At 08:37 PM 30/08/2005 +0000, you wrote:

>I have a client who performed a backup and restore using the GBAK
>routine. When we try to connect to the resulting database we get
>the "database [database name] shutdown" error. Does anyone know what
>could be causing this?

The database that was backed up was shut down.

>Here are some more details.
>
>1) I can "fix" the issue by bringing the database back online using
>the GFIX -online option. However, this just lets users other than
>SYSDBA connect. There are data integrity issues (see below).
>
>2) All of the database tables are completely empty. None of the data
>was restored.

If the restore operation completed without throwing any exceptions, then it
looks likely the backup was done as a "metadata only" one.

>3) The owner of each table is SYSDBA instead of the real owner
>assigned in the original database.

That doesn't make sense.

>4) No one ever manually "shut the database down". GBAK must have
>done it during the restore (or else never got to the point where it
>brings it online in the first place).

It depends. Something looks fishy about the backup. When a gbak is being
restored on a Fb 1.5 Superserver, the gbak program has an exclusive lock on
the file until it completes the task and logs out.

>5) We are upgrading from Interbase 6.0 to Firebird 1.5. The backup
>was made using GBAK against the Interbase database.

What server was running when the IB 6 database was backed up?

Which gbak was used?

On each side, is gbak being called from the command line or through an
application?

Exactly what switches are being used on each side?

Did the switches used include -v and -y to create logs?

>The restore was made using GBAK from version 1.5 of Firebird.

Superserver or Classic? Which sub-release? Which OS platform?

>It appears that either the backup or restore failed to complete
>(probably the restore). Any ideas as to why this happens?

Not from the info thus far provided. Both IB and Firebird (can) do hot
backups, i.e. the database doesn't have to be in a shutdown state for the
backup. The backup will be done in a single snapshot transaction that
reflects the state of the database when the process starts.

> It actually happened on two different databases/machines today so we
> are really getting spooked.

Does this statement tell us that you are running IB6 and Fb 1.5 on the same
machine and are arbitrarily connecting to the same database through one or
the other server?

What about the client library?

./heLen