Connection dropping intermittently

[Buckie]

Hi everyone.

Could be something already solved years ago, but I only noticed it happening in version 14 and not in version 13 or older.

Sometimes at random for no apparent reason the server would drop the connection to clients and this connection can almost immediately be re-established. Not a huge problem except it's annoying. I tracked it down to Time Machine interfering with the main live Databases folder. Excluding that particular folder from backups in Time Machine preferences solved the problem.

Thought I'd let everyone know just in case.

PS. Don't tell me that TM is bad and stuff. It's an implementation issue ("a bug", if you're feeling kind today), not an issue of TM as a general idea.

[phcranston]

Avoiding having any sort of software (backup or otherwise) accessing the live database files is always best practice.   Those files are always in use by FileMaker Server and accessing them with other software could have very bad side effects including data loss and file corruption.   FileMaker Server can run it's own backups of the files and then you can backup the backup files offsite or whatever as needed.    For Mac Servers I've found this to work well for most of my customers.

OS Drive with the live database files.
FileMaker Backup Drive* - FileMaker Server backups up files here as often as necessary (typically Hourly or ever Half Hour)
OS Drive Manual Clone Drive* - Carbon Copy Cloner clone of OS drive (excluding live database files).  Typically run this right before making updates / changes.
OS Daily Clone Drive* - Carbon Copy Cloner clone of OS drive (excluding live database files). Daily Clone of OS drive
Crashplan Offsite Backup - Backup FileMaker Backup Drive to Crashplan Cloud.  As often as size of data files and Internet connection speed will permit.

*These are always a separate physical drive from the OS Drive, but often these can be multiple partitions of the single drive.