server 9 admin console crash

[DrS]

We are not able to use the Admin Console to manage our shared databases. The actual sharing is working perfectly.

We can log onto the server console and access any of the settings under Configuration.

However when we select Clients, Databases, Schedules or Statistics the data is displayed correctly but immediately we get "Admin Server Connection Error: An unknown error has occurred." On "OK" the console closes.

We have upgraded to server 9.0.3.326. The server is on a windows server which according to our IT support is "running Windows Server 2003 R2, Service Pack 2 (and fully patched with all MS patches prior to SP2). The installed version of Java is Java 6, Update 3 – this officially reports from the Control Panel as 1.6.0 (build 1.6.0_03-b05)."

[Carl Horton]

Have you tried checking the logs for any clues? There is a folder named Logs inside your FileMaker installation folder. I would scan through each of these log files, especially Access.log and Event.log to determine the issue. Often you'll find some FileMaker error code that you can look up to determine the cause.

[DrS]

Thanks Chris

We only have event logging enabled, and I can't see anything wrong in that file.

I have now turned on access and user statistics logging and will look later.

Robin

[Steven H. Blackwell]

The 9 and 10 Consoles could be balky. This has been fixed in Server 11. Additionally you can use the Command Line in Server 11 to restart the adminserver.exe without restarting the database server.

I'd recommend an upgrade to Server 11.

Steven

[BilesterM]

We had the same problem and discovered it was the Java update. There is a conflict with current versions of Java and the Admin console.

[DrS]

Thank you.

We have solved the immediate problem by finding a PC which has not had all the Java updates and with that we could run the Admin Console.

It is unlikely that we will be able to persuade the school management that an upgrade is required, just to solve this problem. Could you confirm that Server11 would work happily if all the Clients are running FM9.

[Wim Decorte]

Going with FMS11 will solve some problems, but the root cause of your issue is that you've installed java updates without checking if they would break something. FMS is very peculiar about what Java version it can work on so do not install updates if you don't need them for other apps. If you install FMS11 but keep updating your Java as you're doing you will very likely run into similar issues in the future.

Also note that you can always disable an installed update and keep using a previous version. It's in the java control panel.

[DFehrenbach]

We were having the same issue. Our Managed Services provider saw that we were way behind in our Java updates and "resolved" the issue. I back dated from update 20 to Update 15 that did not solve the problem. I then noticed a runtime environment path actually referenced a folder in the FMServer folder. When I enabled that file the issue was resolved. See the attached file for where and how to select Java runtime files.