FILEMAKER SERVER BEST PRACTICES

FILEMAKER SERVER BEST PRACTICES OCTOBER, 2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.......................................................3 THE WORKGROUP ADMINISTRATOR.......................................4 THE TRAINED PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATOR.............................4 HARDWARE............................................................4 HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEM................................................5 NETWORK SUBSYSTEM..................................................5 PROCESSORT AND MEMORY..............................................5 OPERATING SYSTEM....................................................6 TUNING...................................................................7 MAC CLASSIC OS.......................................................9 MAC OS X.............................................................10 WINDOWS.............................................................10 LINUX................................................................11 BACKUPS..............................................................11 CONCLUSION.........................................................12 2

INTRODUCTION FileMaker Server is, essentially, the cornerstone of the FileMaker Pro family. It is responsible for providing FileMaker Pro databases to FileMaker clients, whether they be FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Unlimited. Time and time again customers testify that the addition of FileMaker Server changed their experience entirely, allowing for many simultaneous database users (up to 250), routine automated backups of live data, and an extreme enhancement in data reliability and performance. However, far too many times customers who have purchased FileMaker Server end up not using it to its full potential, or they install and use it incorrectly. This document is written to promote a greater understanding of FileMaker Server and help database administrators to provide the best possible service to their customers, the database users. The information provided is brought forward from internal FileMaker, Inc. employees, FileMaker, Inc. System Engineers working in the field, and FileMaker Solutions Alliance Partners. It is therefore a healthy mix of both internal knowledge and "real-world" expertise. Database administrators, IT/IS professionals, and endusers want their database systems to operate robustly and safely. Users rely on the data in the database files for a wide variety of management purposes irrespective of the size of the enterprise. Correct, optimal configuration of FileMaker Server is an integral part of providing that type of reliability. And while it is beyond the scope of this paper, proper architectural design of the multi-user files holding the data is the other integral part. Without both proper design and proper configuration and deployment, a safe, robust, reliable system will not exist. Since FileMaker Pro is such an easy-to-use application and, more times than not, the database administrator has grown to that position without a strong IT background, the FileMaker Server tends to be treated as a load-and-go solution. The opposite extreme is that the database administrator has a strong IT background and knows little about FileMaker Pro, yet has been tasked with setting it up, resulting in a server treated like an enterprise server.though it is true that it is very easy and that it can serve the enterprise, performance, reliability, and cost are at stake when configured improperly. We will examine these extremes separately. 3

THE WORKGROUP ADMINISTRATOR When a FileMaker Pro database has grown in a workgroup to the point that a FileMaker Server is purchased, the person who developed that database usually becomes the database server administrator. Often, the hardware allotted for this job is inadequate, the operating system unstable or inappropriate, and the backup routine abysmal. If you are this person, take heart! You learned to use FileMaker Pro to create the database that is being used to help your organization work more efficiently. Learning to use FileMaker Server will likely be far easier than creating that database. Perhaps the most difficult part of the job will be to secure the appropriate server hardware and operating system to get the job done right. Convince the appropriate people that the data is priceless, and the cost of securing that data should seem negligible. THE TRAINED PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATOR Fortunately for you, those who are storing valuable data have come forward for your help. It should also be a comfort to know that they have been using a tool to capture data which will save on IT costs since FileMaker Server tends to be a "near lights out" solution. Setting up a FileMaker Server may be the easiest server installation you ve had to do in your career. One word of caution don t treat the FileMaker Server quite like an average server. Though there are some similarities and you ll want to provide adequate hardware, a $20,000 quad-processor with 1G RAM like you may be accustomed to for servers is a waste of money for FileMaker Server. HARDWARE As everyone knows, there is a difference between the stated minimums and the desirable minimums. We will begin by defining what hardware is desirable for a FileMaker Server. First, FileMaker Server is a database server and, as such, is very I/O intensive. Its job is to move data between the hard drive subsystem and the network subsystem for consumption by the FileMaker Pro clients. These are the two most important parts of the system, followed by processor and memory. If you re going to trust your company s valuable data to a database server, treat that server as you would any other mission critical device. Buy hardware that is certified for use with the operating system chosen. This is easier with the Mac OS than it is with Windows or Red Hat Linux, but all have strong documentation available describing what is and is not supported. Anyone who has tried to track down intermittent failures on a machine setup with a $20 video card with no-name drivers understands the value of this. Get a name brand machine intended to be a server, with redundant power supplies, UPS systems, sufficient cooling, and rack mounting (if useful in your organization). 4

