Hosting databases

Note The following information is for server administrators and group administrators.

Before you can share FileMaker Pro database files, it’s important to prepare the files for hosting. The steps below provide an overview of the process.

1. Edit the accounts and privileges sets that clients will use for shared access. See Editing accounts and privilege sets.

2. Upload the database files to FileMaker Server. See Uploading database files.

3. Verify the status of your files on the Activity > Databases tab, and verify that the files are available to FileMaker clients. See Verifying databases are available to FileMaker clients.

• FileMaker Server 15 supports these clients: FileMaker Pro 13, FileMaker Go 13, FileMaker Pro 14, FileMaker Go 14, FileMaker Pro 15, and FileMaker Go 15. Note that clients running FileMaker Pro 13 and 14 and FileMaker Go 13 and 14 cannot use FileMaker Pro 15 features.

• You must convert files created in FileMaker Pro 11 and earlier (.fp7 files) to the FileMaker Pro 12 format (.fmp12 files). See FileMaker Pro Help.

• If a hosted database is designed to access data from an external SQL data source, you must set up the same ODBC data source name (DSN) on the FileMaker Server master machine as was set up on the machine running FileMaker Pro when the database was created. See Accessing external ODBC data sources.

• If a hosted database uses plug-in files or you want to allow the Install Plug-In File script step to update server-side plug-in files, then you need to set the Server Plug-Ins settings. See Managing plug-ins.

• You cannot use peer-to-peer database hosting in FileMaker Pro on the same computer that FileMaker Server is running on.

• As FileMaker Server opens files that were not closed properly, FileMaker Server performs a consistency check on each file and logs the result of the check in the event log.

• Up to 125 FileMaker Pro database files can be hosted on FileMaker Server and automatically opened when FileMaker Server starts.

• If you are a group administrator, your server administrator must configure your administrator group to allow you to upload databases to your group folder. For more information, contact your server administrator.