Some experience from FileMaker Server 9 to 10:
- Get an FMS 9 installer so it can be uninstalled before installing FMS 10.
- Be prepared to re-set ownership of your “use additional database folder”.
The FMS 10 installer refuses to run if it finds an older FMS installation, so you must uninstall as the second step (the first step is “total backup”, including making notes of your FM server settings.) The FileMaker installer is also the uninstaller, so just downloading one from the FileMaker website is enough. Thankfully, the installer does not need a serial number to function as an uninstaller.
The uninstall process does delete things from the “/Library/FileMaker Server/” folder but it appeared to leave the databases and logs. (Don’t trust this statement. Do the backups.) However, it did lose all the settings.
So, after installing FMS-10, we had reset things, including “use additional database folder”. This one gave us trouble for a few minutes. The specification was correctly formed, but not accepted.
The problem was that the folder (and sub-folders) that we wanted to use all had user and group # 305 now. There were no names. Best guess is the uninstall process removed the fmserver user and fmsadmin group and the FMS 10 install process created new ones with new numbers. The files and folders in /Library were set properly, but the installer did nothing for the additional folder.
A quick terminal run with “sudo chown -Rv fmserver:fmsadmin <additional_folder>” changed them all back. The “use additional database folder” option showed a properly validated folder on the next try.