We have been running FMS 5.5 on Win2000 server for 3 years,
without problems. Server has crashed only 4 times before this year.
But now it has been crashing more that 20 times in two months!

We haven't found any reason for crashes. Error in event viewer
system log is always same: FMS service terminated unexpectedly.
There is never any logmessages just before crash, only normal
stuff in all logs. We haven't installed any new software, hardware
or updates before this problem. Not even made any changes in
our FM application recently.

We have run diagnostics for all hardware and they aren't failing.
There is no performance issues, hardware is quite heavy: Xeon 2.8Ghz
with 4Gb ram and 2x73Gb SCSI disks. Performance meters showing
cpu and memory usage are 20-30%, never over 70%.

Application is (big?) 31 files 1.5Gb. Biggest file is 610Mb
with 300000 records and more than 100 fields and scripts.
Maximum user amount is 90, usually between 60-80.

System is crashing most often in afternoon, but also on the morning,
never during night or backupschedule. When it is crashing there can
be 80 users or only 30 users.

We are never using recovered files and also have tried with files
that were running nicely one year ago and tried with reduced record 
amount. No help, still crashing.

Any ideas or thing that I should try?

I just have a standard viewpoint on that and I say it, while I am pretty 
sure you already did it :

- use FMS to make an instant backup and put all existing DB backups in a 
safe place outside the PC : another hard disk ?
- close the FMS Service and close the PC then boot on the original CD.
- suppress the 'c:' partition, and re-create it.
- reinstall W2KServer on c:. It will first reformat c:.
- once done, reinstall FMS55.
- put back your backed-up database in the FMS folder as usual.
- put the FMS Service back on and re-do the automatic backup schedules.
- try it ...

You could also first find a PC XP Pro and install FMS in it and your DB 
backup, after disconnecting the W2KServerPC from the network. Of course it 
will limit the number of users to 25 (I guess), but it will tell you 
something. If then there is anything that goes wrong it must come from some 
corrupted files.

So if you can't locate the faulty one(s), the painful solution is to make 
clones of all the files, and export all records from all the files, then 
import the 'exported' records into each appropriate clone. While such an 
operation may take you days... it recreates all indexes.

The logic says that something goes wrong (I feel stupid in saying that !) 
and that it can be the ServerPC hardware, the W2KServer OS, the FMS or the 
database files themselves.
Then the actions to be taken are to go step by step to be sure of each 
component and start with a safe base. With what is said above - while pretty 
obvious (but I just repeat it because I suppose there are some tension 
around in your shop) - you check the hardware by taking another one, then 
the Server hard disk by reformating it (as this will mark the bad clusters - 
you may even do that several times in a row, and count the bad clusters : if 
the number of them is not the same or more if it increases then you throw 
away that hard disk and put a brand new one -), then Win2K OS and FMS as 
such, then the files themselves.

You may even do most of those things simultaneously in order to save elapsed 
time.

I assure you I am with you wholeheartedly.
Please keep us posted.
Remi-Noel

"mite" <mite_POISTA_@mail.suomi.net> a �crit dans le message de news: 
IArWf.236$%J7.145@reader1.news.jippii.net...
> We have been running FMS 5.5 on Win2000 server for 3 years,
> without problems. Server has crashed only 4 times before this year.
> But now it has been crashing more that 20 times in two months!
>
> We haven't found any reason for crashes. Error in event viewer
> system log is always same: FMS service terminated unexpectedly.
> There is never any logmessages just before crash, only normal
> stuff in all logs. We haven't installed any new software, hardware
> or updates before this problem. Not even made any changes in
> our FM application recently.
>
> We have run diagnostics for all hardware and they aren't failing.
> There is no performance issues, hardware is quite heavy: Xeon 2.8Ghz
> with 4Gb ram and 2x73Gb SCSI disks. Performance meters showing
> cpu and memory usage are 20-30%, never over 70%.
>
> Application is (big?) 31 files 1.5Gb. Biggest file is 610Mb
> with 300000 records and more than 100 fields and scripts.
> Maximum user amount is 90, usually between 60-80.
>
> System is crashing most often in afternoon, but also on the morning,
> never during night or backupschedule. When it is crashing there can
> be 80 users or only 30 users.
>
> We are never using recovered files and also have tried with files
> that were running nicely one year ago and tried with reduced record 
> amount. No help, still crashing.
>
> Any ideas or thing that I should try? 

