Helen,

H> btw, are you aware that you can back up a database from embedded using a
H> blank username and password?

doesn't work here. I get an exception with message "Cannot attach to
the services manager. User name and password are required when
attaching to the services manager". It seems to come from Firebird as
there appears to be no code in IBX/IBOAdmin that does that check.
Note that I also have the ISC_USER and ISC_PASSWORD variables set, but
they appear to be used by the command line tools only.

H> SYSDBA also works

Yep. Regardless of the supplied password.

H> and (correctly) any other non-Owner user won't be able to do it.

Confirmed. "Unable to perform operation. You must be either SYSDBA or
owner of the database".

H> In embedded, the TIBOBackupService also seems unable to recognise a path
H> alias; although it might be fixed in the latest IBOAdmin version, which I
H> don't have...

that's not a problem with the components. Put an aliases.conf file in
fbembed's home and it should use it.

BTW backing up with fbembed through the services API is *FAST*. ;-)

Ciao
--
Nando Dessena
http://www.flamerobin.org