The symptom of the problem would be that users would get disconnected and the databases seemed just really slow. They would connect back into the database and continue working and on the admin console of the server it would show them with 4 or 5 connections, even if they were not really even there.

At this point the server would not respond to closing the files either from the command line or the admin console.  Users could still work in the hosted databases but without fail the FileMaker Server would crash and create a .dmp file.  The only way to get the it back was to reboot the entire server.  Even stopping the service failed.

FileMaker Priority Support had no answers.  Every time this occurred we reviewed all windows logs, FileMaker logs, Stats, Task Manager processes for clues.  No smoking gun.  There was something that seem to point to the network where FileMaker was waiting on clients but this is normal when users are disconnected.

We became more and more suspect of a network issue and the break came one day when we were reviewing that latest crashing and questioning everyone an their activities.  Users complained that everything seemed slow.  After questioning the users an system admin we piece a few more clues together and it finally came to light that about 2-3 months ago they move a phone system from the WAN side of their internet connection to the LAN.  The phone system was flooding the WAN side so the Phone system engineers had the bright idea of moving the machine to the LAN so it wouldn’t affect the WAN connections.  How someone can think that bringing a faulty system in house will fix the problem is beyond us.

As soon as we unplugged the phone system completely to confirm that this indeed was the culprit, users over the next 2 days asked the COO if they upgraded the internet because everything was so fast.

Problem solved and FileMaker Server was again stable and working as expected.

MyDBSolutions
Certified FileMaker Pro Developers

The driver is a 32-bit driver and the ODBC utility is for the 64-bit.  So to see all the 32 bit drivers go to C:\Windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32.exe and the run the 32-bit ODBC utility.  Remember to create an alias to the file to make it easier to find next time.

We had a installation on a Windows 2003 Server that failed at the communication with IIS 6.0 every time.  We tried a number of different approaches to remedy the problem but always came back with the same result.  IIS would serve web pages just fine by itself but failed when FileMaker would try to create its link.

FileMaker Server would install successfully and host files using the native sharing over port 5003 without a problem.  But every time it came time to connect with IIS and enable Web Publishing we would receive the error “Web server test failed.  Return code = -1″.  The jakarta redirect would never install but fmi-test would.  Also FileMaker Server would kill IIS every time it tried to link up and IIS would restart.

We called FileMaker Priority Support and they gave some hints but nothing solved the issue.  Here some of the many steps we took:

• Removed and reinstalled IIS, Manually removed fmi-test
• Removed and reinstalled FMS, removed FileMaker Server folder
• Removed all components – IIS 6.0 , FileMaker Server, Java, Apple Bonjour
• Change Port to 591, Disabled Filewall connections

Suggested Steps from FileMaker Pro Support

• Remove and Reinstall FMS and IIS  (It’s their favorite step!)
• Change Ports
• Installed with network card disabled
• Reboot Server with only Microsoft services enabled and then manually start Apple Bonjour and FileMaker Server and try the deployment again

None of these worked and It was on a production box that could not be easily rebuilt as it was doing other important tasks as well.  Another good reason that it is always a good idea to have a dedicated machine for your Production databases.

In comparing installations to another Windows 2003 Server with FileMaker Server installed and PHP/IWP working, we finally found that an old employee had change the directory rights on the FileMaker root folder.  He had removed the Users group and explicitly gave himself access to the directory, sub-directories and files .  As soon as we restored the default permissions as they were supposed to be to the Filemaker folder everything worked like magic.

Lessons Learned

• DO NOT let non-server admins mess with your production servers even if they think they know what they are doing
• When re-installing FileMaker Server remove the root FileMaker folder and not just the FileMaker Server folder.  (Don’t forget to backup your data.)
• Continue to encourage clients to have a dedicated FileMaker Pro Server

Address1
Address2
CompanyName
City
FirstName
HomePhone
MobilePhone
LastName
State
WorkPhone
Zip

The challenge with the above list is that when you sort the field list in the table alphabetically Address1 and 2 are both on top while Zip is at the bottom of the list.  If the table structure is relatively small this is not a big deal.  If you have a lot of fields in the table then having your fields grouped together will save you the extra time of trying to find the fields you want.

