MAC Filemaker Server 11 - Admin Console Won't Connect - Solution

[-Monkey-]

Hi to all from a newbie here. Not so familiar with FileMaker either, but felt I must post this, in the hope it will save others from the painful experience I had when trying to install FMS 11 on our brand new XServe (Snow Leopard 10.6.5).

The first problem I hit was that the installer wouldn't take me to the Admin Console Start Page. I tried countless re-installs and tried all the suggestions I could find on the web, with no success. One thing I didn't try was a full server re-install of the Mac OS - but with hindsight I'm glad I didn't resort to that drastic step, as it wasn't necessary.

Anyway, to cut this very long story shorter, it turns out I couldn't install FMS properly until I'd first added the user account fmserver (which is created by the FMS installer) to the local admin group. Of course, a first (failed) install had to be done in order for FM to create the account in the first place.

This crucial step (adding fmserver to the admin group) isn't included in the installer instructions, and neither csn I find any mention of it on these forums. But Hey Presto, I finally got to load the Admin Console Start Page in my browser (Safari) for the first time!

My delight was very shortlived though... when I then clicked on the link Start Admin Console, I was greeted with the message "Admin Server Connection Error: The admin console cannot establish a connection to the admin server"

After much fumbling around for hours, I finally found the cause... by simply unticking my proxy server settings in System Preferences, Network. All of a sudden, I could now get into Admin Console, and all appeared to be fine.

This would do for me, albeit I could no longer connect to the internet through our corporate proxy server and run Admin Console at the same time - a small price to pay for solving a massive problem.

But, after more experimentation, I found the 'magic bullet' proxy setting that allowed me to have my cake and eat it... simply added 'local' (without the quotes) into the box that says "Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains:". None of the other names I'd tried in there would work, including localhost, MyServerName.local, 127.0.0.1, myserver'sIP, FQDN, FQDN.local, etc. etc. Only plain old local would work.

With local in the bypass settings, I could now enable and use the proxy server as normal, and all works fine - internet access and the FMS Admin Console.

The XServe hasn't been unleashed on the users yet (FM Pro 8.5 clients). So it's pretty much a virgin machine out of the box. The only app I'd previously installed was Retrospect, and attached a new LaCie RAID. I could therefore rule out issues like OS upgrades, other apps interfering (except maybe Retrospect), previous FM installations, etc, etc. Which of course makes me think others must surely run into the same problems I'd had?

I hope this (or some of it at least) is of help to someone. For me it wasn't an experience I'd like to go through again! I spent several days going round in circles and getting Google-eyed.

PS, in case anyone's not aware, before attempting either an uninstall or re-install, be sure to kill any/all the FM processes in Activity Monitor. Also, manually delete the entire FileMaker Server folder in /Library after an uninstall... the FMS uninstaller doesn't remove it for you. Can't be sure this step was actually necessary but hey, couldn't hurt to make sure it's all gone before trying a re-install. Oh, and make sure you reboot after each uninstall or re-install attempt.

I've also applied the v2 update, which all seemed to work OK. Had already tried the installation attempts with/without this step & made no difference either way.

All that remains now is to see what happens when the users get to connect to the server in the next few days. For now though, at least all looks well in Admin Console...