Log in to create and rate content, and to follow, bookmark, and share content with other members. Not a member? Join Now!

FileMaker Server Helper quitting! Network initialization error. (CORBA::INITIALIZE)

Discussion created by duncanbaker on Oct 18, 2017
Latest reply on Dec 22, 2017 by PointInSpace

Like • Show 6 Likes6
Comment • 18

Posting this so that it may help others.

A client performed Windows updates on an AWS server running Windows 2012 R2 today and afterwards found that the FileMaker server would not start with the error: FileMaker Server Helper quitting! Network initialization error. (CORBA::INITIALIZE)

It turned out to be the SSL certificate that was preventing it from starting. Removing the file serverCustom.pem from here: C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\CStore allowed the service to start and access to the Admin Console was then possible.

After that I also removed serverKey.pem and serverRequest.pem. Then created a new SSL certificate request from within the Admin Console, re-keyed the SSL, reinstalled the re-keyed SSL and all seems well once again.

I can not explain why it happened but hopefully this helps anyone in a similar situation get back up and running quickly.

Outcomes

18 Replies

Avid1 Oct 20, 2017 10:50 AM
Started our AWS development server this AM and encountered the identical issue. Thanks for posting. You probably saved me some significant time trying to track the issue down.
Like • Show 1 Like1
Actions
planteg Oct 20, 2017 11:55 AM
Hi,

there is another post on the same subject Who can help with that error (CORBA::INITIALIZE)

I suggest to search the forum before creating a new post .
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc Nov 7, 2017 12:39 AM
Duncan,
Thanks for posting this. I ran across this same error ("FileMaker Server Helper quitting! Network initialization error. (CORBA::INITIALIZE)") recently, and your suggetion fixed my problem. When I removed the 'ServerCustom.pem' file from the "C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\CStore" directory ( I just moved it to another folder), and then restarted the server, everything appears to have correctly started up. There were no OS Event Viewer errors for that problem anymore, the FileMaker Server service started up, and my Admin console is live. Thanks!
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ justinc on Nov 27, 2017 12:11 PM
I had this problem crop up on a second server yesterday - I was doing OS Updates and after rebooting the machine the FMS Service failed to start with the error "FileMaker Server Helper quitting! Network initialization error. (CORBA::INITIALIZE)". Fortunately, I now knew what to do - remove the 'ServerCustom.pem' file from the CStore directory.

What I have done to return the system to SSL functionality is to re-issue the certificate from our provider and re-import that into FMS. This got the SSL functionality working again.

And now I have to do this on the second server, too. What's going on to cause this problem in the first place?
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
duncanbaker @ justinc on Nov 27, 2017 12:19 PM
My guess is that the OS updates that are being applied are changing the server significantly enough that the SSL is no longer valid for/applicable to the server that it was originally issued for. Might be something to do with cloud servers and how they handle this update. But, just a guess...
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ duncanbaker on Nov 29, 2017 8:57 AM
An interesting point. On the 2nd server I had this issue on, I might agree - the issue did crop up AFTER I installed some OS updates. But on the first server, I don't think that any OS Updates had been applied before this error happened. However, on 3 other servers that I also installed OS updates and rebooted, this certificate problem did not happen. So it couldn't have been due solely to the OS updates.

A bit of an update on my issues with the 2nd server: I was able to fix the certificate without having to go through the entire re-issue process from the certificate authority. I re-used the certificate for this machine from a bundle that I created 6 months ago. I did happen to remember the PW used to encrypt the original request, though.

So to fix the 2nd machine I removed the existing (now bad) certificate and reimported the certificate from the original bundle. This saves time (and perhaps problems) with having to go through the CSR and CA re-issuing a bundle process. (The possible problems I forsee is that to re-issue the bundle, at least with GoDaddy, they will revoke an existing certificate. This may not be a problem if the certificate is only used on one machine, but what about a wildcard cert? Would every machine on that domain that was using the same/original certificate then have to ALSO reimport the new certificate?)
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
PointInSpace Dec 21, 2017 5:02 AM
Just had another case of this occur, just on restart of a VM. Removing the serverCustom.pem file, or even reverting to the original CStore folder from initial install, does not allow FileMaker Server to startup still. Time for another uninstall/reinstall.

Please help us understand what is going on here FileMaker. This time this was on a v14 server, so it doesn't seem to be related to the version. I'm guessing maybe something related to the TLS 1.2 stuff that's going on?

