Advanced Web Server stopping

[troutstudio]

Please forgive me if this has been covered: am I correct in supposing that Adv Server with IWP on OS X is prone to stopping? Tht is what is happening with ours every few days. I think it might be after the databases have been backed up. The strange thing is that when it happens, some of our redirects from http.conf just go missing - get chopped off. FM Adv Server writes to this file so I presume it might be the culprit. Has anyone else experienced problems with stability on OS X, or a loss of httpd.conf entries? Your time and patience is much appreciated.

[Ocean West]

Yes this is a known bug, the only recommendation at this point is to restart your server every few days.

[troutstudio]

Thanks very much for the reply. As our server runs Moodle(s), Openconf, BB forums and realms for various charities, this news is actually somewhat of a relief. I guess we are all waiting for a patch . . .

[Steven H. Blackwell]

As Stephen says, it's a known issue. FMI says they are working on it. Stay tuned.

You aren't running all those other services on the same server as your FileMaker Server, are you?

Steven

[troutstudio]

You aren't running all those other services on the same server as your FileMaker Server, are you?

Steven

Unfortunately yes. But as you can imagine, I am hoping to rectify this ASAP. We are running a trial of a staff database but if the prototype works, then then I will be pushing hard for a dedicated server.

As a matter of interest, this server won't be under a big load at all - do you mean that you don't recommend running other web based services on an IWP server? The more opinion I can get on this the better. Thanks very much.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

do you mean that you don't recommend running other web based services on an IWP server?

Dedicated means dedicated to FileMaker Server, with or without the Web Publishing Engine. If it's the all in one configuration, just FMS, the WPE, and the web server (IIS or Apache).

See the Server Tech Brief on the FMI Web Site for additional information.

Steven

[FM_CWPE_is_UNSTABLE]

No, you are correct, troutstudio! And this is my first time around other filemaker web publishers (we are rare), but I am not surprised to see so many of us having exactly the same issues with Filemaker Web Publishing:

Namely, Filemaker Server CPWE crashes incessantly.

Filemaker Server 9 CPWE, my friend, like every filemaker server which has preceded it, is BUGGY, UNSTABLE, and plagued by CRYPTIC LOGS that don't tell you what the problem is. An administrator's worst nightmare.

In our case, we publish websites that serve thousands of requests per hour from a dozen or so different FM databases. Every WEEK there is another crisis!

We've tried everything. We spend tons of money -- upgrading NEVER fixes it. We upgrade $$$ hardware. We scour log files for answers (logs which are worthless because there is no explanation on filemaker's website as to what their contents represent). FMCWPE is so mysterious, and so deeply intertwined with Java -- there is NO WAY for even moderately experienced CWP users to understand what is going on with these crashes and successfully resolve them.

Nothing works!

We move remove databases.

We shut off services.

We abandon XSLT.

We economize layouts.

We reinstall FM.

We boost the memory.

We turn off backups!

NOTHING MATTERS! Filemaker Web Publishing continues to crash, WEEK AFTER WEEK, YEAR AFTER YEAR. All we can do is continually restart the web server and pray to god it stays up to see the light of another day.

Filemaker, meanwhile, remains silent. Their troubleshooting 'knowledgebase' remains BARREN of any MENTION of CWPE crashes in release versions. I've looked everywhere.. there is no hint of awareness of this issue! THIS IS INTENTIONAL, FOLKS.

Somebody ought to ask Filemaker (they are TOTALLY unreachable):

-- HOW do we configure httpd.conf for optimum performance?

-- WHY does your CWPE crash incessantly? What are we supposed to do? WTF?

-- For the love of god, WHAT do your cryptic logs mean? And would they even tell us what's wrong? God knows. I pinpointed the moment of crash once in the logs a couple weeks ago, and the only 'unusual' circumstance I could discern from the context was what appeared to be a glut of (default) IWP images loaded during a period of generally high volume. I switched off IWP, two days later FM web publishing crashed again. NO CHANGE. I've had enough!

Filemaker App is beautiful, but FM server web publishing is a total nightmare.

I've used it for 8 years, TRUST ME: It sucks. :)

Edited March 26, 2008 by Guest

[lassoguy]

I think troutstudio hit the nail on the head when he said "I think it might be after the databases have been backed up..."

I have been troubleshooting a problem with FileMaker Server Advanced 9.0.3.326 running on a 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xenon XServe with 4 GB memory and Mac OS X Server 10.4.11.

The problem is related to backups. Normally the machine runs with 2.6 GB of free memory, but when the backup script runs and backs up a single 2.1 GB database to a second drive the free memory drops to 54.5 MB and stays there until I stop FileMaker Server and restart the machine. This backup was running every hour, but I've got it shut off for now, and am only backing up at 11 PM when I can reboot the machine without interfering with people's work schedules.

