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Installing OttoFMS

Preflight Checklist

Before you begin, confirm the following:

  • FileMaker Server is installed and running on your server
  • You have Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for your server and a valid SSL certificate. The Claris default self signed cert is not sufficient for OttoFMS to work.
  • Your server machine meets the minimum requirements to run OttoFMS
  • You have administrator rights to your server
  • You can access the FileMaker Server Admin Console
  • You have your free OttoFMS license key. If you have multiple servers, you can use the same license key on all of them.
  • You can access the OttoFMS license server at https://edd-sl-proxy.geistgate.com using a web browser within your network. If you get a time-out error or you get a blank page, you may need to modify your firewall or network access rules to allow access.
  • The FileMaker Server default backup folder has the proper permissions. The fmserver user should have read and write permissions on the backup folder and all subfolders.

OttoFMS expects FileMaker Server to be running with the default fmserver user and fmsadmin group privileges. This is set during FileMaker Server installation. It is very rarely changed, but if you did change it, OttoFMS will not install correctly.

Select your operating system for specific installation instructions:

Additional preflight checks for Linux:
Make sure your server has a swap file configured for additional virtual memory.

Option 1: Install using our install script

We have set up a hosted install script that you can run on your server to install OttoFMS. This script can also be used to update to a different version of OttoFMS later.

To run, simply copy and paste the following command into your terminal:

sudo curl -sSL "https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-linux.sh" | bash

If you'd like to install a specific version of OttoFMS, you can specify the version number as a parameter:

sudo curl -sSL "https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-linux.sh" | bash -s -- -v 4.1.0

Option 2: Manual Install

SSH into your Linux Server

Add installer to Server via FTP or SFTP

The download package you receive is a zip file, unzip it for the actual installer

cd to the directory containing the downloaded installer file

Run the installer via command line

sudo apt -y install ./ottofms-app_|version|_amd64.deb

For example:

sudo apt -y install ./ottofms-app_1.0.0_amd64.deb

OttoFMS DOES support Windows servers running NGINX with FileMaker Server version 21.1 or later.

Option 1: Install using our install script

We have set up a hosted install script that you can run on your server to install OttoFMS. This script can also be used to update to a different version of OttoFMS later.

To run, simply copy and paste the following command into PowerShell. Make sure to run it as Administrator:

iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-win.ps1'))

If you'd like to install a specific version of OttoFMS, you can specify the version number as a parameter:

$OttoFMSInstallVersion = "4.1.0"
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-win.ps1'))

Option 2: Manual Install

Download the OttoFMS Installer file

The download package you receive is a zip file, unzip it for the actual Installer

  • If you are installing on a server on a different machine, we advise moving the zip folder to the server before unzipping to save bandwidth and avoid issues with how the installer is handled by the transfer

Follow the steps in the installation wizard

When installing on Windows, you may see a Windows Defender error, this can be bypassed safely

If you are using macOS and you have second disk setup as the default backup, please read this article before installing OttoFMS.

Option 1: Install using our install script

We have set up a hosted install script that you can run on your server to install OttoFMS. This script can also be used to update to a different version of OttoFMS later.

To run, simply copy and paste the following command into your terminal:

sudo curl -sSL "https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-mac.sh" | bash

If you'd like to install a specific version of OttoFMS, you can specify the version number as a parameter:

sudo curl -sSL "https://downloads.ottomatic.cloud/ottofms/install-scripts/install-mac.sh" | bash -s -- -v 4.1.0

Option 2: Manual Install

Download the OttoFMS Installer file

The download package you receive is a zip file, unzip it for the actual Installer

  • If you are installing on a server on a different machine, we advise moving the zip folder to the server before unzipping to save bandwidth and avoid issues with how the installer is handled by the transfer

Follow the steps in the installation wizard

Verify Full Disk Access

OttoFMS on Mac needs Full Disk access to work properly. This should be taken care of by the installation guide, but now is a great place to double-check!

Follow this guide to verify that OttoFMS has Full Disk Access. If you find that you had to manually enable it, be sure to restart OttoFMS after turning it on for this to take effect.

Post-Installation Setup

Open the OttoFMS Web Console

Open your browser and enter https://[host].com/otto/, where [host] is the fully qualified domain name of your FileMaker Server machine.

Don't forget the trailing slash after /otto/!

Page not loading? Check out the troubleshooting guide

Enter your license key

Your license key was displayed on the same page as the download links for OttoFMS. It will also be sent to you via email.

Login to the OttoFMS Web Console

Use the same credentials as you would for the FileMaker Server Admin Console.

OttoFMS is most useful when installed on multiple servers! Repeat the installation process for each of your FileMaker servers before continuing.

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