Administrator’s Guide

52 FileMaker Server Administrator’s Guide
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.
About the FileMaker Server daemons
When installed, FileMaker Server creates the daemons
fmserver_helperd and fmserverd. These are owned by the user
fmserver and the group fmsadmin. The permissions for the two
daemons include Set User ID, also know as the SUID bit.
The daemons are started with the user id of fmserver and group id
of fmsadmin.When these daemons are executed by the system or by
a user, these permissions allow the user or system to switch from the
current user id to the
fmserver id. This will happen automatically,
provided the user is in the
fmsadmin group, or is root. Otherwise, the
system will return an error indicating that the user doesn’t have
permission to execute the file.
About file system permissions
The fmserver_helperd and fmserverd daemons can only read
and write to the folders to which their privileges give them access.
FileMaker Server is primarily installed in the [hard disk]/Library/
folder, since it is normally run automatically by the system as a
background application. FileMaker consolidates the necessary files
for FileMaker Server in /Library/FileMaker Server/, with the
exception of the FileMaker Server Admin application and
administration documentation.
The /Library/FileMaker Server folder is owned by the fmserver user
id and the fmsadmin group id. This means that the FileMaker Server
daemons can read and write to this folder. It also means that users that
belong to the
fmsadmin group can write to this folder.
FileMaker Server folders in Mac OS
Folder Purpose Notes
/Library/FileMaker Server/
Data/Databases/
Primary database
folder
This folder and subfolders
must be owned by the
fmsadmin group.
It is important that any
databases placed in the
Databases folder or
subfolders are group
readable and writable.
/Library/FileMaker Server/
Data/Backups/
Default backup
folder
This folder and subfolders
must be readable,
writable, and executable
by the fmsadmin group