Big, Big Problem - PLEASE HELP

[Rigsby]

Big, Big Problem – PLEASE HELP

Under the following systems:

SERVER – FMP dedicated no other file sharing etc

Pentium III 500 256 MB RAM

Windows 2000

FMP Server 3.0

NETWORK 100Mbit Fast Ethernet using TCP/IP only

12 Clients (All win 95 or 98) running FMP 4.1

Recently we are getting a lot of crashes, whereby all the clients are disconnected from the server with just a connection lost message. When we restart the FMP server all the files load up ok, but the following problem is there: In the main database there are about 130,000 records, all of which can still be accessed by searching for them individually if I create at least 1 new record first, but Filemaker shows no records in the status area. It’s as if all the records have been deleted, but the information is actually still there. However, if I then save a copy of the file, all the records are gone. After a recover, everything goes back to normal, but a recover on a file over 200MB takes hours.

Each record has a unique ID using a 6-digit number. If I search the database for all records say “<50000000000” for example, after a crash, I get the following information in the status area:

Records: 1

Found: 130,000

I just don’t understand this – can anyone help?

Rigsby

[LiveOak]

I don't know how to help you understand the database corruption, just that after a crash it is corrupted and all sorts of incorrect displays are possible. The key here is to prevent the crashes, I don't know how to eliminate the need to recover after the crash. Obviously, something has changed to make your server setup unstable. The first thing that comes to mind is capacities. Are you running out of disk or RAM space with the increasing size of the database or users? Next I'd think about any additions made to server software. Finally, it may be time to reload the server software. If you are not running out of some resource and have not changed the server software complement, it might be time to reload. I suppose there is also the possibility of a disk drive hardware problem.

-bd

[Vaughan]

It's also time to completely back-up the server!

[Anatoli]

Everyone I know has some problem with W2k.

Do everything was suggested and install NT4 -- workstation or server. That will probably also help.

[Rigsby]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

We back up twice a day every day, the problem is that we have 12 people using this solution all the time – this means about 150 entries into the file an hour.

There is no legacy corruption in the file – New file, new import etc.

Hard Drive is OK!

RAM is now up to 512MB

I think the problem might well be W2k, as suggested. FM doesn’t actually officially support W2k for server 3.0. I think there may be a bug somewhere in the system. I’m going to switch to NT. Thanks for the advice.

Rigsby

[Garry Claridge]

It could be something as silly as a fault on the network such as a cable, hub/switch or ethernet card.

Good luck.

Garry