FileMaker and QuickBooks on server

[obdata]

Hello,

We are currently using FMP 8.5 Advanced and QB 2007 Premier and are linking them with FileBooks Link. We would like to setup a server on our network, so we could have several (2-4) computers accessing both FMP and QB simultaneously,linking them via FileBooks Link from each workstation. We would also like to enable offsite acccess for home based workers.

We are considering raid 5 on the server, with periodic backup to network attached storage, housed in another building.

Does this sound practical?

Do you have any hardware or software recommendations?

Mac versus windows for the filemaker server? We currently run windows.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Just don't run both on the same server.

Steven

[obdata]

Yes, that I know. So it would be best to have two small servers, both with RAID, one running Filemaker Server, the other QB. I'd be glad for any suggestions on hardware, software, and setup, especially the RAID. We had in mind an array of 4 80+ GB disks.

Also, should we be using FM Server, or, since we only have 4 concurrent users at the most, could we use the desktop version, and use some sort of scheduler to run a script to save a backup to our file server? (a little like Server would do)

What about speed on a networked file? Should we be changing some things like automatic calculations and summaries, or can we setup our server in such a way that this isn't a problem.

[grumbachr]

2-4 computers accessing that doesn't seem like much of a load on a server to me. Are your requirements for PC or Mac systems?

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I definitely recommend FileMaker Server for safety, security, automatic backups, ease of file management, and so forth.

[color:red]You do not need to use RAID for an effective FileMaker Server deployment. You could however use three physical drives, one for the OS and FMS, the second for the databases, and the third for local backups and logs. Be sure they are high quality SCSI or SAS drives, not consumer type SATA drives.

If you need more specifications, let me know. HTH.

Steven

[obdata]

2-4 computers accessing that doesn't seem like much of a load on a server to me. Are your requirements for PC or Mac systems?

Our clients will probably all be PCs, and the one server needs to be PC (for QB), but the other server could probably be Mac or PC, though we would likely go with PC since that's what we have otherwise. We are also now thinking of using Terminal Services for touchcreen consoles in the shop, which would be accessing Filemaker only.

As far as the RAID, wouldn't it be a possible to have two disks, and have the one a mirror of the other, so that if one goes bad that there is almost nothing lost, or should we just setup auto backups every 15-30 minutes to the file server, and then at the most we'd lose that much data? Which for us would be very little.

And yes, I'd be glad for any more specs on the server, as far as brand, processor, RAM, OS, etc. We're pretty open to suggestions right now, we can narrow things done later.