At 11:45 AM 6/03/2010, you wrote:

>I am trying to connect to a firebird database via ODBC on a Windows 2008 server, yet keep encountering an 'Open database localhost:xxx.FDB failed' error. The connection I am trying to establish is all local to a single system, to eliminate networking as the issue.

1. If your interface is connecting via the localhost server then you can't eliminate "networking as the issue". This is the local TCP/IP local loopback server. On Win2008 it has to be configured to be available to ordinary users. So, as a reality check, configure your ODBC setup for this database to access the server by its host name or its IP address.

2. "Local to a single system" means different things with Firebird. You *can* eliminate network issues with a local client if you use the IPCServer (a.k.a. "Windows local protocol"). However, the ability to use it or not depends entirely on the Firebird version - in short, the IPCServer implementation in Fb 1.5 and below will *not* work on Server2008 and it will *not* work with Fb Classic.

>I have set up firebird and the ODBC drivers on two separate Server 2008 systems, and it works correctly on one yet I keep getting the above error on the other. Turning on ODBC tracing fails to output anything to the odbc.log file.

So you know at least that you have either a configuration or a permissions issue on the problem host. What you don't tell us is whether you have identical Firebird installations on both.

You do not mention at all which VERSION and MODEL of Firebird server you are trying this with. "Version" means "n.n.n" (like e.g. 2.1.3) while MODEL means Superserver (fbserver.exe) or Classic (fb_inet_server.exe). You (and we) must be quite clear about that if anyone is going to be able to advise you.

It will also be important to check and double-check that the ODBC driver is actually talking to the correct version of the client library, fbclient.dll or gds32.dll...which may or may not be correct and may or may not be the same and may or may not be in the right assembly for Server2008 to find the correct one.

>I have attempted this with both sets of ODBC drivers available on the firebird site with no luck. I also verified that I could connect via ODBC on the problem system to a mysql server database.

A "mysql server" is a totally different creature to either of the Firebird servers. An appropriate ODBC driver (one for MySQL, a totally different other one for Firebird) flattens out many of the enormous underlying differences for programmers, but they are not comparable. It will be of far greater value to you to figure out what are the differences between your good installation and your bad one.

For the present purpose, may we assume that one of the Firebird ODBC drivers enables your program to access a database on the "good" Server2008? If so, stick with that one and don't fiddle about on the immediate assumption that you have a bad driver. You *do* have a bad configuration; you can explore further to inform yourself better about what the mismatches are.

That said, take note of this: If you are using the wrong ODBC driver for the Firebird server version and/or client DLL, that *could* be a problem. You won't get the right answer for that on this list: if you have doubts about which ODBC kit you need for *your* setup, then join the fb-odbc-devel list and consult there.

>Any help would be much appreciated.

Provide more useful information - wherever you post next.

./heLen