rolling blackouts: FMP3 server unscheduled shutdown

[mclbruce]

I want to set up a UPS on an iMac running FM Pro server 3. It's currently running OS 8.6, but could be upgraded to 9 if necessary.

The UPS comes with a USB cable and software that runs on the iMac. The UPS software waits for a signal from the UPS saying it's lost AC power and is switching over to the battery. Then the UPS software on the Mac issues a shutdown command that shuts down the iMac.

My question is, will FM Server 3 shut down gracefully in this situation? Or will it present a dialog box of some kind waiting for user input?

Or, even worse, will it damage the open database files?

If you can do a File:Quit from FMP server 3 while files are running without damaging the databases, then I think the UPS software will work.

Thanks in advance, -Bruce.

[LiveOak]

Exactly how it behaves depends partly on the software supplied with the UPS. With the software I've used, a shutdown command is issued and no dialog boxes are presented. A shutdown command should close FileMaker gracefully. If your client machines are not on UPS's, they will have disconnected when the power dropped. You can take care of dialog boxes with the shareware extension OkeyDokey Pro (ODP), www.downloads.com. Just make sure you set the interval for ODP to more than five minutes IF you use an energy saver shutdown, otherwise it will click the "Wait 5 minutes" button on the shutdown dialog all night!

Having said all this, DO A TEST! It's easy to yank out the UPS power cord and see how FM, et al behaves. You can use some dummy FM files for the test. By the way, are you using the APC or Belkin UPS?

-bd

[mclbruce]

Thanks for the advice. Testing with a dummy database is an excellent idea that I hadn't thought of. I'm more of a Mac generalist, I don't do a lot of filemaker work. I think I can set up the Mac so that other dialog boxes will not interfere, I was mostly curious about FM Server 3.

I am leaning towards using an APC backup. Do you have strong opinions about the software provided with APC vs. Belkin? I want to pass along some flaws I know about each:

The Belkin UPS with USB will not come back on automatically after a power failure, somebody has to push a button on the battery unit.

I'm told that APC USB software/hardware can restart a computer after a power failure. However, it only works on "new world" Macs. Installing a USB card on an beige G3 or older Mac will not work, although it will with the Belkin software. I found this out with another client today, the hard way. It's not mentioned on the web site at all, but APC did confirm. If it's beige, the new APC Power Manager USB software will not run. If the OS is higher than 8.6, their old PowerChute serial software will not run on a beige Mac.

Neither of these things are issues with the FM Server 3 client, just passing along information I know about. Also, I like the products from sophisticated circuits: Rebound, Powerkey Pro, and Kickoff. No battery power there, but the products can be helpful in recovering from crashes and freezes.