FileMaker Pro 7 Performance

[vinnedb]

Hello Everyone,

 

Currently, we are using FM 5.5 and we are considering to upgrade to FileMaker Pro 7 and FileMaker Pro 7 Server. The major thrust to upgrading is to take advantage of FM7 enhanced features specifically performance for remote users.

 

The present implementation is that the database is hosted at a remote site. Each user has a copy of FM5.5 installed on the system and access the database remotely.

With FM 5.5 and a production database of 2600 records it takes at least 10-15 minutes for our in-house users to sort the database to produce some of the reports.

 

Can someone share their experiences with FileMaker 7? Specifically as it pertains to sharing the database in a network and use by remote users?

 

Your comments are appreciated!

[Ender]

I did some comparisons of the two versions last spring. Overall, WAN performance is significantly better. Finds on related fields or unstored calcs are very fast, Sorting is about the same the first time, and pretty fast for subsequent Sorts of the same criteria. Portals behave much better--no more resorting over and over. Files open faster (large files are no longer slow to open.)

 

Here's my detailed results:

 

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB27&Number=102845

[Felix Kortrijk]

Hi Vinnedb,

 

I have a more basic question for you; why the upgrade to FM7 to increase speed ?

If you were to use Windows Terminal services instead of Filemaker remote host you will get LAN performance over the WAN.

This will probably be lower cost than the upgrade to FM7.

 

You might even want to consider a web interface instead of Terminal services if user interactions are limited to a few functions only (you have to build most of the functionality you have already written in FM again in a web language)

[Ted S]

Vinnedb,

 

I concur with Felix's opinions about Terminal Services.

 

Our FileMaker Server is in Mpls MN and we have offices in 3 other US cities as well as Taiwan and Korea. We also have 50+ mobile users who travel the world. All connect to the Mpls server via Terminal Services. We get no complaints about speed.

 

I myself use it to do FM Development for my employer from my home office in the evenings. I would estimate the speed of the connection to be 90% to 95% of the speed of working directly in the office. This is with a 128 bit encrypted VPN.

 

Terminal Services can be run in 2 modes; Application or Remote Admin. For your situation the Application mode is what you should be interested in. We run 2 "Application" servers in this mode serving up FileMaker and other applications to our remote (approx. 150) people.

 

We also run Terminal Services on all of our other non-FileMaker servers (roughly 25) in the Remote Admin mode. The Remote Admin mode allows 2 concurrent (I think) connections for anyone who has "admin" rights on the system. This is huge for us because we can administer these servers remotely. That means when you get a call in the middle of the night you can often fix the problem from the comfort of your own home without needing to drive to the office.

 

Terminal Services is a really, really fine solution to remote access problems. We've been on it for 4+ years and it has payed for itself over and over again.