To buy or not to buy!

[nelliott]

A bit basic this one but hey we can't all be technically minded!

We are currently running Filemaker Pro 5.0 on 4 PCss with one of the PCs acting as the host. The database is now getting quite large with one of the db's having 22000 records each containing a resume / cv.

Our PCs seem to have slowed down over the last few months and I am wondering if this is due to Filemaker operating in a 'peer to peer' manner and utilising the resources on all four PCs. If so will FM Server rectify this problem and if not is there any advantage to us purchasing FM Server at the moment?

Oh, by the way, all four PCs are running on Windows 2000 Pro.

As always, any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Nick

[Kurt Knippel]

Well without speaking to the use of Win2k (which I am not sure that Filemaker 5 is certified for) I think that you definately see a speed and security boost by going with a dedicated machine running Filemaker Server 5.5 You are really at the borderline point, but if this database is important to your business then I think that you really need to go with the server route.

If you do not have a staff onsite who can administer WinNT or Win2k Server and you do not want to hire outside consultants to manage it, I would suggest an off-the shelf Macintosh system running OS 9.x for your server. It will require about zero maintainence beyond the inistial install and the Mac version of Filemaker Server provides the most functionality from the GUI.

[Anatoli]

Buy it. First install the trial stuff on W2K workstation and try that.

But first, do full maintenance on your existing machines, especially defragment all drives and clear temporary files.

Mac is nice suggestion, but it will be slower with FM server and believe me, if you are not skilled with Macs, you can have more problems with them, than average person can on Windows. I know what I am talking about. I am with Apple since 1982 and with PC from 1984.

[LiveOak]

You must have some old macs in your part of the world, our G4 Cube servers outperform Pentium III NT 4.0 servers by quite a margin.

-bd

[nelliott]

Cheers for the advice guys - what I really want to find out is if using the current set-up will cause all PC's to slow down (not just Filemaker but using other applications such as Email etc) and will changing to Filemaker Server rectify this. I wasn't planning on upgrading to a Server operating system but just to run FM Server on a dedicated machine with Win2k

Thanks

Nick

[Kurt Knippel]

Just plunking Filemaker Server onto a workstation will not yeild the results that you are looking for. While it will slightly improve, I doubt that it will be worth the cost. Adding a dedicated "Server" machine (platform of your choice) with a server OS, and Filemaker Server will be your best ROI.

P.S. I was a Commadore/Apple guy until 1989, Wintel until 1999 and now Macintosh forever.

[Anatoli]

Dedicated machine -- yes. But I doubt it will be so significant difference between FMS on W2K workstation or FMS on NT server.

I know, that the G4 are quite fast, but I don't think they are faster, than MY PIII My PIII beat the P4 2.0 GHz -- it runs as fast as 2.2GHz P4

In any case, FMS on Windows platform is much faster than on MacOS.

Obviously with Mac X it is different story, but then again -- I don't want to be Unix expert.