I first thought you might have reached a boundary error. Exceeded some 
filesize, but after some research my conclusion is that al the numbers you 
give are within normal use.  So I'm now suspecting some hardware failure, 
although I must admit I hve no idea where to start. To be complete I hereby 
copy the complete listing of the technical specs of Filemaker 5.5

Ursus

APPLICABLE TO
FileMaker Pro 5.5

.. File size: Limited only by disk space, to a maximum of 2 GB (gigabytes) on 
a hard disk.
.. Number of files per disk: Limited only by disk space.
.. Number of files open simultaneously: Up to 50 files.
.. Number of network users per file: Maximum of 25 guests (other network 
applications may limit this number).
Please Note: FileMaker Pro supports sharing of up to 10 files with up to 10 
concurrent users. In certain instances, you can share a single FileMaker Pro 
file with up to 25 other concurrent users, with this number dropping as you 
share more files.

.. Number of users via a Web browser: Access to web-published database is 
limited to 10 IP addresses per 12 hour period.
.. Number of records per file: Limited only by disk space or maximum file 
size.
.. Maximum record size: Limited by disk space or maximum file size.
.. Number of fields per record: Approximately 5,900; may be more or less 
depending on length of field names
.. Number of relationships per file: Limited only by disk space or maximum 
file size.
.. Length of field name: Up to 60 characters (60 bytes)
.. Field types: Text, Number, Date, Time, Container (for OLE objects, sound, 
picture, or movie), Summary, and Global
.. Serial number options: Maximum is 2 billion (ie from 1 to 2147483647) 
numbers only. If alpha numeric the rightmost characters that are numbers are 
incremented.

Maximum field size, by type:
.. Text: Number of characters limited only by memory (Up to 64,000 
characters).
.. Number: Up to 255 characters per field. The first 120 characters are 
indexed.
.. Date: Up to 255 characters per field, usually fewer are needed.
.. Time: Up to 255 characters per field, usually fewer are needed.
.. Calculation: Depends on result type.
.. Summary: Depends on result type.

.. Number of field repetitions (sub records): Up to 1,000 for each field.

.. Indexed (key) fields per file: Any field may be specified to index as an 
option, except: Container, Summary, Global, or unstored Calculation fields.

.. Number of sort levels: No limit.

.. Size of calculation formula: Maximum of 30,000 characters, including text 
and numbers, any referenced fields, operators, functions and parentheses.

.. Calculation operators: =, [ �, �, �, Mac OS only], <>, >, <, >=, <=, AND, 
OR, NOT, XOR, (, ), +, -, /, *, ^, � (paragraph), " " (text literal), & 
(concatenation).

.. Number of calculation functions: 97 (115 in double byte application), 47 
Status Functions
Text, Number, Date, Time, Aggregate, Summary, Repeating, Financial, and 
Trigonometric, Logical, Status, and Design functions.

.. Number of summary functions: 12

.. Numeric range and precision: Number fields can contain up to 255 
characters including text. Only the first 120 numeric characters are 
indexed.

.. All numbers are converted to 64 bit extended floating point with precision 
of 15 digits including both before and after decimal positions.

.. Date range: Up to 255 characters in the format specified in the Date and 
Time control panel.

.. Time range: Times are not limited to 24-hour format to allow for 
calculations spanning multiple days. If the minutes or seconds exceed 60, 
the excess is carried over to minutes or hours as appropriate.

.. Number of layouts per file: Limited by disk space or maximum file size.

.. Layout size: Up to 110 inches wide by 110 inches long; may be limited by 
currently selected printer and page setup. Objects beyond current page width 
do not print.

.. Number of layout objects: Maximum of 32,767 objects on each layout.
.. Number of scripts: Limited by disk space. Displayed in Scripts menu: 512 
on Windows, 32,767 on Mac OS.
.. Number of columns across the page: Up to 99 columns.
.. Number of labels across the page: Up to 99 labels.