An easy way to keep those together would be to change the names just slightly to something like this:

Address1
Address2
AddressCity
AddressState
AddressZip
NameCompany
NameFirst
NameLast
PhoneMobile
PhoneHome
PhoneWork

 Notice that you now have groups of Address, Phone and Names and when sorted it keep the like fields together.

If you are like me I don’t like using any spaces or any characters such as %, -, !, $, etc.  This process works well again for developers but not the end users.

Field Examples / Human Readable Label

__kp_Student /Student ID
NameFL / Full Name
AddressCity / City
PhoneH / Home Phone

You get the idea.

Granted the example of the ’sompid’ had a much too long ‘human readable label’ but hopefully you understand the point.  It would be nice to have the caption/alternate label added when you add new fields to a layout and also when you export your data say to MS Excel.   Something that we would love to see.

Read the reviews and awards earned by the FileMaker® Pro product line. FileMaker is used by a growing list of companies both large and small. Read customer stories about how others are using FileMaker products.

• FileMaker Pro is 100% cross platform. Both Windows and Mac’s can share the same database with no problem.
• FileMaker Pro is multi-user right out of the box. Share your database with your co-workers. Scalable to share 125 files with 250 users using FileMaker® Server or even more with FileMaker Server Advanced.
• FileMaker Pro allows you to easily publish your database to the web or you can access the database remotely.
• Store an enormous amount of data. 8 TB
• Build a custom solution, or choose from 30 FileMaker Starter Solutions to see results immediately.
• Easily convert your Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets into versatile FileMaker databases with a simple drag and drop.
• Store and manage virtually any file type including images, Adobe® PDF documents, movies, Microsoft Office files and more.
• Design custom layouts suited to your needs, output professional business reports, add your logo—all without programming.
• Use the Layout and Report Assistant to guide you through creating layouts, labels, and reports so your screens and reports look just the way you want.
• Customize by dragging and dropping fields and objects wherever you want.
• Choose from hundreds of pre-programmed functions to automate your FileMaker solutions.
• Extend rich business solutions to co-workers, customers, vendors, and others on a network or over the web.
• Create Adobe PDF documents and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for easy sharing and analysis.
• Control your user privileges and access through FileMaker Pro 9 software’s advanced security system.
• Secure your database traffic using SSL encryption between your FileMaker Pro Server and Clients.
• Script Triggers
• Dynamic Reporting
• Native Charting.  Chart a whole new course!
• New developer tools such as Layout Folders
• Reoccuring Imports
• Snapshot Link
• Quick Find
• Portal Filter and more!

FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S.and other countries.

If you looking to move to version 11 and or need to convert your solution just give MyDBSolutions a call and we would glad to assist with your project.

• Dynamic Portal Sorting with out having to create a million portals or manipulate the data
• Calculations on the Fly.  Love to be able to do a calculation in a merge field for example.
• Calculations outside of having to create new field definitions.  Defined in a query
• Select Distinct!
• Sub-Layouts.  Have a master form with sub-layouts which pull from different table occurrences.  This would help in building dashboard type views
• Closing dialog box that would let the user know the file is being saved and not to say disconnect from their VPN until it is done.
• Native Progress bars.
• True sever side functions such as deleting and sorting records, etc.  Tell the server to delete or sort the records rather than having the client do all the work.
• Gradiant Visual Effect
• Less Screen Flicker in redraws
• Cross Tab reporting.  Need we say more?
• Icons/Graphics in Dialog boxes
• Send HTML email without use of a Plugin
• Built in Barcode support without plugin/fonts
• Of course it would be great to have FileMaker Pro and Server be 64 bit.
• Better debugging tools when FileMaker Server crashes.
• True type ahead in a quick search
• Container fields that can create thumbnails of the picture stored
• Save to a word doc without plug-ins / XSLT