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FMP, FMPA, FMPS 13, Mavericks and Macmini

Question asked by allen.davis on Feb 4, 2014
Latest reply on Oct 24, 2014 by allen.davis

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Summary

Product

FileMaker Pro

Version

Operating system version

10.9.1

Description of the issue

Have had this issue present itself on three different mac mini's.

The computer will lose connection to host, randomly. If it is the client running FMP13, it randomly loses connection to host. If it is the FMPS13 running on a macmini, it will randomly drop all connections and go 'deaf' on the network for 10 seconds up to a minute. It comes back 'online' without us doing anything.

These are all mac minis purchased in the last 6 months. We have lots of other mac minis that run continously without dropping connection.

Is anyone else seeing behavior like this?

Steps to reproduce the problem

Client : connect to database(s), work in database and computer will lose connection to host randomly 2 or more times a day

Server: run server 13 on a macmini, and it will randomly go 'deaf' on the network, dropping all client connections

Expected result

computer should remain connected to database until you manually quit/disconnect

Actual result

lose connection to host

Exact text of any error message(s) that appear

lost connection to host

Configuration information

Recent mac mini purchase

Workaround

for server, we loaded windows on the mini and it has been running without a problem

No one else has this question

Outcomes

14 Replies

TSGal Feb 4, 2014 8:31 AM
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     Al Davis:

     Thank you for your post.

     Do you have any other software running on the Mac Mini? For example, do you have Time Machine active? If so, turn it off, and set up a FileMaker Server Schedule to perform the backups.

     I know you said this occurs randomly. Keep a log of each time this issue occurs. Also, check the Event.log file to see if there any activity when the server is inaccessible.

     Continue to keep me updated with any progress, as others may also encounter these symptoms.

     TSGal
     FileMaker, Inc.
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allen.davis Feb 4, 2014 11:38 AM
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     Hi,

     No other software running, Spotlight is off. We always turn spotlight off on servers.

     Will be looking at logs to see if I can provide more details. It seems like the network adapter is going down for seconds at a time, which of course will cause the communication with host problem.

     Let me gather some more info.

     Allen
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RickWhitelaw Feb 4, 2014 1:49 PM
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I was under the impression that Time Machine was ok to use but excluding the FMS folder was necessary. Disabling Spotlight seems like a good idea though.
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TSGal Feb 4, 2014 2:07 PM
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     Rick Whitelaw:

     You are correct. Time Machine is fine to use as long as you don't include the FileMaker Server folder. The problems we frequently encounter is when customers are using Time Machine to backup the entire server.

     Still, Time Machine does use CPU cycles, so FileMaker Server could encounter a performance hit. If Time Machine is a necessity, then schedule Time Machine to run during off-hours, but not at the same time as the FileMaker Server backup schedules.

     TSGal
     FileMaker, Inc.
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Markus Schneider Feb 4, 2014 10:28 PM
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How are those mini's connected to the network? Could You switch a pair for testing? - maybe the network is -at least- involved..
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allen.davis Feb 17, 2014 9:39 AM
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     Hello,

     We have a number of mini's accessing the FMP server, some on the same switch, one may exhibit the problem, others seem to be fine. The common thing seems to be 10.9.1, since I just had the problem appear on a new Macbook Air. Previously I had just seen it with newer minis running 10.9.1.

     I did find something that seems to of resolved it. I am still monitoring, but after I have done the fix below to effected machines, they have not dropped.

     I'm not sure of the technical parts of this, and why it fixes it, but it seems to work. Would be interested to see if this helps others.

     http://blogs.citrix.com/2013/10/31/citrix-on-osx-10-9-mavericks/
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Markus Schneider Feb 17, 2014 10:08 AM
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unsure... I'm running 3 OSX 10.9.1 with FMS13 here. No disconnect. Further on, on my 'workstation-Mac' (Mini 2013, i7, fusion drive), I got a lot of citrix connections. No problems (not zero problems, but no disconnect)

Anyway - thank You very much for this blog!
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allen.davis Sep 25, 2014 9:26 AM
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We still have random drops, all mac minis, 10.9.5. Can be connected for 72 hours, without anyone using the computer/database, and then it will drop the connection while 20 other people remain connected to the database/server. So, the computer was idle for 72 hours, and then dropped.

All of the things above have been done. The server show little to know utilization. We do not ever get any 'coffee cups' or the network problem icon(squiggly line).

We also look at the ports on the data switches, and see 0 errors on the clients that drop.

Any ideas? We are beginning to think it is a problem with the i5 mac minis.

Thanks
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ChrisL_1 Oct 7, 2014 7:57 AM
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I have a new mac mini causing similar issues have you found any solutions?
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allen.davis Oct 7, 2014 8:29 AM
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Yes, we believe we have it solved.

What solved it for us, is buying Apple USB - Ethernet adapters, and use that, rather than the built in ethernet adapter of the mac mini. This has worked on various revisions of the mac mini. These mac minis showed no other network problems, except disconnects from the Filemaker Pro server, at random times.

We have gone 7 days without a drop/disconnect, which has been unheard of during the past year.

There is more discussion of the issue at the below link. Follow through to the end.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5483424?start=0&tstart=0
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ChrisL_1 Oct 7, 2014 11:30 AM
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Thanks for the reply. That's a very odd solution but if it works. I moved FileMaker server to an older iMac from 2011 and it runs fine. We could not go 24 hours with out a crash on the brand new Mac Mini Server. We could not run scheduled updates on it either. But the older Mac seems fine so far with zero issues. Somethings not right.
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allen.davis Oct 8, 2014 8:08 AM
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If you have time to test, to see if it actually is OSX and the network port on the mini, I would suggest this.

Either load Windows on the mac mini, and then install FMP Server and see if you still see your problems.

or

If you have an Apple USB - Ethernet adapter, try it.
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ChrisL_1 Oct 8, 2014 8:14 AM
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Great suggestions I will try that! Thanks.
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allen.davis Oct 24, 2014 10:27 AM
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Only been testing for a day, but it appears that Yosemite may resolve the issue, without having to resort to USB-Ethernet adapters.

It is a highly frustrating problem.
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FMP, FMPA, FMPS 13, Mavericks and Macmini

Summary

Product

Version

Operating system version

Description of the issue

Steps to reproduce the problem

Expected result

Actual result

Exact text of any error message(s) that appear

Configuration information

Workaround

Outcomes

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