Administrator’s Guide

Administering FileMaker Server 39
Using reported events to track activities
FileMaker Server uses the Windows Event Viewer (Windows) or
Event.log (Mac OS ) to help you keep track of activities on the server.
These log files contain time-stamped information on:
1 FileMaker Server starting and stopping
1 database files opened and closed by FileMaker Server
1 clients that connect to and disconnect from FileMaker Server, as
well as the files they access
1 clients that are disconnected by FileMaker Server
1 new, completed, upcoming, and currently running schedules
1 pre-defined errors and conditions that FileMaker Server detects in
your configuration
1 current properties settings when FileMaker Server starts up, as well
as settings that are changed during a FileMaker
Server session
Viewing activities in the Event Viewer (Windows)
To view information about FileMaker Server activities, expand the
Windows Admin Tools node in the Console Root and select
Event
Viewer (local)
. Then, open the Event Viewer to select the Application,
Security, System, and FileMaker Server 7 logs.
You see a list of FileMaker Server events. Double-click an event to
display details about it.
To save the log file contents in a text file, choose Action menu > Export
List
to save information displayed in the Event Viewer as a tab-
delimited text file (.TXT) and then import the information into a
FileMaker
Pro database for further analysis.
For more information about the error conditions reported in the event
log, see topics on event log messages and troubleshooting in Help.
Viewing activities in the Event.log (Mac OS)
The Event.log file is created in the FileMaker Server 7 application
folder. You can use any application capable of opening plain text files
or the Mac
OS Console application to view or print it.
You can have the log file open in the Mac OS Console application
when FileMaker Server is running. Events are logged continuously,
with the most recent log entry at the bottom of the Console
application window. Event.log is created when FileMaker Server
starts, only if there is no existing Event.log. Activities are added to
Event.log until it reaches the maximum size, at which point it is
renamed Event-old.log, and a new Event.log is created.
The maximum size of the Event.log on Mac OS is 40 MB. For more
information, see
“Logging FileMaker Server events” on page 26.
For more information about the error conditions reported in the event
log, see topics about event log messages and troubleshooting in Help.
Using FileMaker Server in Mac OS
FileMaker Server and all database files, plug-ins, and scripts must be
configured with the correct privileges and permissions to function
properly in Mac
OS.
Mac OS is a UNIX-based operating system. When FileMaker Server
runs in Mac
OS, it does not run as a single executable file. Instead,
FileMaker Server runs as two background processes, or
daemons.
These daemons run with restricted privileges, which limit their
access to the file systems.
When you install FileMaker Server in Mac OS:
1 a user named fmserver and a group named fmsadmin are created
1 all databases hosted by FileMaker Server must belong to the
fmsadmin group and have read and write access enabled to allow
clients with the correct privileges to edit the databases
1 the user account installing FileMaker Server is automatically
added to the
fmsadmin group
1 the FileMaker Server executes as this user/group, with restricted
privileges
Because FileMaker Server is a server application, it should not run
with administrator or root level privileges, but with the minimum
permissions levels necessary to perform its tasks.