Administrator’s Guide

Table Of Contents
Appendix A
Technical specifications and optimization
Limits for files and usage Hardware and network considerations
Keep the following points in mind when you’re setting up
FileMaker Server on your computer and configuring the network
where it will run.
Use a dedicated computer
Use FileMaker Server by itself on a computer on which no other
applications are normally running and that isn’t a user’s primary
workstation. When FileMaker Server is hosting many guests or a
large number of database files, it uses a high level of processor, disk,
and network capacity. Other processor-intensive applications or
heavy network traffic on the same computer causes
FileMaker Server to run more slowly, and the performance of
FileMaker Pro on guest computers to degrade.
Use as fast a computer as possible
The faster the computer, the better the performance of
FileMaker Server.
1 Windows: FileMaker Server requires at minimum a Pentium
processor.
1 Mac OS: FileMaker Server requires at minimum a PowerPC
processor. FileMaker Server is optimized for the PowerPC G3
processor in a Power Macintosh G3 computer.
Item Limitation
Number of files hosted
by FileMaker Server
Maximum of 125 files depending on the Maximum
number of files to host
setting (other network
applications may limit this number).
Number of files open at
the same time
Maximum of 50 per FileMaker Pro 5 guests.
Number of network users Maximum number of guests is 250. (AppleTalk
support is limited to 124 simultaneous guests.) You
can restrict the number of simultaneously connected
guests with the Allow up to
n
simultaneously
connected guests
setting. Specifying a realistic
number of guests fewer than 250 can optimize
performance.
File size Maximum of 2 GB (gigabytes) per file. The
combined size of all open files is limited only by
disk space.
Length of host name Maximum of 31 characters.
Length of
FileMaker Server
password
Maximum of 31 characters.
Length of filename Windows: Maximum of 255 characters.
Note To open the files in FileMaker Server, the first
31 characters of the filename must be unique.
Mac OS: Maximum of 31 characters.