Licensing of WebDirect Concurrent connections

[Richard Fincher]

My issue relates to using FileMaker Server to host multiple WebDirect clients in an ISP scenario, and apportioning a fixed number of concurrent connections which is lower than the total number licensed for the server deployment as a whole.

I already sent this to FileMaker support, and got a dismissive answer.

I said:

Whilst this wouldn't matter for a company hosting their own FileMaker Server in house, the situation you describe is unworkable for a hosting company like ourselves. We would need to charge on the fees for WebDirect Concurrent connections, and this means that our clients would expect to get the service they have paid for.

If client A pays for 5 WebD connections and client B pays for 10, there's apparently nothing to stop client A using more than 5, or even using up all 15 such that client B is effectively denied the service. Preventing denial-of-service attacks is a large part of a hosting company's job, and if the software in use permits this to happen, it's usually deemed to be a vulnerability requiring immediate address by the product vendor. In the field of VoIP telephony, it's also deemed to be essential to reserve connections/bandwidth for users so that other users cannot deny them service. This is called QoS, or "quality of service".

What I would expect would be, that within an Administrator Group, the FileMaker sysadmin could set the total number of permissible WebD connections for databases in that Group. Someone connecting via Webd to a database managed through that group, would be denied a connection if the total number of reserved concurrent connections had been exceeded for that group, even if there were other unused concurrent connections available.

The only way to assure quality of service at the moment, would appear to be to run a separate copy of FileMaker Server on a separate server for each customer. This is not cost-appropriate to most client requirements.

I respectfully request that this issue be addressed in the next release of FileMaker Server.

[Richard Fincher]

UPDATE: have been advised to submit this request through a special form Filemaker Inc provide for new features requests.

ALSO: it's been pointed out to me that there is a version of FileMaker Server license which comes with *unlimited* WebDirect Concurrent Connections, however, this is very expensive, and furthermore, an ISP like myself may still wish to charge users for providing concurrent connections even if the ISP themselves has unlimited connections available.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

WebDirect v1 really was not intended for the purpose you request here.  However, others have made a similar request during various phases of WebDirect's development and revision.  So the Feature Request route is the correct channel. Perhaps they will change the behavior to allow apportionment among various SubGroups.

 

Steven