Since there was some discussion about the stability of v7.5, thought
this would be informative -- it was posted yesterday to the Interbase
newsgroup.



"Joseph" <jpell at di-ve.com> wrote in message
news:<42a415df@...>...

> About two weeks ago, I have converted existing databases (3 in all) to
> interbase 7.5 from Interbase 5. I had to change the interbase

metadata and

> also the application source code for these databases. For instance I

have

> changed datafields named "year" or domain types named "boolean" as

these are

> now reserved words.
>
> For the first week everything seemed working fine. Then a new client
> working over terminal services was installed. The terminal server

machine

> (windows 2000) was connected as a client to the database server (as a
> separate machine on the same LAN). Unfortunately interbase 5 client

was

> still installed on this machine. Also the BDE connection string was

not set

> as the others (although pointing to the same database).
>
> On the first day of this new installation the backups done with gbak

were

> not working. The backup log file was reporting an immediate "exit

before

> completion due to errors". This was repeated for the next 4 days.
> Unfortunately no one was monitoring these events, since users

continued to

> work without problems. On the 4th day after the terminal client was
> installed, the users reported that the system was slowing down

gracefully

> and then an abnormal termination occured. Both the interbase log file

and

> the "windows server 2003" (were the database is installed) log file

reported

> no errors. The interbase log file did not report that the interbase

service

> was stopped.
>
> I have run gfix -validate on the database and a number of errors were
> reported on two of the databases. I have tried to mend the database

using

> the -mend switch. But to no success. Then I have switched off the

"ignore

> checksums" option during the backup, and have successfully restored

both

> databases. However it seemed obvious that much of the data entered in

the

> last 4 days was lost.
>
> As I was not confident of the new database (ib 7.5), I had to restart

from

> the backup of 4 days ago and ran a program to automatically input all

data

> that was entered on the corrupted database. Here I have confirmed

that data

> was lost. For instance a table which used a consecutive number as a

primary

> key had missing gaps during the mysterious period. The same table had

no

> missing gaps prior to the corruption.
>
> Now I have reinstiated the databases from the old backups (4 days

ago). I

> have reinstalled interbase 7.5 server on the machine were the database

is

> located. I have also installed interbase 7.5 client on the terminal

server

> and corrected the BDE connection string. When the client using the

terminal

> services was connected (and used the system for some time), every

other

> client reported an error "internal gds software consistency check

(can`t

> continue after bugcheck)". This was also reported on the IBConsole.
> Although the other clients stopped, surprisingly the client using the
> terminal services was still working. This error was reporting after

one of

> the clients was trying to delete a record. After a backup and restore

was

> done, the reported error did not occur.
>
> My concern is "will this happen again?". This is because I do not

know

> exactly was caused the corruption. Or maybe if there are issues that

might

> cause this corruption with our explained configuration.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Joseph
>
>