Guide to Updating Plug-ins

1-2 FileMaker Server Administrator’s Guide
Important Avoid installing FileMaker Server on a computer that is a
user’s primary workstation or network file server. FileMaker Server
should be run on a dedicated computer reserved for use as a database
server.
When FileMaker Server is hosting many guests or a large number of
database files, it uses a high level of processor, hard disk, and
network capacity. Other processor-intensive applications (for
example, Web-server or disk-backup software) or heavy network
traffic on the same computer will cause FileMaker Server to run
more slowly and degrade the performance of FileMaker Pro on guest
computers.
In addition, file sharing should be turned off on the computer running
FileMaker Server.
Note This guide assumes you’re familiar with general database
concepts as well as the basics of FileMaker Pro. If you’re not, refer
to the tutorial in the FileMaker Pro 5.5 Getting Started Guide or to
the FileMaker Pro 5 User’s Guide (especially the first two chapters)
for more information.
How does FileMaker Server work?
The FileMaker Server application is a tool to use with
FileMaker Pro 5.x in a network environment to:
1 enhance database guest performance
1 increase the number of FileMaker Pro guests who can connect to a
file hosted by FileMaker Server
1 increase the number of files that can be hosted by
FileMaker Server
1 host files using more than one network protocol simultaneously
You can use the remote administration capability of
FileMaker Server to administer the server software from a different
computer on your network. When administering remotely, you can:
1 open—or host—a FileMaker Pro database file, making it available
to FileMaker Pro guests on the network
1 view information about the files being hosted, like the number of
guests accessing each database
1 send messages to connected guests
1 close a hosted FileMaker Pro file, making it unavailable to
FileMaker Pro guests
1 disconnect a selected FileMaker Pro guest from a particular hosted
file or all hosted files
Some of these administrative tasks require that you install the Server
Administration plug-in for FileMaker Server on your remote
computer. For more information about installing the plug-in, see
chapter 10, “Installing the Server Administration plug-in on a remote
computer.”
For more information about administering remotely, see chapter 7,
“Administering FileMaker Server (Windows and Mac OS).”
When you start FileMaker Server, it automatically opens and hosts
all multi-user FileMaker Pro 5.x files located in the same folder (or
the first level of subfolders) as the FileMaker Server application.
This common folder architecture lets you easily set up the database
files that you always want FileMaker Server to host on the network.
Keep in mind the following points about the different uses of
FileMaker Server and FileMaker Pro:
1 Use FileMaker Server to open and host FileMaker Pro files that
you want to make available to FileMaker Pro guests on your
network.
1 As a dedicated host, FileMaker Server only hosts the files.
FileMaker Server can’t access or modify the information in the files.