Helen, All,
just my 2c.

1) regardless of what Dimitry might think, InterBase/Firebird has
never *required* a DBA and I will do everything I can to perpetuate
this state of things. Which would not imply that it cannot work in an
enterprise scenario with security, tuning and a DBA, just that it
*can* run seamlessly in less demanding environments without a DBA.

H> You can DO multiple servers with Fb 1.5 but not with 1.0. At this point,
H> it can be more or less transparent with the Windows embedded server. Any
H> other multi-server situation is DBA stuff.

To me, one of the *major* advantages of the ability to have multiple
instances is that it doesn't step on anybody else's toes and thus it
doesn't require a DBA at all. You just install everything required,
choose a port to listen and there you go. Do you need an administrator
to install eMule or Popfile, perhaps?
Furthermore, you people seem to make a difference between the embedded
engine and the full server which architecturally doesn't exist.

H> You're talking about an entirely different set of conditions, though. You
H> demand the capability to deploy a client/server system that magically, with
H> no input from you and no knowledge at the site, installs transparently on
H> any computer, from the kids' Playstation to the enterprise server, and
H> behaves like a piece of self-contained desktop software. At the same time,
H> you want databases to be accessible in undefined ways by other applications.

2) that's about how I have made my income in the last 7 years or so,
first with IB 4.2, then 5.6, soon Firebird 1.5. I have my product
running in some 20K sites and I have had my share of problems, the
vast majority of which were related to conflicts with already existing
"global" installs of BDE, IB, Fb (all in all they were very much under
control, though). Firebird is a big leap forward in
terms of conflict reduction to me. By installing a self-contained
instance of Firebird together with the server part of my application I
plan to forget all these problems. The user will only need to modify a
URL in the 0,001% cases in which the port I have choses is already taken.
Time will tell, but I am positive it's gonna work well.
As someone said, people saying that it cannot be done shouldn't
interrupt people doing it. ;-)

H> To summarise Dmitry's points, no, you can't do that with Firebird
H> currently.

To counteract Dimitry's points, yes you can. ;-)

H> As for deploying *any* database server for "idiot users", forget
H> it. Somebody at the site needs to know what s/he's doing when running
H> server software. If you offer it for deployment, you DO have a duty to
H> make your customers aware of what they've got and how to make it work.

A server is not different from other software, if well configured and
seamlessly deployed. Most WinXP users run dozens of server on their
home machine without even knowing, and guess what? It works.

A server is not a wild beast. It's 0s and 1s exactly like Notepad.

Ciao
--
Nando Dessena
mailto:nandod@...
======================================================
I support Firebird, I am a Firebird Foundation member!
Join today at http://www.firebirdsql.org/ff/foundation
======================================================