Clear [fmapp]".

The client is not seeing any problems, they are logging in and using the system as normail, yet Im getting mailed these authentication issues!

Im using FM accounts and security, not AD or OD. Some older databases just have a password, some have a username and password but all are giving this error!

Has this been happening since year dot but I have not known or is it a new issue in v9 - Any help would be great!

[Vaughan]

This is caused by the file's File Options set to auto-login with an invalid account name and/or password. It's especially common when opener files are used.

[ben4421]

I'm having the same/similar issue with my setup, FM9 on OS X 10.4.10. The Web Publishing Engine will stop on its own at random (after a few days), and I can't get it to start again without a restart.

Is there any new information about this problem? Thanks.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I have already said that this is a known issue. FMI has said they are investigating it. Please stay tuned here.

Steven

[HALBURN]

I have already said that this is a known issue. FMI has said they are investigating it. Please stay tuned here.

Steven

The problem that I have is that they do not acknowledge it as a known issue when you call tech support for help. Instead, they point the blame at something else on your system and send you on a wild goose chase trying to fix it.

[wplate]

The problem that I have is that they do not acknowledge it as a known issue when you call tech support for help. Instead, they point the blame at something else on your system and send you on a wild goose chase trying to fix it.

Exactly. When they finally acknowledged to me there was a problem I was frustrated that they weren't interested in me helping test a fix. I'm sure this is a tricky problem to solve but I'm happy to run diagnostics, provide log files, whatever.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I can't account for the presence or absence of tech Support. However FMI acknowledged the issue at the Developer Conference. I will communicate this matter to the Tech Support manager however.

Steven

[Tan]

Here's a workaround:

On 8.5, set a script that runs a Terminal command every 24 hours at around 3am when few people would want to log in.

The command is:

sudo SystemStarter restart "FileMaker Web Publishing"

On 9, do the same thing, but use these two commands:

sudo fmservicewrapperd -stop

sudo fmservicewrapperd -start

It's not so elegant in 9, but it works.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Everyone stay tuned on this issue. As I said, FMI knows about it.

Steven

[wplate]

Can anyone confirm that 9.02 fixes this problem?

from http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/1605

"In Mac OS X, the Web Publishing Engine stopped responding after running for approximately 5 days.  This has been fixed."

[Steven H. Blackwell]

The updater was released on Tuesday. Be sure to read the isntructions before isntalling it.

Steven

[ben4421]

The updater was released on Tuesday. Be sure to read the isntructions before isntalling it.

Steven

Excellent. I will be reading up on this update today and will likely install it this weekend. Thanks for the help everyone! :thumbup:

[Tan]

It hasn't been 5 days yet so I can't confirm that this issue has been fixed but I can see immediately that the FM Web Publishing daemon no longer has a zillion threads taking up several gigabytes of memory anymore. Also, on the FM Server side, it no longer has a huge list of active web clients. This looks very promising.

[elscooter]

Our organization installed the v2 upgrade on Sept. 27th and the dropped connection is still continuing. No one can fix this but FileMaker.

[powerful0x0]

same here!, i have FMSA 9 installed and updated on totally two different machines, the database server works fine but the web publisher/php etc.. is all down

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Both of you all please report this to FMI Tech Support.

Steven

[wplate]

So far the 9.0.2 update has fixed our problem of regularly losing the web publishing interface.