> > > I know two simultaneous engines can mess up a database. But, one
> READ-
> > > WRITE (On Production) and the other only doing frequent backups?
> >
> > What you want is called RAID.
> >
> > Lacking RAID, I believe that shadowing is an option in Firebird.
> You
> > will need to read Helen's book.
> >
>
> I replaced Shadowing by RAID three years ago. But this synchronous
> way only protects me against disk failure. I need an asynchronous
> backup in case of data corruption. That's why I'm doing gbak backups.
> I do it from another computer because It takes one half of the time
> than doing it in the same computer (server). you know, disk-writes
> are in my local PC and doesn't take this time from the server.
>
> > You do NOT want two engines competing for the same file, and the
> folks
>
> Here is my question again:
> If I do a backup of a database in server A from server B. am I doing
> the two engines compete for the same database file?

Two engines cannot access the same database file.

A engine cannot access a file on another computer.

> Even if gbak does not _lock_ the file?

Gbak can only backup local files, or use the Services API to backup
a remote database. However, the backup will stay on the remote
computer.

> > > > > Also...
> > >
> > > Is it safe to run Northon Antivirus on a live firebird database?
> > >
> > Why would you run NAV on a database? Are you keeping code in the
> > database?
>
> The antivirus policy is a corporate policy and every computer in the
> company must have it, unless I have a very good argument to take it
> off. possible corruption, is a very good reason.

Possible corruption is what can happen if you run a file copy or other
applications that can lock (parts of) a datafile.

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL, Oracle & MS SQL
Server
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com
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