FileMaker Server 5.5 on Mac OS X too slow

[leahpo]

Hi,

We have FileMaker 5.0 server running on new Mac OS X server (G4 with dual processors, 512 RAM). It runs on Mac classic version 9.1

The application consists of 12 related files. Main table is large, about 85 MB, has over 800 fields, 170 layouts, a lot of buttons, etc.

Most related files are quite small, up to 100 K each. For all files Local Data Access Companion and Remoute Data Access Companion are enabled.

MAC server is on a network (TCP/IP connection). All users(6 right now) run FileMaker Pro 5.0 client and internally we access FM application via HOSTS button, by opening the main table on the server. Internally it is quite fast, it takes a few seconds to open all tables (start-up script), and navigation between records is fast.

However, we have one user located far away, who is using the web (cable modem connection) via VPN to log into our system (network), and then she opens FM 5.0 client, and opens the main table via HOSTS button. After the user upgraded to cable modem in the beginning her connection speed significantly improved. It still was not as fast as local connection, but much faster than before.

I thought that upgrade to FileMaker 5.5 Server (which runs in native mode on Mac OS X) will solve the problem.

We finally received FileMaker 5.5 Server, I installed it quickly. I allocated maximum amount of Cache to it - Mac server is dedicated to FileMaker - and excitedly started it.

And was it ever slow! It took me locally about 5 minutes to open files, any navigation, update, etc took a minute or more. I switched back to FileMaker 5.0 Server in classic mode, which starts slowing down very fast. FileMaker Server runs in the foreground.

The users are testing the application, and are constantly complaining about the performance of the system. I have to restart FileMaker Server a few times a day, but I would like to run FileMaker 5.5 in native mode.

Would anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone runs FileMaker Server 5.5 on Mac OS X? How is the speed?

Thanks in advance for any help.

LeahP

[Arin]

Have you updated to 10.1 yet?

[leahpo]

No, we are waiting for it. Could this be the problem?

[Arin]

spragueg how is your speed on OS X compared with OS 9??

And what machine/RAM are you running?

[Arin]

Hmmm, this one's really got me thinking, because from all of my experience a native app in OS X, on a G4, especially a DUAL G4 should be much FASTER than in OS 9. (OS 9 itself has little to no ability to make use of the second processor, while OS X takes FULL advantage of it).

Then I re-read this:

quote:

---

...on new Mac OS X server...

---

OS X Server, do you have any other "Server" services running on this box, ie Web Serving, FILE Serving/Sharing, anything like that?

Now I haven't used the new OS X Server (v 10.x) with filemaker (I run WSC/Apache on v1.2), but I do know that we used to run a FMP 3 Server on the same box as ASIP (a BIG, well known NO-NO in the Filemaker community) and when I first learned that this was trouble I dug out an old Centris 650 that had a 60Mhz 601 upgrade in it, and 24Megs of RAM, installed FMP 3 Server, and fired it up (not expecting much improvment at all, I was just trying to avoid file corruption) and IT FLEW compared to how it had been running on a 7215/120 WGS with several hundred megs of RAM!!!

The point here is that ANY EXTRA services running on the OS X Server Box _could_ be causeing a major slowdown for FMP Server.

If your comfortable with your CLI you can try the commands:

ps aux

netstat

to see what processes are running, and what sockets are open...

I would try to shutdown/disable and/or kill anything that wasn't absolutley necessary, reboot and then see how the performance is...

(FYI: My hunch is that the slowdown could be primarily caused by some kind of FileSharing)

[ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: Arin ]

[ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: Arin ]

[spragueg]

My performance did not change from 10.0.x to 10.1. But then again I had no performance problems with 10.0.x either.

[spragueg]

I am using a Cube 450 with 320MB. Running Mac OS X 10.1 and FileMaker 5.5 running natively in X. It is connected to the network on 100T full duplex, clients are also 100T full duplex.. I have no sharing of any kind and the server's only task is to share FMP files.

My speed increased only marginally when moving from 9 to X but it was a noticable increase. One thing I noticeed right away is that the server's performance when under heavy load (network and disk activity) is much faster than it was in 9.x. Also you don't have to keep FMS application in foreground for optimal performance.

Hope this sheds some light,

Thanks,

G

[Arin]

I've now got Server 5.5 running on a 867Mhz G4 with 640Megs of Ram, and OS 10.1 and for me to say that it is FAST is an understatment.

This thing flies, even when serving to client machines (iMacs - 333Mhz - OS 9.1) that are connected to the web via WSC, FAST, FAST, FAST.

Any closer to a solution Leah?

[leahpo]

Thanks all of you for your replies. I was not able to do any testing because the application is running on Mac Classic 9.1, on FM 5.0. Users are doing data integrity check, and they do not want me to shut the server down even for a few hours. Right now it's working fine, they are relatively happy(last 2 days). I will perform all checks that were recommended and see if it will be faster.

Leah

[Fikse]

same thing here..... I tried a G4/500 with a clean install of os x server 10.1..... installed filemaker 5.5 server for X.... nothing else was running....

all of the users said "what happened to the server" , "its slow"....

not only was it slow, it was totally UNSTABLE..... filemaker server 5.5 kept crashing.... corrupting the db files, and requiring long 4 hour integrity checks....

oh, and the scheduler wouldn't work either!

very dissapointing...

I have since reverted back to 9.21 and classic 5.5 server...

someone said your supposed to run Filemaker 5.5 Server for X with OSX, NOT OSX Server..... I'm not about to go into another couple days of troubleshooting to try it out..

Brooks

[ October 29, 2001: Message edited by: Fikse ]

[ October 29, 2001: Message edited by: Fikse ]

[Arin]

Fikse were you running any of the other "server" apps/services on your system?

(File Sharing for example?)

-Arin

Mine's been working Great on OS X 10.1 (other than the scheduler, but a cron based backup takes care of that bug...)