I have a copy of FileMaker Server Advanced 11 running on Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. The database server is running on a PC, and its associated web server and web publishing engine are on a Mac running 10.5.8 Server. There are multiple read-only ODBC connections between the PC and an Oracle database.

 

We want to upgrade to FileMaker Server 13 to take advantage of all the new iOS features but can't afford more than a weekend of downtime for the transition. I'd like to make a virtual machine running an exact copy of my FMSA 11 setup and use it as a guinea-pig to test the FMS 13 upgrade, then once I'm confident there aren't any problems (or if there are I know how to address them) upgrade the "real" FMSA 11 to FMS 13 and ditch the virtual machine.

 

Does that sound like a reasonable approach or are there any deal-breakers running FMSA 11 or FMS 13 on a virtual machine, even if  for testing purposes?

 

Thanks.

FMS13 is not supported on Windows Server 2003

http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13180

 

Also keep in mind that FM13 only supports 64-bit ESS back-ends.  So if your Oracle is an older one and 32-bit you will not be able to make a connection.

 

In general, both FMS11 and FMS13 run on virtual machines without issues.

Thank you - that is very helpful information. Given we will not be able to run FMS 13 on our old Windows Server 2003, Microsoft does not support an in-place upgrade to 2008 R2 and the age of the PC we're going to get new hardware running 2008 R2 for the leap to FMS 13. I'm told my ODBC connection will be to an Oracle v12 database so I assume that will not present any incompatibilities with FMS 13.

 

Thanks, again.