Fellow FileMakers,

I host 85 mission critical FileMaker 6 files via FileMaker Server 5.5.2, unfortunately, the FileMaker 5.5 Server continues to crash on our Apple Xserve running 10.4.11 Server with the following errors:

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Date/Time: 2010-01-26 16:35:42.824 -0800

OS Version: 10.4.11 (Build 8S169)

Report Version: 4

Command: fmserverd

Path: fmserverd

Parent: launchd [1]

Version: : (

PID: 279

Thread: 18

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)

Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x6563686e

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I have tried the following on the Apple Xserve 10.4.11:

-Updating FileMaker Server to 5.5.4

-Re-seating the memory

-Performed the "Recover..." command on all of the files

-Recovered the files from our backup from the known function set of files

Next:

I attempted to load FileMaker Server 5.5 on XP Pro 5.1.2600.

Unfortunately the Server crashed on this system as well!

Does anyone have any pointers or ideas on what to try next?

I realize I should upgrade the FM Server software, but for the time being, we really need to function with our current setup while we perform the upgrade.

Any help would be greatly and dearly appreciated.

Thank you kindly.

We'd probably need some more information to make a full diagnosis, but a few things should be done here to figure out what's going on.

First, you should distinguish between the server crashing and the files crashing. Does FMS crash without your files running? If so, you've got a configuration issue, and you should investigate what has changed on the OS level of your box since it last ran correctly. If you can go back to that state, then you should have FMS running again. If, on the other hand, FMS has never run properly on this box, you may have a permanent configuration issue. I don't know how well FMS 5.5 runs on what you're describing, so you might want to start a whole new thread if this is the case, just to track down what your options are here.

If FMS runs fine until you put your files up on it, then you've another problem entirely: corrupt files. In fact, I'd say you have this problem anyway, so you will need to take care of this the right way. FileMaker's recover function in 5.5 is not there to recover files to be used again, but to recover files in order to extract the data from them. You need to go back to your last pre-crash backup, clone that backup (yeah, all 85 files) and then import the data from your recovered files into the clean backups. This is the only way to ensure that your files are not unstable.

You'll have to do some housekeeping on the files after this - check that any serial number fields are reset to account for all the new records you've added, especially.

Okay, so now you can at least say you've got all your data rescued and in functioning files. To get up and running quickly, find a machine that will run FileMaker Server without crashing. Any box on the network will do in a pinch, so long as it isn't being used as a FileMaker Pro client. Put the files on that, redirect your users to that IP address, and then you can spend some time figuring out how to get FMS running on your XServe.

Hope that helps,

Stanley

Stanley, thank you kindly for the insight, I will be sure apply these lesson learned.

On a good note, we located the problem. It turns out that during our Domain migration activities, the Macintosh account names were changed to a long text string of information resulting in 50+ plus characters. This also affected the User Names in the FileMaker Pro clients. By using the "Custom Name" and shortening the name, the FileMaker Server no longer crashes.

This was an extensice trouble shooting activity, we literally tried everything, and it seeems that it boiled down to this solution.

Again, thanks for your insight and great list of best practices, it really is appreciated a great deal.