FMS11 - TRUE Minimum Requirements?

[Codeus]

Hello,

For Filemaker 11 Server (both normal and advanced versions), FileMaker states the following MINIMUM requirements: -

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Windows Server 2008 - Core Duo / 2GB RAM / 80 GB HDD

Windows Server 2003 - Pentium 3.4GHz / 2 GB RAM / 80 GB HDD

Mac OS 10.6 - Dual Core / 4 GB RAM / 80 GB HDD

Mac OS 10.5.8 - 1.67GHz Intel Core / 2 GB RAM / 80 GB HDD

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I need to host FMSA on a rented dedicated server in a telehouse to be available via the web and these kind of specs cost megabucks to rent, they also seem rather high for a database server.

In my deployment I am likely to have no more than a half-dozen users connected at any one time, some via FMPClient and some via IWP; Also my server has 100mb bandwidth to the web and most clients will be connecting via DSL at 8mb or so, we’re not talking gigabit speeds here!

So I just tested this out on an old Windows 2003 box: -

Windows Server 2003 / Pentium 2.8GHz / 1 GB RAM / 80GB HDD (HD size is kind of irrelevant I would guess so long as it all fits with a few GB to spare).

FileMaker installed fine, no errors or warnings about system specs being too low so I dumped across a couple of fairly chunky databases, ran through the deployment wizard making sure I had everything turned on and connected a couple of clients just fine.

Windows taskmgr shows that it is using anything from 1% - 20% CPU and about 140MB of RAM for all its services.

This box also hosts an SQL server, HP WebJetAdmin server and is a Terminal Server for a bunch of financial packages!

I understand that if you want to connect more clients concurrently, or host a stack of databases, system requirements would also scale up; But I thought I would make the point that you CAN go below the minimum specs without any tangible negative effects if you are in a position like me where the server is not going to be running the maximum number of connections and databases and where that extra 1GB or RAM or faster CPU would make a small hosting project suddenly become non-viable to the paying client.