Administrator’s Guide (Windows)

Administering FileMaker Pro Server 3-13
Backing up FileMaker Pro Server databases
When many users share files and make changes to them on a network,
it’s important to back up the databases regularly. In the MS-DOS
window, you can use the
fmserver pause and fmserver resume
commands, along with DOS commands, to copy the FileMaker Pro
database files to another directory.
Below are sample steps used in a backup scheme:
1. First, use the mkdir command to create a new directory, for
example, Backups.
2. Next, use the fmserver pause command, which pauses a specified
file or files hosted by FileMaker Pro Server.
Guest activity with paused database files is restricted. Use the
fmserver resume command to resume guest activity on paused
databases as soon as possible.
3. You can use the xcopy command to copy all files (including files in
subdirectories) from the FMServer directory to the Backups directory.
4. Use the fmserver resume command to resume guest activity to
paused database files.
5. After copying the files from the Backups directory to your backup
destination, use the
deltree command to delete the backups directory.
Tip In order to execute this set of commands on an automatic schedule,
you will need to use the
at command and Schedule service provided
by Windows NT. For information on the
at command and Schedule
service, see the Windows NT documentation. In addition, if you have a
tape drive, you can use the
backup command provided by Windows NT
to copy files to tape.
It is important that the destination drive have plenty of free space. If the
hard disk runs out of space while a file is being modified or if a database
file reaches the 2GB size limit, FileMaker Pro Server will automatically
begin compressing the hosted file to reduce the amount of disk space it
uses. During the compression, all guest activity to that file is paused and
guests see the coffee cup icon. Compression may take several minutes
to complete. To avoid automatic compression, leave plenty of free hard
disk space on the computer running FileMaker Pro Server and back up
files to tape or to another hard disk.
See the sample batch file, Backup.cmd, in the Examples folder in the
FMServer folder, for more information.