Fixing Apache after Upgrade to FMS9
From FMWebschool Reference
It has been brought to our attention that many uninstallations/upgrades of FileMaker Server 8 and upgrades to FileMaker Server 9 have left installations of Apache broken and unable to work with any FileMaker Server 9 web publishing technology.
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Symptoms
- Accessing the http://127.0.0.1/ address results in a "Unable to connect to server" or "unable to resolve host name" errors
- Apache does not start
- Personal Web Sharing does not start
- Apache fails to start with a syntax error in its configuration files
- Apache fails to start with a fread / file not found error in its configuration files
Verifying the Problem (perform this test first)
This is a test that attempts to restart your Apache and allows you to see what errors are present in the startup process.
- Open the Terminal Application
- Enter "sudo apachectl restart"
- You will be asked for your password, enter it for the current user
- Apache will attempt to stop itself (most often saying no running instances found) and then start itself
- Starting Apache should fail with errors that possible reference the FileMaker file paths
Alternatively you can run "sudo apachectl configtest" which might give more debugging information about the configuration issues within the Apache files.
If Apache has been started successfully and accessing http://127.0.0.1/ brings up the Apache home page, then this error does not apply to you. However if your web publishing engine does not seem to be running properly, try running through the steps in the end of this tutorial for "Deploying FileMaker Server 9 Web Publishing Engine"
Fixing the Configuration Files
To fix the configuration files you have to remove a few FileMaker related lines from a hidden protected configuration file.
The following steps are best performed using the free TextWrangler text editor or the BBEdit text editor. Both of them are available from Bare Bones Software.
Fixing the Configuration Files:
- Open TextWrangler or BBEdit
- Use the File->Open Hidden menu item
- Browse to the root of your hard drive and find the hidden "etc" folder
- Within the "etc" folder open the "httpd" folder
- Find "httpd.conf" in this folder and open it
- Scroll to the very last few lines and find a number of references to "Include '/Library/FileMaker Server/..."
- Add a '#' symbol to each of those include lines so they should start with "#Include '/Library/FileMaker..."
- Save the file, entering your password when prompted
Now attempt to restart Apache again:
- Open the Terminal Application
- Enter "sudo apachectl restart"
- You will be asked for your password, enter it for the current user
- Apache will attempt to stop itself (most often saying no running instances found) and then start itself
- This time Apache should start successfully
- Browse to http://127.0.0.1/ to see the Apache home page (or the home page of your previously running application)
Now that Apache is running, it is time to deploy your FileMaker Server 9 web publishing engine.
Deploying FileMaker Server 9 Web Publishing Engine
After you have your FileMaker Server 9 installed it is time to deploy the web publishing engine into your running Apache server. This process takes only a few minutes after which you should have once again access to your favorite web publishing technologies - be it IWP, XSLT, or CWP.
- Connect to your FileMaker Server 9 Administration Console
- Go into the web publishing section
- For PHP web publishing make sure to turn on the XML and PHP options
- At the top of this screen you should find a server status area which will tell you that the server is not yet deployed/connected
- Click in that area to edit the status and deploy the server. Make sure to enable both XML and PHP web publishing options if you intend to web publishing with PHP
- Once the deployment process has been completed your server should be working again
- If any issues are encountered try another Apache restart in case the deployment wizard has not restarted it properly
