Sean,

> Wouldn't that introduce issues of data consistency?

Yes, this would open up the possibility of some consistency issues.

Our existing system as implemented has the exact same issues, just we are
having to deal with the complexity rather than being able to rely on the
database to handle it for us. It's really not bad since no other application
or program access those files (other than backing them up and flipping the
archive bit).

I think it should at least be documented that those files are not meant to
be altered through any other means than the database's mechanisms. I think
it would be going too far to try and setup a security mechanism that
restricted access to all files in a folder to a particular process (e.g.
InterBase), wouldn't it? Perhaps it could be done but that would be an OS
thing and not a database thing.

> The external blob files could be changed/deleted outside of IB (never
> mind any transaction), therefore doesn't that defeat the whole purpose
> of having a transactional based SQL DB?

I'm only recognizing a problem that I am facing with some of our apps here
at the state. I have no intention of modifying those files through any other
access method so this isn't an issue to me. I'm confident that InterBase
could extend its transactional capabilities to those files sitting external
to the GDB. It does it for the contents of secondary database files...

For that matter, a hacker could open up a GDB file and write a few bytes at
random into the database, that too would defeat most any transactional SQL
DB. <g>

> [It seems that we are "arguing" about everything tonight.]

All in good fun. I never mind when someone disagrees with me if they
simultaneously demonstrate that they understand what I'm saying too. Your
points are good ones. Keep it coming.

I really don't mind if this suggestion gets totally shot down either. We've
got a working solution and are quite happy with things as-is.

Regards,
Jason Wharton
CPS - Mesa AZ
http://www.ibobjects.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leyne, Sean" <InterbaseArchitecture@...>
To: <IB-Architect@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 6:42 PM
Subject: RE: [IB-Architect] External file handling


> Jason
>
>
>
> Sean
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jason Wharton [mailto:jwharton@...]
> > Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 9:30 PM
> > To: IB-Architect@egroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [IB-Architect] External file handling
> >
> >
> > While we are on the subject of external file handling....
> >
> > What would it take to get IB capable of storing BLOB contents
> > in individual
> > external files? Just allow it to determine a random file
> > naming convention
> > and keep a path name in the metadata for the table or column
> > (domain) to
> > tell where all the BLOB files are located. Then, InterBase
> > would maintain
> > the files external to the GDB allowing a daily backup to only
> > send to tape
> > the new guys for the day.
> >
> > We have a server that is used to store tons of image files (we have a
> > web-search that displays UCC filings for the state of AZ).
> > Right now it
> > isn't feasible to store those images in the database so we
> > have all the
> > files external to the database and stored in the file system.
> > Just their
> > file name and volume are stored in the database. We want to
> > be able to do
> > daily backups on our database... It would be in the tens of
> > GB in size of
> > all the images were in the database and that would make for
> > too much I/O to
> > get our backups done.
> >
> > It is quite a pain to interact with this image data from a
> > client app on the
> > LAN and keep the network properly secured. Having everything
> > accessible via
> > the standard client data access of IB would really make
> > things easier. We
> > would have to be careful not to introduce any security
> > problems in doing
> > this either...
> >
> > Of course, I've long wanted to do true backup strategies with
> > an IB database
> > instead of the all or nothing backups. We can save that
> > debate for another
> > time. ;-)
> >
> > Something tells me that either of these solutions would be a
> > lot of work...
> > I guess this is the "Enterprise InterBase" that someday may
> > come to be...
> >
> > FWIW,
> > Jason Wharton
> > CPS - Mesa AZ
> > http://www.ibobjects.com
> >
> >
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