There are several options when it comes to hosting your iPoint file. If you will be purchasing a new server, we have already done the hard part and found one for you at an affordable price! However, if you already have a server, you will need to ensure it meets or exceeds our minimum requirements.
Click Here to View Servers that Meet our Specs**
System and Hardware Requirements
iPoint is a cloud-based office management system providing access to all your company’s information wherever you have an internet connection.
Server Requirements. All of your data will be hosted on your server, which stores all the data, media, and other files needed for your users to access your company’s information.
iPoint is based on the FileMaker Pro platform and has precise server operating system requirements.
Server Hardware Requirements
- Processor: 3.5 GHz or greater (4.6GHz or higher recommended) – base speed can be lower, this is the boosted max speed of the processor
- iPoint runs single-threaded processes which means that the number of cores is immaterial. Each call to the server will use one core, and the faster the CPU, the faster that process can complete. Multiple cores are helpful because the computer can run multiple processes simultaneously, but speed is more important.
- RAM: 16 GB minimum, 32 GB or higher recommended
- SSD: 1 SSD hard drive of 256GB or larger for the database as frequent reads and writes are made to the hard drive
- 2nd drive: any type SSD or HDD (recommend 1TB or larger) for larger files and images placed in the database and backup storage
Battery Backup
You should connect your server to a battery backup. Power surges and outages are one of the biggest culprits creating data corruption. A battery backup is intended to provide enough power to safely shut down the server during a power outage. It is not designed to provide power to the server through a multi-hour blackout. Properly configured, the iPoint database will be closed correctly and the server shut down helping avoid damaged data.
Data Backup
It goes without saying that backing up your data is a critical task that many of us neglect. We’ll say, “I’ll get around to it someday.” And “someday” is usually the day after your hard drive crashes!
We strongly encourage you to backup your data on a regular basis. There are a number of cloud-based backup solutions that can automate the process so you don’t have to worry about it. Just be sure you check it on a regular basis to ensure that the backups are working correctly.
Part of your monthly fee to iPoint includes a backup of your iPoint data on the server. So, we provide some redundancy to your data backup plan. After all, you can never have too many backups! But please understand that all we are backing up is the iPoint data. If you want anything else backed up, you’ll need to make arrangements to do that on your own.
iPoint Files to Back Up
The files you’ll want are backups of the iPoint file (will be an .fmp12 file) and the Containers files (item images, custom template graphics, docs, media, any where in iPoint you can drag a file in). They are listed below.
The Most Important folders to Back Up:
- C > FMS > Back Ups > Online
- D > FMS > Containers
- If you don’t have D drive, the Containers folder should be in the C drive or another secondary drive.
Additional Back Up folders you may choose to add for extra protection
- D> FMS > Back Ups>Daily
- D> FMS > Back Ups>Weekly
DO NOT BACKUP
- C > FMS > Database Files
- This is where you’re live iPoint file lives and backing that up can cause issues
- D > FMS > Backups > Progressives
- These are backups taken every 5 minutes. The reason to not back these up offsite is that it takes time to backup a file (often more than 5 minutes) and so your machine would always be
backing up and you would see performance degradation in iPoint.
Supported Server Operating Systems
- Windows 10
- Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
- Windows Server 2012 Essentials (if not using any of the Essentials roles or features)
- Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition (with Desktop Experience)
- Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition (with Desktop Experience)
- Server Small Business Edition
Not Supported Server Operating Systems
The following operating systems are NOT compatible with the FileMaker Server: (does not apply to users computer)
- Windows 8
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista
- OS X
- Server 2012 (without R2)
- Server 2012 Essentials (if using any of the Essentials roles or features)
Virtual Machine
Using a virtual machine is not recommended, but is acceptable so long as BOTH the physical server AND the allocated resources of the virtual machine meet the requirements of the iPoint server. However, most virtual machines are based on a physical server that is far below our minimum specifications and should not be used for iPoint
Raid
Raid Arrays are fully supported so long as you are able to manage the array. Unfortunately, iPoint provides no support for raid management.
Most iPoint servers do not have raid arrays, and we have a neutral stance on them so long as you are capable of managing them.