Filemaker Server - Why would I need to buy it?

[SteveGriff]

Hi there

I have a question. There are twelve people using filemaker here. They all going to feed off one machine that has filemaker open with the database.

Would there be a reason (or excuse) for that copy of filemaker to be fm server instead of filemaker 5.5?

Thanxs

Steve

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Safety, reliability, automated backups,extensibility, scability. Get FM Server. it rocks.

Old Advance Man

[Kurt Knippel]

The first time the host locks up and is forced to reboot, thereby unrecoverably thrashing those databases, will be the first time (and probably the last) that you wished you had FM Server.

Running FM Server on an iMac or spare WinNT Workstation is an inexpensive solution for all of the things that OAM said plus the safety of knowing that no user can crash the databases.

[d94dsj]

A more important fact is that, if you have a relational system with several databases, 12 people will probably not be able to connect to it simultaneously. The reason is that, when using peer-to-peer networking instead of a real FileMaker Server, the number of available network connections or sockets is severly limited. Here is an excerpt from "Special Edition: Using FileMaker Pro 5" by Rich Coulombre:

"Sockets available={{2^8}-2}} (or 254 total) {That's 2 to the 8th power, or 256, minus 2, equaling 254}

Number of sockets consumed=Number of file*number of users*2"

I've constructed the following example based on information from his book (actually I just recalculated the numbers. Most of the text is his.)

Let's say that you share 10 files and have 12 users.

First, subtract 7 sockets that FileMaker Pro retains for its own internal use. Now there are 247 left for use (254-7=247). Each file opened by the host requires two sockets. So if there are 10 files opened by the host, the host consumes 20 sockets (2*10=20), leaving 227 sockets available for guests (247-20=227). If there are 12 guests of these 10 files, each will use 20 sockets (2*10=20) for a total of 240 sockets consumed by guests (12*20=240). But 240 is more than the number of available sockets (227). So, all users cannot connect to all databases at the same time.

In addition to that, FileMaker Pro creates temporary files during activities such as sorts and Sub-summaries, and these files can rapidly exceed the total availble sockets.

Therefore, he suggests the following "safe" set of calculations:

Sockets available: 254

Sockets consumed by host: (4*number of files) +7

Sockets consumed by guests: 4*number of files*number of guests

Hope this helps,

Daniel

[Steven H. Blackwell]

quote:

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Originally posted by CaptKurt:

The first time the host locks up and is forced to reboot, thereby unrecoverably thrashing those databases, will be the first time (and probably the last) that you wished you had FM Server.

Running FM Server on an iMac or spare WinNT Workstation is an inexpensive solution for all of the things that OAM said plus the safety of knowing that no user can crash the databases.

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Except I wouldn't use an iMAc because of the IDE drive, and I'd use NT Server or W2K Server, not NT Workstation.

Old Advance Man

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Old Advance Man:

Except I wouldn't use an iMAc because of the IDE drive, and I'd use NT Server or W2K Server, not NT Workstation.

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Good points. I was thinking of an inexpensive interum solution, but that was perhaps shortsighted.