FlashComGuru.com - The Original Flash Video, Flash Media Server and Flash Platform Resource: Run FMS on your Mac (in Parallels)

Posted At : July 12, 2007 8:39 PM | Posted By : Stefan Richter | Related Categories: FMS

If you are like me and have slowly had enough of Vista then you may have purchased a Mac by now. I run Windows XP in Parallels on my Mac, largely due to the fact that Flash Media Server (FMS) is not available for Mac. Of course you can develop your apps on a Mac but you'd have to use a remote FMS server for testing. Not anymore.
Once you have installed Windows and FMS in Parallels you can do one of two things:
- configure your virtual machine to use Shared Networking, the default option. I pulled some of my hair out though because I could not connect to FMS from my Mac - until I disabled the XP firewall (do this at your own risk)
- use Bridged Networking in Parallels which puts both machines onto the same subnet. This turns the Parallels OS (XP in my case) into a machine that appears as standlone on the network, getting its IP via DHCP (from my router) just like any physical box. This is running sweet now. I also had to open port 1935 on the XP firewall (yes I had enabled it again, I'm good).

In fact the old PC of mine (running Vista) also got the treatment: I installed another copy of FMS on that one too and configured it as an Origin Server (which means I did not have to configure anything ;-)). The XP Virtual Machine on my Mac inside Parallels was set up as an FMS Edge server and whoppaaah, it works. I can connect to the Edge from anywhere on my home network and it successfully runs up the (small) chain to the Origin. Why I did this? Not sure, I'm probably mad but it helps me to get used to the whole Edge/Origin concept. It's pretty neat actually and I've also started configuring Suse Linux 10.2, again in Parallels. FMS seems to run fine on that. Anyone else out there with a similar setup? Thought not ;-)
I guess next I could try and map the FMS cache directory to my new NAS device, which would make it kinda like a mini Datacenter in rural England...

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Excuse me for the "stupid" question... can you set-up the developer edition to be used as origin-edge ? (speaking about architecture, not work load of course).

# Posted By Dario De Agostini | 7/13/07 2:18 PM

hi Dario,
this particuklar setup does not use the Dev Edition but I think yes, you can do it. I was running another setup the other day and I am almost certain it was using two Dev editions.
Best to just give it a shot I think. Let me know if you need help with the config.

# Posted By Stefan | 7/13/07 2:28 PM

Isn't FMS Java-based? You should try getting the linux version and running that under Mac, last time I used it, it was just some jar files and a script to launch them, which in theory should work on macs. It would save you the pain of loading up an emulator at least.

# Posted By davr | 7/13/07 4:15 PM

thanks, but FMS is not Java based. I think it's written in C++.

# Posted By Stefan | 7/13/07 4:29 PM

They must have rewritten it then, because we used to run FlashCom (the older version) and it was definitely java based

# Posted By davr | 7/13/07 4:36 PM

Forget Windows XP, hehe. I my FMS on a Centos VM through parallels

# Posted By Renaun Erickson | 7/13/07 4:54 PM

Flash Communication Server and Flash Media Server has always been C++. Certain competitive software is written in Java.

# Posted By Brad | 7/13/07 6:12 PM

by running the EMu and every thing under alot on resources ? (i am asking be i dont have a mac)
i must be old school i use my old stuff as servers then connect to that localy
any one else but me see a problem with precise mouse pointing under vista ?

# Posted By Eric Karz | 7/15/07 4:11 AM

hi, i can connect to fms on my parallel desktop (winxp) .. but seems like the admin console isnt logging the instance ..except the manual instantiation ...

# Posted By Joel | 9/5/07 5:49 AM

Macs seem to have had a huge market increase. I'd like to see FMS for the Unix underside of Mac. In the meantime, it looks like Parallels offers a great solution. Thanks.

Bill Sanders

# Posted By Bill Sanders | 6/3/08 1:49 PM

I am having trouble getting the admin console to connect to the default server [server 1] in parallels. It just hangs with a "connecting to server status". I am not sure why and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

# Posted By Bruce | 1/6/09 12:41 AM

My bad. I had to remove the http:// from the server address.

Can you tell me how you got past the "rejecting connection" for the localhost:8888 in the server log. I am putting localhost:8888 in the allowDomains files but it keeps rejecting. Wierd.

# Posted By Bruce | 1/6/09 5:07 AM

I can't remember using port 8888 - where is that needed?
Admin runs on port 1111

Regards,

Stefan

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 1/6/09 4:36 PM

I am running MAMP on the Mac, which runs off localhost:8888 and I run my FMS applications from there. The admin console keeps telling me "unknown url - rejecting connection".

# Posted By Bruce | 1/6/09 10:48 PM

it should not matter where the admin console's SWF is being served from, so MAMP should be fine. However the admin service itself will likely still run on 1111.
What are you entering in the server address field of the admin console?

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 1/7/09 9:53 AM

Hi,
The server address in the admin console was always the ip address (10.211.55.3) for parallels as I was running the admin from MAMP. So I ditched adding the localhost:8888 in the allowDomains text file and just stuck with the IP address as that obviously made more sense.

I tried a number of options with this ip address. http:// and just 10.211.55.3.

So this ended up working, but the funny thing is the ipconfig on my virtual windows is 10.211.55.3, but my Mac network settings tells me it is 10.211.55.2. In the fms admin console it tells me accepting connection from 10.211.55.2.

Strange but I am just happy to get it working.

Thanks for your help on this.

Regards Bruce

# Posted By Bruce | 1/8/09 11:04 PM

We've got FME up and running in parallels using the correct camera. HOWEVER.

When we try to connect to our server we keep getting a Primary Server connection error.

We've double checked the server URL and it is correct and works fine in a normal windows machine.

Also the internet is working correctly in parallels on the test mac.

We've tried in shared networking mode with firewall off and in bridged networking mode with firewall off.

Any ideas?
Thank you,
-Randall

# Posted By Randall | 3/11/09 3:05 PM

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