I'm just doing an informal poll wondering how many folks here actively use FMS, what you use it for (generically, nothing private or personal of course), and what your user license count is (a 5 user license, etc.)?
The FMP topics always seem to outnumber the FMS topics, but since FMP runs in FMS, that FMP topic count probably isn't a reliable metric.
Thanks.
MBS Plugin is used on hundreds of servers. 
But what do you want to know?
I typically don't do any kind of development unless the file is hosted on FMS. The FDS subscription gives you one for $99 so there is really no reason not to use one.
We also NEVER deploy any client stuff on peer-to-peer. If the client cannot afford the basic 5-user license (that includes the use of 3 FMSes) @ $900 then it clearly isn't a project worth considering getting into.
So all the clients have FMSes too, usually at least one, given that the licensing allows for more we tend to split off the dev and testing on a separate one.
We do our own hosting with soliant.cloud so there is very little friction if the client doesn't want to maintain infrastructure, or if we need a short-lived server during dev/testing.
Even here in my home office I have more than five FMSes running, anything from 16 through 19, both macOS and Windows plus I have a few on AWS (including the Linux one). For me that's all the cost of doing business and provides me with sufficient sandboxes to hone my skills.
A solid deployment is the cornerstone of giving the client the true value of what you developed for them
As much as possible, I do have my files/db's on a FMS. I'm running about 6 MacMini in my office, all FMS, different versions (I got a site license..) and some on a VM
When doing FMGo development (solution local, not hosted), I'm working locally because it's faster to copy a solution on a iPhone...).
Most of the customer solutions are running on FMS
I use FMS all the time
for inhouse development although I only have 4 FMS running here
for multiuser setup always FMS, no peer-to-peer stuff
and try to set up FMS test instances, sometimes on one of my own macminis, for customers in their rack
so my take is: FMS is rather stable and not very complicated to set up, not many complaints there
We currently have 5 FMS set up ( 2 dev servers, 3 production ). 100-ish users. When I first started with FileMaker, we used Peer-to-peer for 3 users. It was ok, until we moved to using FMS. Things were so much easier, and less stressful.
I have 3 FMS setup at home also. I only do dev on FMS, never locally. If that file crashes, you risk corruption. In 13 years using FMS, never had a file get damaged ( except once, but that was for a different reason ).
How do you set up an FMS at home? On a VM? Do you just use development licenses (FDS) at home or full-blown licensed versions?
Thanks,
I'm lucky - our office is in our house, therefore I only got office installations (on the other hand, I'm at the office almost all the time...)
I have one FMS on a parallels VM running, that's the one on CentOS, for internal use, testbench. Takes not much resources, runs a couple of days 24h - cool
You use a five user license or FDS?
I have a few machines running ( 2x Mac Mini and a Mac Pro with VMs running ). FMS 16, 18, 19.
A couple of them are FDS. A few of them are part of our site license, since I use them for testing for work.
Interesting. Thanks.
Physical and VMs.
I run the free VMware ESXi on an old Mac Pro and it runs a few Windows servers (I use the MS Action Pack for the licensing there). Plus I have about 6 Mac Minis. On my list is to replace some of the older ones (2011/2012 models) with off-lease Dell servers.
Plus the AWS instances of course.
Both.
it's no VM here, only a macmini farming
licenses vary/both types in use
Everything runs on FMS except ad-hoc stuff.
The clients that do not use FMP are self-employed, DIY types that call twice per annum.
We use FDS FMS for development. About 67% of our clients use FMS for production. Our FMS is on a colocated server. All but one of our clients' servers are in their IT infrastructure. Some are in virtual machines. Some are on computers. The lone standout deployed a server in FileMaker v1 cloud. It will eventually be brought in-house – v2 cloud is unsuitable for their needs.
Nice.
Everything is hosted on FMS. Even new databases I try to host as soon as possible. I also run FMS at home and find all kinds of things to uses, confirming my girlfriends opinion that there is something wrong with me. I justified the purchases by considering its use training for work. The home version was purchased before they adjusted there perpetual licenses with more then one FMS copy.
All of our clients run FMS with a perpetual license. Most of them have it running on a virtual machine.
My main problem with it is the “named user” license restriction. I can live with “x” users allowed at one time but not with a particular set of users each who must have a license.
If I’m confused please help. 
The funny part about that whole discussion, is that is how it used to be... and there were massive numbers of complaints about it. This licensing is "simpler". But there are still options... Team, Concurrency, Site, AVL, Perpetual with maintenance. They have a number of tools at their disposal.
It’s not funny though that a concurrent license for a mere 5 connections is $ 2,700! How much more would a perpetual license be on top is that?