At 01:14 AM 28/09/2007, Dean \(Home\ wrote:

>We have set up a testing machine to import legacy data (repeatedly as we are
>writing the import functions).
>
>I am accessing the machine with Remote Desktop.

Is the RD client running on the same machine as the database server
or a different machine?

>The database can not be accessed as a service even though the service is
>running.

This is fuzzy. "Cannot be accessed" says nothing. What do you do
and what happens? Messages?

To clarify the terminology: you don't access databases "as a
service". The Firebird server accesses databases. Firebird client
applications connect to and communicate with the service by passing
requests that are processed by the service. Connection requests are
sent across a network transport using (on Windows) one of three
protocols: TCP/IP, NetBEUI (Named Pipes/WNET) or IPServer ("Windows
local connect").

IPServer isn't a network protocol, it's an emulated network transport
whereby a Firebird client instance shares inter-process communication
space with a Firebird server instance on the same physical machine.
An IPServer connection request provides a path to the database file
without a hostname/address in the connection string. You can't use
an IPServer connection from a remote client - you have to use a
genuine network transport. Even if the RD client is on the same
physical machine as the Firebird service it is still "remote" and so
needs to use a network protocol.

NetBEUI is old and horrible and isn't recommended. That leaves you
with TCP/IP.

On some setups it is possible for a local RD client to use the TCP/IP
local loopback server as host (localhost, IP address 127.0.0.1), on
others not. A physically local or remote client can always access
the server via its network hostname and/or its static node
address. (You should configure a static IP address for a server to
avoid problems with losing dynamic addresses, esp. on Windows...)

If you don't understand the connection string formats for the various
protocols, it's all explained in the Quick Start Guide, which you
will find in the \doc subdirectory of your Firebird installation.

>If I set firebird to run as an application, it works.

If "it works" means "IPServer connection works" then it sounds as
though your RD client (physically local or physically remote) is
first accessing the host machine (independently of any Firebird
context) and then starting Fb as an application. In that case,
Firebird runs in the remote client's application space (beyond the
control of the server's service management). It's feasible, though
not as a deployment solution.

>Are there special considerations when running under remote desktop?

Remote means remote and remote access is through a network
protocol. It would be handy if you were clearer about where these
remote clients are located relative to the database server. OS
matters too: there may be additional issues to resolve if the
service is running on Server2003 or Vista, for example.

./heLen