HARD DRIVE SUBSYSTEM A SCSI UltraWide hard drive is highly recommended; a RAID system is even more desirable. If this is absolutely out of the budget range, get the fastest hard drive/controller combination possible. The reasoning for using SCSI or RAID is that these controllers have their own processing capabilities. Therefore, when a request is made for data, the drive controller will handle fulfilling that request without taxing the computer s Central Processing Unit (or CPU). Contrast this to an ATA or IDE drive where the CPU is involved. Each request will result in the CPU being involved to send a message to the hard drive requesting the data, moving that data to controller, on to memory, and finally, processing that data to go to the network. Of course any other hard drive connection, such as USB or FireWire based drives, are out of the question. To further speed the connection if many large files are being used, a cache controller can be added. This piece of hardware will act as a cache to the disks, working much more quickly than physically accessing the disks. Configure the hard drive subsystem to work as efficiently as possible. For example, if you have two hard drives and two controllers, install each drive on separate controllers rather than both on one. If you have a RAID array and a hardware RAID controller, build one container and partition the container rather than two containers so that the controller only has to deal with one set of parity. NETWORK SUBSYSTEM Get a "good" network adapter a reliable name brand made for such purposes. With the flood of home networking and cheap adapters on the market, don t think that all are created equal. Similar to the hard drive, make sure the network card is not one that uses the CPU to do all of its calculations. This is often a difficult task, so research the possibilities, keeping in mind what operating system you ll be using and checking the compatibility. If all else fails, buy the one that costs a bit more than the others on the shelf. Consider more than just the network card in this part. Buying the best card on the market may be a colossal waste if it doesn t match the network it will be plugging into. So, buy the fastest network card your network will support and the appropriate network cabling to support that (e.g. CAT5 cable for 100T and CAT6e cable for 1000T). When setting it up, be sure to specify the speed and duplex settings according to your network switch or hub s capabilities rather than letting it auto-detect. The auto-detection process can chew up precious bandwidth, slowing communications before the data ever leaves the server. For advanced systems, an EtherChannel could be implemented to provide throughput greater than a single Ethernet connection could offer. PROCESSOR AND MEMORY Bringing up the rear of the list are the processor and memory. Much of this decision depends upon the operating system used and its requirements. Do treat this as a server machine though. A true Intel Pentium processor is preferred over the Celeron processor. The speed will vary by the time this document is published, a new speed record will be broken. However, as with most computer purchases, buy the fastest processor the budget will allow 800-1000 MHZ being the current baseline. 5

Although FileMaker Server gains some benefit in a multi-processor situation due to the operating system s intervention, it is not written to make specific use of multiple processors. Therefore, the added expense of a second processor provides very little value. The money would be better spent in getting a better hard drive or network subsystem. As for memory, FileMaker Server will tend to take less than 30MB and has a maximum cache size of 40MB. Therefore, on current operating systems (Mac OS 8.6-9.6 & Mac OS X, Windows NT & 2000, Red Hat Linux 7.0) 256M RAM is sufficient. OPERATING SYSTEM FileMaker Pro is well known as the cross-platform relational database. FileMaker Server is no different. FileMaker Server runs on Macintosh Classic, Mac OS X, Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server, and now Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.0. Though this is a great benefit, it does make it difficult to thoroughly document the best practices for the server. Each has its own set of issues and strengths. Determine which operating system is best for you in your situation. Which operating system the clients are using does not matter to the server since all versions communicate with each other. Macintosh operating systems are known for their ease of use. Since FileMaker Pro got its start in the Macintosh world, it is often assumed that the Mac will make the best server. However, FileMaker, Inc. sells the majority of its software to the Windows platform. The Mac OS tends to have a few more intricacies involved with making FileMaker Server run efficiently. Mac OS X promises to make this much easier due to its core being a true network operating system. One advantage that the Windows and Red Hat Linux platforms have is that Server runs as a service (or "daemon" in Linux), meaning the application does not have to be open or a user logged in for FileMaker Server to be busy hosting databases. An added by-product of this is the fact that the FileMaker Server can be automatically started when the operating system starts. Beware of the cost saving bug here. Do not use an operating system not designed to be a server, such as Windows NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Professional. Though FileMaker Server will install on these versions, they were designed to focus on user applications, not on background services. What this means ultimately is that the operating system is not tuned for what you are using it for. Use Windows NT Server or Windows 2000 Server to get the job done right. In a seemingly contradictory line of thought, when using Mac OS X, use Mac OS X rather than Mac OS X Server. More discussion on this will follow. Whatever your choice in operating systems, bear in mind that an operating system is a piece of software that is constantly being improved. Check the relevant web sites for information pertaining to your operating system and install the appropriate updates. Always check the FileMaker, Inc. web site [http://www.filemaker.com] and Tech Info database to assure compatibility with the updates. For example, a common update to Windows NT and 2000 users is Internet Explorer 5.5. However, this version of IE is incompatible with FileMaker Server 6

