> With some databases Firebird (but also Interbase), the very
> first "begin transaction" after a system boot takes plenty of time
> (even 2 minutes or more, depending on the database).
> During this phase, Firebird is freezed, and *any* other
> connection/operation is snozed, until the 2 minutes (or more) have
> passed. In the meanwhyle the Hard disk of the server running
> Firebird is very very busy.
> The databases causing this have no particular structure (some even
> have no blob fields), and the size is rather small : 20 or 30 Mb.
> The freeze happens on any machine running Firebird
> (Win9x,Win2K,WinXP) even with 1Gb Ram.
> After the freeze, everything works fine and fast.
>
> After all connections to the DB that had caused the freeze are
> closed, other incoming connections+transactions on that DB happen
> fast as they should, except some rare cases where the freeze happens
> again (perhaps after a long time after the last connection to that
> DB was closed)
>
> I understand this can be an acceptable issue (just wait these 2
> minutes, go take a coffee..) but i have some cases where it's not.
>
> Any suggestions?

I have never experienced 2 minutes in this instance - I agree that the first
transaction after reboot is longer than subsequent transactions - my servers
are pretty reliable and my reboots are managed so my users never experience
these minor delays (and I mean minor - not 2 minutes).
I have tested your db and there is nothing unusual about the connection or
transaction time - so maybe someone else has some ideas.
How often are you rebooting? And have you timed this "freeze" exactly?
Alan