Shared Files Auto Closing

[Wildpete]

We are hosting several shared files on our server and we need to close some of the older files and open some new ones. The problem is we set everything up and then when we restart the server in the morning everything is back the way it was before. It's driving us nuts.

 

How do we get the files we closed to stay closed and the ones we open to stay open. This only recently started.

[AHunter3]

Server will only open files that are

 

a) at the root level of "databases" or

b) one folder level below that

 

 

So put any db files you don't want Server to open in a sub-subfolder within Databases and Server will ignore it.

[Wildpete]

What about files we want open that keep auto closing?

[AHunter3]

Files should not auto-close.

 

How is your server set up? The following should ideally be true:

 

a) FileMaker Server is running on a dedicated server; that means it isn't used for anything else

 

b) The following things are either not installed or are turned off: OS-level file sharing, anti-virus, file indexing, automated hard disk backups, automated defragmentation, anything else that writes to or reads from the hard disk unnecessarily

 

c) The files have never been Recovered, have never been hosted on a server in violation of any of the conditions described in b above, and whenever server has crashed requiring the files to be tended to before they could be served up again, those crashed files have always been discarded and the solution reverted back to most recent backup

 

d) All client computers have an IP address that does not get changed out from under them, and have reliable networking (ethernet is better than wireless for example).

[Wildpete]

A) The server holds all off our files and runs Filemaker Server 8

 

B) We back-up the server manually using Retrospect.

 

C) Don't know

 

D) Yes

 

Files should not auto-close.

 

How is your server set up? The following should ideally be true:

 

a) FileMaker Server is running on a dedicated server; that means it isn't used for anything else

 

b) The following things are either not installed or are turned off: OS-level file sharing, anti-virus, file indexing, automated hard disk backups, automated defragmentation, anything else that writes to or reads from the hard disk unnecessarily

 

c) The files have never been Recovered, have never been hosted on a server in violation of any of the conditions described in b above, and whenever server has crashed requiring the files to be tended to before they could be served up again, those crashed files have always been discarded and the solution reverted back to most recent backup

 

d) All client computers have an IP address that does not get changed out from under them, and have reliable networking (ethernet is better than wireless for example).

[AHunter3]

a) Uninstall Retrospect IMMEDIATELY and never ever ever let Retrospect back up open/served FileMaker files! Corrupts the livign heck out of them faster than you'd ever believe. And the backups it creates aren't usually useful etiher. FileMaker Server has its own built-in ability to create backups. Nothing else should back up your live database files, only FmServer itself.

 

b) Get everything that isn't FileMaker off that server and turn file sharing off. File sharing also corrupts files. By file sharing I mean if it is a Windows PC server go into Services, find the Service simply named "Server" and disable it so it can never run; if it's a Mac OS X Server, open Server Admin app, pick your local server on the lefthand side after clicking the disclosure triangle, and stop the services AFP and Windows.

 

c) You have now run this solution under bad circumstances and these files may be damaged. Let's hope not.

[Ender]

You can safely run Retrospect to backup the backup folder to another machine or drive. Just don't attempt to use it to backup open database files.

 

Basically: Use FM Server's built-in scheduled backups to make local backups to another folder/drive on the Server. Then use Retrospect or some other method to transfer those backups to another machine or archive volume. Make sure Retrospect runs well after FileMaker's scheduled backups.