- John
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
PointInSpace @ PointInSpace on Dec 21, 2017 5:28 AM
Just to follow this up... On reinstall, I was able to just copy the CStore directory from the old installation to the new one, and the server started up fine. This tells me the issue is *not* a corrupted certificate file, but rather something going wrong with FileMaker Server itself, probably with a config file somewhere. If we knew which config file to wipe, etc. it would make fixing this problem a lot quicker than having to uninstall/reinstall.

- John
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
duncanbaker @ PointInSpace on Dec 21, 2017 5:32 AM
TSGal - do you have any info on this issue? Thanks.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
TSGal @ duncanbaker on Dec 21, 2017 9:29 AM
duncanbaker (et al):

Thank you for your posts.

Looking through the reported issues, this error message usually occurs when a custom/wildcard certificate cannot be read properly from the serverCustom.pem file..

What certificate is installed?

What version of FileMaker Server are you using?

TSGal
FileMaker, Inc.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
duncanbaker @ TSGal on Dec 21, 2017 9:56 AM
Mine was FMS15 running on Windows Server 2012 R2. It had a GoDaddy certificate installed. To be clear it was running fine for months and then a Windows update and reboot resulted in the service not starting and the fix for that as noted in the original post.
1 person found this helpful
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
PointInSpace @ TSGal on Dec 21, 2017 10:00 AM
Not the case here, as stated in my previous post. Reinstalling and then copying back in the *existing* CStore directory gets it working again.

We've seen this happen with both Server 14 and 16 on OS X/MacOS.

- John
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ PointInSpace on Dec 21, 2017 3:34 PM
John,
Can you clarify what it is/was you uninstalled and reinstalled? Was it FMS itself, or just the certificate?
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ TSGal on Dec 21, 2017 3:43 PM
TSGal,
I had run across this issue on two machines. Both machines were successfully and happily running using SSL until a reboot of the machine occurred. Upon rebooting, things failed to start. There were no changes being made to FMS itself at this time.

FMS 15.03 (both machines)
Certificate: 1 machine had a wildcard cert from GoDaddy, the other machine had a full domain name cert from GoDaddy
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
PointInSpace @ justinc on Dec 21, 2017 6:41 PM
I uninstalled/reinstalled FileMaker Server in its entirety. I preserved the CStore directory from the problem install, then put that folder back in after reinstalling and it worked fine. Eg: files in the CStore directory are *not* causing this problem.

- John
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ PointInSpace on Dec 22, 2017 10:56 AM
Interesting. In one of my instances I was able to simply reinstall the SSL certificate and get things working again. Although others have reported that this didn't work for them. YMMV.

* I manually removed the files from the CStore directory. (I think you could achieve the same thing with the Admin Console's 'Start Over' button, which is in the 'Create Request' pop-up. But I haven't tested that.)
* Enable the 'Import Cert' button: I went through the 'Create CSR' process before it showed as enabled, but I also checked off the "Use SSL for database connections" setting at the same time - so I'm not exactly sure which one enables the button.
* 'Import Cert': I used the same certificate files that had been downloaded from our Authority 6 months before this problem showed up. So I didn't regenerate the bundle from the Authority with a new CSR.

But my process sounds a bit different from what you described - I was using the Admin Console's functions to copy/install the various files, whereas it sounds like you used the OS filesystem to copy various files to the CStore directory. I don't know exactly what other files those functions are affecting in the background. But this worked for me and is quite a bit simpler than reinstalling FMS. Is it also possible that FMS changes at least 1 of those files being imported, in some manner, so that simply copying them from an old installation wouldn't work? I haven't compared my original bundle files to the files that are currently in the CStore directory to see if anything is different.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
justinc @ justinc on Dec 22, 2017 11:12 AM
I did go back and compare the various files. The new ones all appeared to be identical to the ones I copied to a backup location before starting this process. So...it doesn't appear that FMS is changing these files as it installs them each time, at least not in a manner that creates different results.

certifiedroot.pem
root.pem
server.pem
serverCustom.pem
serverKey.pem

So there must be some other file or setting that gets updated or reset during this process.
1 person found this helpful
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
PointInSpace @ justinc on Dec 22, 2017 11:40 AM
We're not able to get the server to start back up, even with swapping the original CStore directory back in (eg: no SSL cert, as installed stock with FMS), so can't try this method. Weird.

- John
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions

FileMaker Server Helper quitting! Network initialization error. (CORBA::INITIALIZE)

Outcomes

Related Content

Recommended Content