upgrading from fm5.5 leaves windows clients really slow but mac clients ok

[foxinch]

Hi, I have been tasked with moving from fm 5.5 to server 8 and client 8.5 The migration appears to run ok. The 5.5 server is windows 2000 and a 800MHz dual machine. The new server is a quad core 1.8Ghz machine running windows server 2003. The mac clients connect and start the files ok approx 40 seconds, but the windows clients take upto 30 mins. Both load equally quick from the old machine (around 40 seconds)

I have tried tweaking the server settings, but there appears to be not much to tune and on the client side even less, I have fiddled with the cache etc.

The clients calls a menu file, which is small and loads almost instantly on both systems, but if you select one the main menu option which opens four files, the mac client opens with an average of 10 seconds per database file while the windows machine needs up to 10 minutes per database file.

I have also tried the same thing using a mac machine as a server and it shows the same symptons.

As this is such a huge difference in performance I hope someone has come across this before and solved it - probably some silly thing I missed.

[foxinch]

I should add that if I open the files locally on a windows machine then the response is the same as a mac client, or slightly faster.

I have done some test timings

server 2003 - xp client time to open files 14 mins

server osx - xp client time to open files 18mins (emulated)

server 2003 - mac client time to open files less than 1 minute

server osx - mac client time to open files less than 1 minute

because it opens on windows locally fast it can't be a problem with the db it must be a network/server problem, any ideas anyone.

thanks Ian

[Søren Dyhr]

Forgive me if this question is ridiculous, but ss the drive where the solution resides shared with both OS filesharing as well as the FM protocol?

The drive must not be seen from the windows OS perspective, windows filesharing should be turned off for the directory where the solution is as file(s)...

--sd

[Ender]

Have you checked the file references? Outdated or incorrect file references can cause long delays opening files.

[Søren Dyhr]

Outdated or incorrect file references can cause long delays opening files

Indeed, but wouldn't it be mirrored on the mac side of the matters??

--sd

[foxinch]

I will double check, initially sharing was off but I know we made a temporary share - I will double check, when I am back in the office

Although new to FM I have been in the business a long time and one thing I have learnt is that there is no such thing as a ridiculous question :

I will also check the file references, but i feel its more a network config issue

[Vaughan]

"I will also check the file references, but i feel its more a network config issue"

Arguably, file references ARE a network config issue. If you haven't already cleaned them up you'll find that they will be a mess.

[foxinch]

Windows sharing was not enabled, however the filke references are indeed in a mess, so I will clean these up, which will take a while, lets hope it is this and thanks for the pointer, it does of course say something about slow startup in the file reference secion of the migration manual, but I missed because the macs work ok I had missed the relevance.

Thanks all, I will report back on success or failure

[Steven H. Blackwell]

It is [color:red]far easier to fix file references before converting from .fp5 than it is to fix them after the fact.

Steven

[foxinch]

I have tried changing the file references, but it doesn't seem to make a difference, I have tried relative (using file) full (using filewin) and filemaker network (fmnet) but they don't appear to making a difference.

Sorry to ask but what setting should I be using for the files that is best for mac and pc clients on a windows FM server. I am guessing they should be set to fmnet:/ipaddress/filename is correct, but could someone confirm this please.

If I find that file references are the cause of the problem then maybe I will adjust the production 5.5 server to fix the problem before upgrading.

I do have the db files located in another location on the server but this only allows the filewin:/drive:/path as a valid option. I don't suspect this but maybe it is an issue - I will try with the files in the default location and drive

[Ender]

Use relative paths, and keep the files in the same folder or set of folders.

[foxinch]

Thanks all, problem solved!

I changed all the paths to just the relative one, most also had an fmnet option in the first position, and now the startup time it has gone from 14mins to 4 seconds, a vast improvement on the old server.

I wonder if the mac's network time out quicker e.g they try the fmnet part first and then time out after 10 seconds whereas the windows clients timeout after 5 minutes.

The fmnet options were a mess as well some had the dreaded asterisk some to old drives.

anyway thanks folks for your help - much appreciated.