On Filemaker Server 11, is there a way I can start and stop the Database Server and Web Publishing Engine on a schedule? I only want the hosted databases available at certain times of the day, and do not want to put individual scripts in every database.

It isn't practical to simply set a schedule for the server computer to turn off and on since it is running other things that need to still be available.

You'd need to this with an external OS level script such as a VBS with an external scheduler such as Task Manager.

Whoops, just saw you are on Mac OS. So use a shell script and some external scheduler.

Steven

Edited May 3, 201015 yr by Guest
OS selection specific

I've figured out that I can schedule the starting and stopping of the Database server using Terminal, Crontab, and fmsadmin. However, it doesn't seem possible to start or stop the Web Publishing Engine that way. I'd like the option of keeping the Database server running but turning on and off the Web Publishing Engine. Any ideas?

fmsadmin doesn't seem to have any commands to control web publishing engine.

Edited May 3, 201015 yr by Guest

I'd like the option of keeping the Database server running but turning on and off the Web Publishing Engine. Any ideas?

Since FileMaker Server 9, these are no longer separately controlled in the fashion you desire. However, you might be able to shut off the web server, either Apache or IIS, with the same OS level scripting. This would block web based access.

Steven

You can make it easy on yourself and use the fmsadmin command to just close the files at certain times.

You can leave the database engine and the web publishing engine on.

Or if you don't want to leave the database engine on use the

fmsadmin stop server

command to stop it. As long as you don't stop the underlying filemaker server daemon the web publishing engine will still work (but will have nothing to connect to so you're safe).