Falko,

> but what if the old server isnt present any more and we have to
> upgrade old databases?
> the background is: our customers get a application update with
> firebird 1.5 included. so interbase will be uninstalled.

Actually, it is possible for you to construct a Firebird install which
would not require that IB be uninstalled. You can have Firebird use a
different set of TCP ports from IB.

Thus you could have both engines co-existing.

> in our tests the interbase databases seem to be ok after
> a backup/restore with firebird!?
> So: is it really neccessary to backup with ib5.6?
> What can go wrong if we backup interbase-databases with firebird?

It has been 6 years since I used IB, and I never tried to access a 5.6
database from FB, so I can't comment.

I would recommend that you NOT uninstall IB and that you create a
"migration tool" to move the IB databases to FB, rather then depend on
FB being able to correctly backup a 5.6 database.

Further, I would also STRONGLY recommend that you use different database
names (or at least the .fdb extension) and NOT delete the original IB
databases (compress them if required). You never know when you _might_
need to go back to the original databases.


Sean