I was wondering about the rational behind the isc4.gdb database for storing
the user names. Its seems to complicate things a fair bit and would seem
easier to me if the user information for a database was stored inside the
database's own .gdb file. Perhaps its just because I'm used to it working
that way in Sybase SQL Anywhere but to me this seems easier. The separate
user database buys you easier configuration for a lot of databases but at
some costs that don't really seem worth the end result. Am I missing
something here?

Examples of problems I have right now are:

1. Once a user is defined, they can connect to any database. Granted they
won't be able to do much unless they have been given some access but I would
prefer if they couldn't even connect to the database.

2. I can't just copy a database to another system without also bringing over
the users which makes it more complicated. A backup of the database also
doesn't include the users so restoring it on another system means I also have
to bring over the users.

3. Single source of failure: if the isc4.gdb database gets corrupted, all the
databases on the system are out of action for all users.

All these can be worked around to some degree but I wondered what people saw
as the benefits that make it worth while...

--
Brad Pepers
brad@...