[FX.php List] [OFF] FMS13 & SSL?

[Bob Patin]

We started with CDML, where you *had to* use FileMaker Server and then one or more slaves running FM Pro Unlimited; the web server was yet another machine, so back in those days a web app would involve 5 machines in our network (1 FM Server, 1 web server, 3 FM Pro Unlimited machines).

Then when we started hosting PHP sites, we used 2-machine configs all the time; at some point I started trying out single-machine configs, and found it to work really well for lots of cases. 

Now, with FMS 13 and its unwillingness to play well with OS X Server, I’ve set up some FMS 13 servers as single-machine installs with lots of RAM, and then have a web server that I use to point to whichever FMS 13 server it needs. The benefit of this setup is that if there should be a failure on the FMS 13 machine, I could put the database up on another machine, change the IP address in my web app, and be back in business in 2 minutes.

I agree with Bev’s comment about single point of failure; having maintained a network now for about 16 years, I much prefer dealing with a single machine than with pairs. My latest thought on this is to spread clients out among lots of machines, rather than using 2-machine configs; if a client’s web app is doing tons of traffic, I try to put him on a site with web apps that have scant traffic, to balance things out. Fortunately these days, we have huge bandwidth so the issue now comes down to the machines themselves.

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions
bob at longtermsolutions.com
615-333-6858
FileMaker 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 Certified Developer
http://www.longtermsolutions.com
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