Hello there,

 

after having run FM Server 7 for many years on an old, dedicated G5, we're now looking at getting the latest version for our office.

 

The usage is light, normally it's only one or two users accessing one database, with up to 5 maximum. 

 

The office is Mac-only, 15 machines accessing files on a Mac Mini Server (mid-2011 model), running Lion Server 10.7.5.

 

It's bad enough making sure that server runs smoothly, so I'm hesitant to use it for FMS. Especially after learning that FMS still relies on Java. I'd rather not have that on a server for security and stability reasons. Hearing that there are problems reinforces that view.

 

What is your experience with regards to this? Do we need to spend the extra money for a dedicated FMS machine, just because it may impair the stability of our file server?

 

Many thanks!

 

Possibly make the mini a dedicated server just to host the databases then just use a NAS for file sharing?

 

I would recommend you get an external Thunderbolt RAID drives, to store the databases and backups there.

With such light usage have you considered external hosting?

 

No hardware to buy, no FMS license to buy etc..

 

Note also that the current FMS 12 does not allow pre-v12 clients to access, so you must also but new FM12 licences throughout, although you might consider looking at some of the 'site' licensing schemes available, which start at 5 users. You can only upgrade from FM10+.

 

If you run your own FMS then dedicate it.

 

The office is Mac-only, 15 machines accessing files on a Mac Mini Server (mid-2011 model), running Lion Server 10.7.5.

 

It's bad enough making sure that server runs smoothly, so I'm hesitant to use it for FMS. 

 

That sentence answers your question: if the current setup is not stable, don't add anything to it.

 

Adding a new box for FMS solves that and also solves the security concerns that you have around java.  It's much easier to harden a machine if it only has one task.