Administrator’s Guide

A-2 FileMaker Server Administrator’s Guide
Use a fast hard disk
Because of the way FileMaker Pro stores information in files,
FileMaker Server benefits a great deal from fast disk input/output.
Try to use a hard disk with software (or drivers) that supports
asynchronous disk I/O. This technology lets FileMaker Server
perform other operations after starting a read or write operation on a
file, rather than having to wait for the disk I/O to complete. If
FileMaker Server can take advantage of asynchronous I/O when
opening a file, it notes it in the corresponding log file entry. (See
“Viewing activities in the Server Event Log (Mac OS)” on page 5-15
for more information.) To determine whether your hardware
supports asynchronous I/O, refer to the documentation that came
with your hardware.
Use a fast network
Mac OS: If possible, use a network faster than LocalTalk, such as
Ethernet.
Software considerations
Consider the following issues when deciding which software to use
with FileMaker Server.
Only FileMaker Pro 5 databases can be hosted
FileMaker Server 5 supports only FileMaker Pro 5 databases.
Therefore, any existing databases you have from a previous version
of FileMaker Pro must be converted to FileMaker Pro 5 format
before you can host them using FileMaker Server 5.
Coexistence with screen saver software
Avoid using screen saver software that creates moving images on the
monitor of the computer running FileMaker Server. This type of
software can use significant system resources, which hinders the
processing of FileMaker Server networking traffic. Instead, use a
screen saver that blacks out your monitor or dims its brightness, or
manually dim the monitor.
Turn off file sharing
Make sure operating system file sharing is turned off on the server
computer.
Coexistence with AppleShare software (Mac OS)
Running AppleShare software (including AppleShare and
AppleShare Pro) and the FileMaker Server application on the same
computer is not recommended. If you must use that configuration,
keep the following information in mind:
1 Limit connected AppleShare users.
Users connected to an AppleShare server through the AppleTalk
protocol occupy a physical connection to the server known as an
AppleTalk socket. AppleTalk sockets are also used by
FileMaker Server when guests access a hosted file using the
AppleTalk protocol. If many users are connected to the AppleShare
server and are occupying these AppleTalk sockets, fewer sockets are
available to FileMaker Server running on the same computer. This
could cause FileMaker Pro guests using the AppleTalk protocol to
receive a message indicating that they have exceeded host capacity,
which prevents them from accessing hosted databases on the server
even if server limit requirements on page A-1 haven’t been reached.
1 Use a third-party server access monitoring utility to keep the
number of AppleShare connections to a minimum and to allow only
active connections.
This lets FileMaker Server use the maximum number of sockets for
guests of FileMaker Pro files. For more information about
configuring AppleShare software, see your AppleShare
documentation.