[FX.php List] one machine intallation

[Bob Patin]

My understanding is that FMI recommends splitting FMSA and WPE onto 2  
separate machines. I would guess that this has to do with spreading  
the load a bit; we've always done it that way here, putting WPE on  
the web server machine. However, I had a long conversation with  
another consultant the other day; he told me that they run WPE on the  
FMSA machine and have had great results.

I was about to buy a new FMSA machine, and was getting different  
opinions on machines, configurations, etc., so I finally went to the  
source and called a friend at FMI. Here's what he told me:

1) I asked about buying a quad-core Mac 2.66 to run FMSA, as opposed  
to the 1.8GHz Intel Mac we're using now. He said that what we're  
running now was plenty, and that we wouldn't notice any speed  
improvements on a 2.6 quad-core, since FMSA didn't use enough  
processing power to utilize the power of a 2.6 in such a way that  
we'd notice any difference.

So we decided to stick with our current machine for running FMSA for  
the present.

2) I asked about web servers; as I suspected, he confirmed that the  
speed bottleneck with FMSA and a web application is in WPE, where the  
PHP code is interpolated (not sure if that would be the correct term)  
into XML. So logically, the machine running WPE needs to be as fast  
as possible.

He also opined that the best place to put WPE is on the web server.  
This makes sense, since it leaves the FMSA machine free to deal  
solely with FileMaker tasks; since FMSA does all the number- 
crunching, as opposed to earlier versions of FM Server, it makes  
sense to leave it by itself to handle FileMaker-related tasks.

So we ordered a new quad-core Mac Pro for our web server, and will  
have 5GB of RAM on it; eventually I'll add a 2nd one for FMSA, but it  
sounds like the need is not so critical there as I'd originally been  
led to believe.

I'd be interested in hearing from others about this; I've gone round  
and round with a few others, all of whom giving me different  
opinions, but I *believe* this is the optimal setup for FMSA and a  
web server. The new Mac Pro will be here Thursday, so I'll be sure to  
report on the speed improvement.

Best,

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions
bob at longtermsolutions.com
615-333-6858
http://www.longtermsolutions.com

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On Apr 24, 2007, at 9:27 AM, Vision Computer Consulting wrote:

> What are the advantages/disadvantages to running WPE on the same  
> machine as Filemaker Server?
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