Paul,

> > I'm sure that there are a 5000+ corporate groups which are
> > running 16TB+ databases from PC Servers.
>
> The real issue is, if you bought the computer, and decided to
> run Firebird on it, would Firebird be happy to manage your
> 16TB+ database?

I'm about 98% confident that the Firebird engine would run without any
serious issues.

The reality of Firebird's current database backup/restore
performance/methodology would make it Firebird an impractical solution.


The speed of Firebird's backup/restore would need to increase by 50-100x
-- current backups at a client site are running about 500KB/s (on a kick
ass Quad Compaq box with RAIDed 15,000 RPM drives).

Having said that, backup/restore of a 16TB database would pose a
headache for all IT environments. The fastest tape drives (which are
currently available, there are faster coming) runs at about 30MB/s,
which means that it would take 160 hours for a single drive to perform a
complete backup (at max drive speed). Obviously, this would mean that a
tape library unit with multiple tape drives would be required (there are
*nice* mid-range units from ADIC which can have up to 48 drives and
300TB of tape storage).


Sean