5.0 management console. This is a documented issue, but there are often customers calling Technical Support to find out why they can t manage their database server anymore. Keep hardware drivers as well as the FileMaker Server software up to date. Mark the calendar to check the FileMaker website for upgrades that could save hours in troubleshooting and data recovery down the road. TUNING Proper tuning of FileMaker Server seems to be an elusive task. Either it is setup to do far more than it needs to, increasing overhead to a detriment, or it is installed as a substandard application, treated as if it is not important enough to devote a computer to. First and foremost, devote a computer exclusively to the task of being the FileMaker Server. Do not attempt to make this machine be the fileserver, email server, domain controller, DNS server or anything else. The FileMaker Server documentation clearly states that this is the ideal situation. It is not just a good idea, it is imperative if you want FileMaker to work reliably with great performance. BUILD THE MACHINE FROM THE GROUND UP YOURSELF. Don t trust your valuable data to an operating system loaded by the hardware provider. These installations are notoriously problematic. Doing a custom installation of the server OS provides a system loaded with the bare minimums without the difficulty of removing items. TURN OFF FILE SHARING AND OTHER UNUSED SERVICES. File sharing is the ability to access files on a remote network device. What FileMaker Server does is not file sharing; it is data sharing. File sharing uses a good deal of I/O resources, the same that FileMaker Server is reliant upon. Therefore, any type of file sharing will reduce performance of the FileMaker Server. Making the database files available via file sharing is not only a performance issue, but a security issue. If there is a way for someone to get access to the physical FileMaker files, then there is the possibility for a security breach. One of the easiest ways to lessen this threat is to be sure that they can only access the data by opening the database by navigating the "Open Remote Database" or "Hosts" dialog. KEEP THE FILEMAKER DATABASE FILES LOCAL ON THE SERVER. Although it may seem natural to place FileMaker data files on network directories, this is a bad idea. The most important factor for FileMaker's performance will be a fast and clean I/O to the disk files. Thus, reading data and writing updates to a local disk is imperative. If the FileMaker files are on a network drive, then any data updates first need to climb down the OSI model network layers, across a network full of competing packets, back up the OSI ladder at the target volume, and finally be committed through the drive sub-system there to the files. This process is orders of magnitude slower than a simple local write and adds quite a few variables potentially affecting stability as well as speed. Additionally, the target drive is, by definition, a shared volume. Therefore, all of the issues mentioned previously regarding security and stability in file sharing would apply. 7

TURN OFF UNUSED NETWORK PROTOCOLS. FileMaker Server can communicate over TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and AppleTalk. The Red Hat Linux version and the Mac OS X version only communicate in TCP/IP. Use only TCP/IP networking; additionally it is the only protocol available in a crossplatform network for FileMaker Server version 5.5. The bottom line is that the Server will have to devote less overhead if it is only using one protocol rather than two or three, so reduce the overhead by specifying the protocols it will use. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF GUESTS. Determine how many concurrent guests will be connecting to your FileMaker Server, add 10% for good measure, and set it at that. Even though you could host to up to 250 users, each user takes up worker threads on the computer, increasing overhead. Reducing the overhead significantly improves performance. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF FILES. Similar to the above, worker threads are maintained for each possible file. So, reducing the number of files to the number actually being hosted, leaving 10% for growth, will use less overhead. Changing either of these numbers later is not a difficult task, but it does require that the FileMaker Server service/daemon/application be restarted. REDUCE THE COMPUTER S EXTRANEOUS WORK. Often people will setup a Server beautifully all the right settings, low overhead, etc., but leave the machine running a processor intensive screen saver. Reducing the resolution and color depth of the server machine can save some processor work. This screen is not meant for entertainment, so set the screen to just go blank there is very little processing being done on a blank screen. DON T USE ENERGY SAVING SOFTWARE. This is a Server we are dealing with. You really don t want it to go to sleep, waiting for a request to come in to wake it. Don t let the hard drive or the system sleep. At most, let the screen power down. RESTART THE COMPUTER REGULARLY. Despite the fact that operating systems claim to be getting more reliable, a regular restart is still a good idea. Operating system developers tend to release fixes to their software to fix memory leaks and other similar problems. Restarting on a weekly basis in conjunction with a full system backup has been a safe routine used in many large installations. TWEAK FILEMAKER SERVER S CACHE SETTINGS. FileMaker Server has its own built-in cache to allow fast communication to memory rather than making every transaction communicate with the hard drive. This cache has a maximum size of 40M. There is a certain amount of overhead involved in checking the cache for data prior to going to the hard drive. Therefore, some performance can be gained by properly tuning the cache. Using a gauge provided by FileMaker Server, you can determine the Cache Hit percentage. The Cache Hits should maintain around a 95% hit rate in the production environment. If it is regularly less than this, increase the cache size. If much more, try reducing the cache size slightly. A good rule of thumb is to set the server cache to 5% of the total size of database files hosted.this is only a starting point to start adjusting from. 8

