Windows Server 2008 newbie-- how do i configure it for FMSA 11 ?

[Steven Cappiello]

Hi there,

I am a Mac user 99% of the time and have very little experience with Windows Server 2008. A company I am volunteering for would like me to install FileMaker Server Advanced 11 on a PC that they have dedicated to run Windows Server 2008. They are a high school and are pretty broke, so can't afford to hire anyone with Windows experience to come in and set it up. Could someone give me a high-level overview of how Windows Server 2008 needs to be configured to work with FileMaker Server Advanced 11. and/or .. are there any documents out there i should look at? I don't have the copy of FMSA 11 yet so I'm not sure if this is included in the documentation.. is it ??

Thanks much in advance

[Steven Cappiello]

I want to follow up a bit on this... i guess i am interested in knowing which services need to be setup on the Windows Server box in order to install FileMaker Server... for example, the FileMaker Server Advanced 10 system requirements indicated that PHP and Java are required.. but FileMaker Server 11's requirements do not mention them.. I assume they do need to be available on the Windows Server machine, but, will the FileMaker Server Advanced 11 installer install them or do I need to set all that up beforehand? Additionally, does IIs need to be setup in any certain way before installing FMSA 11? I read something about making sure an "anonymous" user is setup...

Any pointers to documentation or threads on this would be greatly appreciated... alternatively... would FileMaker, inc have support specialists available via phone that could walk me through whatever setup needs to be done on the Windows Server machine?

thanks again.

[FmZerocool]

Hello,

The documentation that you are after is in the following link: documentation

The FMS11 CD will have the Java version and Bonjour version that your computer needs to run for FileMaker to work correctly. If you have either of these two already installed I would suggest to uninstall them before installing FMS11, that way will have the correct drivers.

As you are looking to get the PHP functionality working you will need to make sure that you have IIS installed on your OS. You can do this by going to Control Panel > Add Remove Software > Add Windows Components > IIS. You may need the Windows CD to do this. You can check if the IIS services are working on your computer by opening a web-browser and going to the following address http://localhost

Thanks

Alberto

[Steven Cappiello]

Thanks... the installation was much more straightforward than I thought it would be.

The only thing I'm having a slight issue with now is that the FM Server is behind a router/firewall. I want to be able to access the FM Server from outside the company... so I have the internal static IP of the FM Server assigned to a DMZ on the router.

Only problem is that the FM Server thinks its IP address is the internal IP address, so when I try to access the FM Server using IWP or PHP-published pages, FM Server is trying to use the internal address.

Could someone offer advice with regard to how to configure FM Server behind a router so that it is properly accessible from outside the router :

Additionally, if I try to pull up the company's external IP address from the FM Server machine via a web page, it does not redirect back to itself to show the default IIS web page... is this a problem indicating something is wrong?

Thanks much B)

[Wim Decorte]

putting your FMS machine in a DMZ is a HUGE risk: anybody can find it.

What you need to do is set up port forwarding on your firewall for port 5003 (fm data) and port 80 (web) so that this kind of traffic is then forwarded to the internal IP address of your FMS box

[Steven Cappiello]

Thanks Wim.. yes I was aware of that but wasn't too concerned as I was just trying to get things up and running for testing. It does make sense to do it the right way though.. : so I have..

Unfortunately I'm pulling my hair out with IIS 7. I've tried to create site folder after site folder, have set the permissions along with anonymous access, and keep getting "Access Denied 403" when I try to access FileMaker PHP pages that I generate into those folders. Any IIS experts free to chat? lol