Monitoring FileMaker Server

If you administer one or more machines running FileMaker Server, you'll want to take advantage of some of the tools that are available for monitoring resource usage and application events. We look at each of these areas in turn .

Working with Usage Statistics

If you click the Statistics icon in the SAT, you'll see a table of information concerning six key usage parameters on the server. For each parameter, you can see the current, average, low, and peak values. Here's a list of what's monitored .

• Network KB/sec ” Average data transfer per second. This number tells you the extent to which the raw network bandwidth of the machine is being used up.

• FileMaker Pro Clients ” This tells you the number of connected FileMaker Pro clients. It's useful to see it here in the summary view, but clicking the Clients icon in the SAT gives you more detailed information on connected clients.

• Files ” This tells you the number of open files. Again, clicking the Database icon gives more detailed information.

• Disk KB/sec ” This gives you some idea of how much data is actually being written to disk over a given period. This is to some extent a measure of the extent to which the database files are being changed. If the files are being predominantly read from, the disk write activity should be low. If the files are constantly being written to, disk activity will be high. Keep an eye on this number if you expect that hard disk performance may be a bottleneck.

• Cache Unsaved % ” Like many database servers, FileMaker Server sets aside an area of RAM (of a size configured by the administrator) to use as a cache. When a user makes a request for data, FileMaker Server checks first to see whether the data is in the cache, and if so, it fetches it from the cache, more quickly than it could fetch it from disk. Over time, the contents of the cache are written out to disk. The period over which this occurs is governed by a setting on the Databases tab of the server properties (Windows) or Configure icon (Mac OS). The setting is called Distribute Cache Flush Over. For example, if that value were set to one minute, FileMaker would attempt to write the whole cache out to disk over the course of a minute. The Cache Unsaved % should ideally be around 25% or lower. If it's much above that, you may want to shorten the length of the cache flush period. Having too much data unsaved in the cache increases the odds of data corruption in the event of a crash.

• Cache Hit % ” This number indicates how often FileMaker Server is finding the data it's looking for in the cache. Here you want to see a number over 90%. Much less than that, and FileMaker is looking to the disk too often. In that case, it's a good idea to increase the size of the RAM cache (also on the Database tab under Properties (Windows) or Configure (Mac OS)). If the RAM cache is already as high as it can reasonably go, you may want to consider adding more RAM to the machine.

Working with Application Events

FileMaker Server uses the event-logging facilities of the operating system on which it's installed. On the Windows platform, FileMaker Server events can be viewed with the Windows Event Viewer, whereas on the Mac the events are written to a file called Event.log .

Working with Application Events on Windows

On Windows, you can access the Event Viewer from the left pane of the SAT by choosing Windows Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, FileMaker Server 7. The Event Viewer is shown in Figure 25.18.

Figure 25.18. It's a good idea to become familiar with the server event log.

In this view you'll see a list of application events, sortable by any column. Double-clicking an event brings up additional detail about the event. Icons in the left margin indicate events that constitute errors.

Right-clicking on the log name enables you to manipulate the log in a variety of ways, such as clearing it or exporting it. Choosing Properties enables you to set some important logging parameters, such as the maximum size of the log and the filtering conditions that govern how the log is displayed. These choices are shown in Figure 25.19.

Figure 25.19. On Windows, you can configure a number of useful parameters pertaining to event logging.

Working with Application Events on Mac OS X

On the Mac, events are written to the file /Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Logs/Event.log . This is a plain text file that you can view with any text editor. You can also view it in the Console application to get a "live" view of the log while the server is running. The Mac OS X event log is shown in Figure 25.20.

Figure 25.20. On Mac OS X, the event log is a plain text file.

The FileMaker Server event login model is fairly verbose. It logs all current configuration options when it starts up. It logs each database as it opens, and each client connection on a per-client per-file basis. The Event log should always be one of the first sources of information that you draw on when troubleshooting a problem with FileMaker Server.