MAC CLASSIC OS (8.6-9.1) The Classic Mac OS does not provide preemptive multitasking and it handles memory allocation in a unique way. Therefore it is very important here, even more than with other operating systems, that FileMaker Server be the only thing this computer is used for. THE FILEMAKER SERVER APPLICATION SHOULD ALWAYS BE THE FRONT-MOST APPLICATION. This means that the upper right corner should say "FileMaker Server," not "Finder." If the desktop was clicked, then the Finder will take priority and slow Server tremendously. This goes for other applications as well, not just the Finder. In fact any interaction with something other than Server will slow it down. Legend has it that a user s FileMaker Server "crashed." When the administrator investigated the server, he found that a book had fallen from a shelf landing on the mouse. The mouse-down event took control of the system, not allowing any processor sharing for Server to handle requests. SET THE SERVER APPLICATION TO "MAXIMIZE PERFORMANCE." In FileMaker Server s preferences, an option exists under Administration that says "Maximize performance." This option reduces the amount of CPU available for other applications. As previously mentioned, this machine should be dedicated to FileMaker Server, so this will not be detrimental to the system in fact it will help in the primary purpose of the system. MINIMIZE THE EXTENSIONS BEING USED. A good place to start is the basic extensions needed by the operating system. This can be setup with Extensions Manager. Build the "necessary" list from there. Turn off all energy saving settings as well as any virus checking. These are unnecessary, yet very costly when it comes to performance. SET THE MEMORY APPROPRIATELY. Setting the amount of memory an application is given to use is a concept unique to Mac. Often in the troubleshooting of a Mac-based application, the amount of memory given to the application is increased and that makes it work better. This is not the case with FileMaker Server after a point. FileMaker Server is a relatively small application, streamlined for the purpose of sharing data. When FileMaker Server is installed, it is given a minimum amount of memory requirement of 4MB (4096KB) and a preferred amount of 8MB (8192KB). The memory requirement consists of a combination of the memory needed for the application and the requested cache size. Therefore, a change in the cache size setting will result in a dialog requesting a change in the application memory (as shown). Allow that change to be made (and verify that it 9

was made in the Get Info dialog). Increasing the memory beyond the recommendation will not help performance. In fact, it may harm performance due to the increased overhead of the memory given to the application. DO NOT USE VIRTUAL MEMORY. Virtual memory uses the hard drive as if it were physical memory for the computer, therefore it is very I/O intensive. As stated earlier, FileMaker Server is using the hard drive extensively. Adding the use of virtual memory will severely slow the performance of the FileMaker Server. MAC OS X Mac OS X is a totally different Mac operating system from the core up. It is based on BSD Unix and was developed as a network operating system. It has preemptive multitasking, protected memory, and true virtual memory. FileMaker Server for OS X has been re-written as a Unix application with a Cocoa interface. With these changes, Server runs as a daemon under OS X, meaning a lot of the tuning issues traditionally found with the Mac OS are no longer necessary. However, like Mac Classic, an application still needs to be started to initialize FileMaker Server. The FileMaker Server Config application (this is where you set all of the Server settings) needs to be launched and the "Start Server" button needs to be clicked. Once this is done, the daemon is running and the FileMaker Server Config application can be quit and the user can log out, leaving the Server safely running in the background. USE MAC OS X, NOT MAC OS X SERVER. Mac OS X Server is different than Mac OS X. Though FMS appears to work under Mac OS X Server, there are several additional daemons loaded. Following advice given earlier of removing all unnecessary daemons would simply mean spending more time stripping the Mac OS X Server down to the point it is no different than Mac OS X. WINDOWS The Windows NT/2000 operating system is often the preferred OS used by corporate system administrators. Therefore, there often tends to be more familiarity with this OS. Unfortunately, with this comes a set of preconceived notions about how FileMaker Server should be tuned. Some of those notions are well founded, while others can be detrimental. OPTIMIZE FOR BACKGROUND SERVICES. In the "System Properties", under the "Advanced" tab, under "Performance Options...", choose Optimize performance for: "Background services." This makes the operating system give priority to the services, of which FMS is one. OPTIMIZE FOR NETWORK THROUGHPUT. For the properties for each LAN connection, ensure that under the properties for "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" that Server 10

