In our application in one operation, we perform a couple updates,
followed by a series of queries to gather information. Due to the fact
we perform updates the Tx parameters are set for Read/Write.

I have a couple of questions concerning this usage of queries:

1) Should I change the Tx parameters to be Readonly after we have done
the updates?

2) is it more efficient to do all the reads in 1 Tx issuing a
RollbackRetaining after each query, or start a new Tx, open a query and
rollback the Tx, then do it all over again for the next read?

3)Is there anyway to get Tx timings from the Firebird engine itself so
you can monitor for long running Txs?