Server 5 VERY slow when working with large database

September 19, 200124 yr

Newbies

G4 / 400Mhz / 192mb.

We have a database of over 300,000 customers.

When we need to update/search/index etc. large amounts of this database it seems to take forever.

We had an independent person set up our new invoicing / database system. He worked only w/ the PC version in the past. He seems to think that similar functions and sized databases on the PC run MUCH faster than our Mac set-up. We are running a 1000/T ethernet so our network hums.

Why would we experience such perfoemance slowdown?

Filemaker tech support said to allocate 45 mb of ram...any more would be negligable in perfomance benefit. Virtual memory is off (We have 192 mb of ram so no need for VM correct?)

Can we speed this up?

Just assigning aource coades to 50,000 customer profiles has taken over an hour and a half.

HELP!

September 19, 200124 yr

Two things speed up FM Server on the Mac, both are from Clarkwood Software (www.clarkwoodsoftware.com).

1) Use a RAM disk for the databases. Make sure you have enough RAM installed to allocate an amount adequate to allow database growth to your FM files. Install FM Server and your files on the RAM Disk. Use Clarkwood Software's ramBunctious for this. Set it to do "Write Throughs" every 10 minutes (not all the time or you will lose the advantage of a RAM disk). Make sure you have a UPS on your server (or say goodby to your files at the first power glitch). RAM disk actually improves stability. This should give you about a 2:1 speed improvement.

Credit to the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) for this approach. Prior to ramBunctious they fragmented their server hard drives to unusability in two days and had to replace them every two months. That's heavy use!

2) If FM Server gets put in the background and Finder in the foreground, performance will suffer. There is about an 80:20 ration of performance from foreground to background. Use Clarkwood's Peek-a-Boo to allocate more processor time to FM Server. It make processor time allocation independent of whether FM is in the foreground or background.

3) Run OS 9.0.4 with as many extensions turned off as you can, I would stay away from 9.1.

-bd