Hello everyone. The solution I develop and maintain is currently behind our firewall and not accessible from the internet without logging in to our VPN. I am now adding shared, read-only calendars using Subscribe. With our solution not accessible from the internet, it looks like I need to move the Dates table out of the database and create a new Dates database. At this point I plan to keep the supplemental date data that we record like the date history (every date change is logged) in the main file.

So, do I need two actual server machines and two server licenses, one for the main solution behind the firewall and the other for the internet-accessible Dates database used by Subscribe? It seems like I do. I'm assuming there's no way to restrict access to databases hosted on the server by IP range or based on whether access is coming from the local network/VPN or the internet?

I'd appreciate any guidance. Thanks!

Hi,

Well you can install the SeedCode Subscribe engine on a different server than on your FileMaker Server. More on this here: http://www.seedcode.com/pmwiki/index.ph ... eployments

Once that's done, the communication between this new "subscribe" server and your FileMaker Server would be the only traffic inbound to FIleMaker Server you'd need to whitelist.

=)

Hi John. Thanks for the response! A few more questions...

Given the requirements I outlined, how would you set up Subscribe? They want the Filemaker server to stay behind the firewall and only be accessible when connected via VPN if you're not on the local network. Is a second machine (for the Subscribe Engine) required in such a scenario?

If the Subscribe Engine is running on a second machine that is accessible from the internet, will Google Calendar still work, assuming the Subscribe Setup database is open on the Filemaker server?

If I understand your explanation correctly, I install the Subscribe Engine on a second machine that is reachable from the internet. I edit the "configuration.ini" file and point it .to the Filemaker server's local IP (ie: 192.xxx). Is that correct?

Thanks again!

> Is a second machine (for the Subscribe Engine) required in such a scenario?

Yes, unless you want to open up the machine FMS is on.

> If the Subscribe Engine is running on a second machine that is accessible from the internet, will Google Calendar still work, assuming the Subscribe Setup database is open on the Filemaker server?

Yes.

> If I understand your explanation correctly, I install the Subscribe Engine on a second machine that is reachable from the internet. I edit the "configuration.ini" file and point it .to the Filemaker server's local IP (ie: 192.xxx). Is that correct?

Yes, but I don't know if you'd use your 192.xxx address or not. For example, you may have your second machine (the Subscribe Engine machine) on a completely different subnet and whitelist that machine (and only that machine) to talk to FMS. That's up to you and your network people--we're really not server experts here. But you're right that if your Subscribe machine was on the same local network as your FMS machine it could likely use its local IP.

Thanks John! I think that's everything we need to know!