Coincidentally when the machine runs out of memory the Web Publishing Engine stops working and returns an error: "Maximum number of database sessions exceeded."

I don't currently have a solution to the problem other than to reboot after backups which really doesn't seem feasible considering I like to take vacations occasionally.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Have you reported this to FMI Tech Support? This is the type thing they need to know.

Steven

[AnFrusch@pepp]

Hello,

I'm experiencing the same stability problem reported by other users before. CWPE seems to stop working (out of memory or CPU usage).

I'm working on a 100% windows platform (web edition of a 2003 server) dedicated to a web site (database and web engine works only to publish dynamic web pages) and, when CWPE process reach 50-51% of CPU it simply stop responding givin' back a not-well explained 'Unknown error'. I'm encouraged by the application to take a look to the log files but, as said by some one some post before, the log files are so 'cryptic' that I cannot investigate anything (and this is really a nightmare). I supposed this happens because of module "give up" and cannot write the query/event made it stop in the log.

A scheduled stop/restart sounds like a useless workaround as it didn't fix the cause of the problem, it just reset the memory/CPU allocation in my opinion. I would really like to know which email I could contact to have some good reply: I'm italian and the italian tech support cannot answer my question.

I've experienced the same CWPE crashes with FMS 7 and - later - upgrading platform to FMSA 9. Java version is 6 release 7 (no update 10).

My filemaker powered web site usually face a lot of queries, as a page is often made by included xml documents but it seems there is not a specified query that makes it crash.

I've created a lot of excel-table-like layout wihich usually contains only the data needed to answer the queries.

I've reduced the number of backup during the day (now there are 3 full backup a day for all 3 databases and 2 additional single database backup).

Please, give some help or infos... :

[Steven H. Blackwell]

'm working on a 100% windows platform (web edition of a 2003 server) dedicated to a web site (database and web engine works only to publish dynamic web pages)

It's difficult to tell from this description whether you have one or two servers. FileMaker Server is [color:red]not certified to run on the Web Edition of Windows Server 2003. OTOH, if you are running only IIS on that, it may be OK. Do you have a separate server for the databse and the FileMaker Web Publishing Engine?

Steven

[AnFrusch@pepp]

Well.. in fact FMSA9 system requirement is standard edition 2003.. but there is no specification which exclude Web edition. The Web edition is the all in one filemaker server/web server that is used to publish filemaker and the web site.

IIS and the filemaker engines are installed on the same machine.

I'm asking why filemaker - once it gets my system set up and check them (I hope the installer did this) - didn't fail the installation procedure if it require every windows server OS but Web Edition..

Probably there is some query which is used on the web site that produces an output or other instruction that leads fm process to crash, I can't figure what it is and - as said before - the logs surely didn't help the debug process in anyway. An error described as 'unknown error' makes not the things clearer, IMHO.

At this point I would like to know which email address I have to contact to obtain satisfying tech info from Filemaker itself.

[AnFrusch@pepp]

I also want to share this tech info with all of you: .Here's the filemaker knowledge base page for 'not responding' filemaker web engine error.

They say that to avoid unexpected CWPE crash we should always add a -max parameter to our queries.. it sound strange because I was told that - if no "-max" param. is specified - the dafault value is 25. Am I wrong?

[omni_steve]

I ran into this problem trying to migrate to our new 10.5.5 server. And finally upgrading to FileMaker Server 9.0.3. After some investigation, It appears that it has to do with "Verify Backup Integrity" When turn this off, the problem goes away.

To see this in action, copy your databases onto another machine and run a recover in filemaker pro on each file, while watching Activity Monitor System Memory usage. The large files will take a long time and eat up all your memory... Once completed, most of your memory will be returned. However some will still be inactive. This appears to be what has happened to us. I have since modified each of my Scheduled backups to un-check the "Verify Backup Integrity" option.

My next step is to break up the backups to groups of large files and small files. The small files that recover quickly, I inted to turn back on the "Verify Backup Integrity" option, but find another way to verify the larger files. Possibly on another system.

I hope this helps.

[AnFrusch@pepp]

Hallo, thanks for Your reply.

Unfortunately we are used to maintain files sometimes and the verify backup integrity checkbox is turned off for each schedule since I first installed the software (except for the default console backup 'Daily', 'Weekly' and 'Hourly' but these schedules were disabled and now I turned off the verify integrity option).

I hope to disable all the scheduled backup is not needed: it would be very dangerous in my opinion..