Optimization is set to "Maximize data throughput for network applications." SET THE PAGING SIZE AND LOCATION APPROPRIATELY. In the "System Properties", under the "Advanced" tab, under "Performance Options...", under Virtual memory, make sure the paging is set to a reasonable size (just over the size of RAM is ideal) and not too large. Also insure that the entire paging file is on one drive and that that drive is a fast drive, preferably on a different drive/controller than the FileMaker data. LINUX As the offering of a Red Hat Linux version of FileMaker Server is quite new, we have very little "real world" information on tuning FileMaker Server. However, we do know that some things are desirable. PARTITION THE DRIVES TO PROVIDE MAXIMUM RELIABILITY. Separate the operating system from the FileMaker data using the partitioning available in Red Hat Linux. Setting the /var/fmserver path in its own partition (on a separate drive or RAID controller as suggested earlier) allows for the most throughput. Also, putting the /var/log path in its own partition is desirable. This way if there are any logs growing out of control, they will only fill that partition, leaving the operating system and FileMaker data files unharmed. For more information on the Red Hat Linux version of FileMaker Server, see the FileMaker Server Red Hat Linux White Paper. BACKUPS One of FileMaker Server s (FMS) top features is the ability to backup "live" data. Starting with version 5, FileMaker made it easier to perform automated backups than ever before. Using a graphical interface, a backup can be scheduled to happen at specific times. When one of these backups runs, the basic process flows like this. First, FMS "pauses," meaning the cache is flushed, writing all data to the disk; then FMS releases the files so it is no longer in control of the files; next FMS copies the files to the specific backup location; finally, after the copy is complete, FMS "resumes" meaning it reattaches to the files and starts replying to the clients again. During this process, FMP clients need not disconnect from the Server. If anyone makes a request requiring the Server s attention, they simply wait until the Server is resumed. We recommend that this process backs up the database files to a local drive, thus allowing the Server to return to its primary task sharing databases as soon as it possibly can. This is just one more reason to have a fast hard drive subsystem. From this backup directory, a true backup to removable media can be configured, either with an enterprise backup software or by another method left to your selection. 11

In the event of any server failure, one of the backed up files should be used. Any failure could result in corrupted files. Even if the files appear to be fine, some corruption could be buried in the file. A common backup procedure is to make local backups at an interval relating to the amount of data that could be lost. For example, at 6:00 am, 9:00 am, 12:00 noon, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 11:30 pm weekdays backups are done locally. Then, at midnight, an incremental backup of the entire system is done to the enterprise backup system. Finally, Friday night at midnight, a full system backup is done. The backup tapes are duplicated and a copy stored at a remote location. This way, if the Server goes down for some reason other than catastrophic drive failure of multiple drives (assuming a RAID 5 configuration), the more recent backup of the data files can be used, making a maximum of 3 hours of lost data. If there is a catastrophic drive failure, then the previous evening s tape can be used, losing a maximum of one day s lost data. Finally, if a disaster happened at the Server location, a maximum of one week of data could be lost. Of course, these procedures need to be tailored to your situation and data value. Often, a properly configured server will only require a local recovery to restore data after a user has accidentally deleted data. CONCLUSION Since the data people have put into FileMaker Pro, in many cases, runs the organization, from the grass-roots level to the enterprise, it is important to provide flawless access to data in any enterprise. The only way to provide this type of access is to treat the FileMaker Server with respect. Several key elements to consider when configuring the Server have been discussed. For further information on specific topics, the TechInfo database found at www.filemaker.com should be referenced. In a test of three Servers running under these types of guidelines, all have run flawlessly, giving 24/7 support. Exceptions of a network switch getting hit by lightning and a maintenance person unplugging the server are hardly the fault of the FileMaker Server. However, restoring data from backup after these incidents was simple, quick, and nearly transparent to users. Implementing similar configurations will result in similar results. 2001 FileMaker, Inc.All rights reserved. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S.A. and other countries, and the file folder logo is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries, and the Built for Mac OSX graphic is a trademark of Apple computer, Inc., used under license. Microsoft,Windows, Windows NT and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Mention of third party products and companies is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation. Product specifications and availability subject to change without notice. 12