Helen,

H> It's the first item under Samples and Solutions (green background). It has
H> the obscure file name BackupUnderEmbed.zip. :-))

Found it. It took a while to be able to compile it because I didn't
have IBOAdmin on this machine and had to download it - the zip file
lacked the dpk and dcr files and I had to reconstruct the dpks and
comment the dcr inclusion. I wonder why Lorenzo doesn't supply a
complete distribution. Anyway...

It works as expected. Here is your description annotated with my
findings:

> An embedded app doesn't need a valid username and password for
> connection to succeed (as designed!);

right. It goes by with any username/pw combination.

> but a backup can be run under embedded with no username and password at all.

wrong. I get the aforementioned error if I try do.

> it enforces the rule that only SYSDBA or the Owner may do a backup!

right. Which is as expected.

> Also - at least with this version of IBOAdmin - aliased paths are
> not recognised.

wrong. If I put a suitable aliases.conf in the directory where Project1.exe
is located I can backup through an alias. I have made sure that it's not using
some other aliases file on the system. Again, this is as expected.

BTW the example is misleading in that it doesn't connect to the
database and with the user name and passwords you put in the edit
boxes - it just used those for the backup. Plus, it would be useful if
it gave some backup feedback, like

while not IBOBackupService1.EOF do
Memo1.Lines.Add (StringReplace(IBOBackupService1.GetNextChunk, #10,
#13#10, [rfReplaceAll]));

'nuff computing. I think I'll enjoy the vacation now and go for some
xmas shopping. ;-)

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