Installing firebird on ubuntu server 16.10 manually. Instructions for installing the Firebird database server. Firebird Administration Utilities

DBMS (abbreviation for Database Management System) is a set of linguistic and software, designed for creating, maintaining and sharing a database at the same time by several users. A database management system is an intermediary between the database itself and its users.

Firebird DBMS used in software package RKTs:Office is a cross-platform database management system running on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and various Unix platforms. Firebird has been used in a variety of industrial systems (warehouse and utility, financial and government sectors) since 2001. This is a commercially independent project of C and C++ programmers, most of whom live in Russia. Firebird is completely royalty-free, even for commercial use.

Preparatory stage

Before you begin installing Firebird, you need to make sure that the computer you plan to use as a server does not have another copy of Firebird or Interbase installed. To do this, go to Control Panel Microsoft Windows and select Programs and components.

Windows Control Panel

If Firebird of another version (for example, 1.5 or 2.1) is installed on your computer, then you need to remove them. The same applies to all versions of Interbase.

After uninstalling previous versions of Firebird, download the Firebird 2.5 DBMS distribution kit from the official developer website, or download it from our website using the following link.

Installation

After successfully downloading the distribution (this is an executable file whose name contains the text Firebird-2.5), launch it by executing Windows Explorer double-click on the file name with the left mouse button, or by selecting this file and pressing the Enter key on your computer keyboard.

Firebird 2.5 distribution file

If you are not running on a computer with full System Administrator rights, then Windows will most likely ask you whether the application you are running can make configuration changes. Answer yes to asked question and the Firebird Installation Wizard welcome page will open in front of you.

Firebird Installation Wizard Start Page

Firebird License Agreement

Agree to the terms of the license agreement and click the button again Next. Keep pressing Next until the following window appears:

Selecting Firebird Components to Install

In this window, the wizard asks about the server components that it will need to install. When choosing, be guided by the following rule: if your organization uses a regular office computer as a server, and there are no more than 10 concurrent users, then select SuperServer. Otherwise - ClassicServer.

Refusal to create a folder in the Start group

On next page wizard, choose not to create a folder in the Start menu and click the button again Next.

Additional Firebird Installation Wizard Tasks

In the window additional tasks do not install Guardian, choose to run as a service, and clear all flags except Automatically launch Firebird on every boot. After this, press the button again Next, and then, on the next page, the button Install.

Final page of the Firebird installation wizard

Once the process of copying the server files is complete, you will see the final installation window. Uncheck the box next to the item After Installation - What Next? and press the button Complete.

Setting up a firewall

To be able to connect to the Firebird DBMS from other computers local network your organization needs to open port 3050 in settings Windows Firewall(If the local network server is not connected to the Internet, then the firewall service can be completely disabled, although this is not recommended from a security point of view). Setting up the Windows Firewall is as follows (to perform the described steps, you must have Administrator rights on the computer used as the server):

Adding the Firebird DBMS to Windows Firewall exceptions. Step 1.

Adding the Firebird DBMS to Windows Firewall exceptions. Step 2.

Adding the Firebird DBMS to Windows Firewall exceptions. Step 3.

Adding the Firebird DBMS to Windows Firewall exceptions. Step 4.

Adding the Firebird DBMS to Windows Firewall exceptions. Step 5.

Automating a store based on the Firebird server is cost-effective because, despite being free, it is a full-fledged SQL server, powerful and reliable enough to meet the needs of the average holding company.

In our practice, the Storehouse Explorer system based on the Firebird server was used to automate a holding of 50 stores throughout Russia. The size of the database exceeded 30 GB, the database contained information for 10 years and simultaneously served from 70 to 120 users (trading operations and analytics).

>> Download demo version<<

Installing a Firebird server on UNIX has its own characteristics, which we would like to reflect in this article.

Shop automation based on Firebird 2.5 server on POSIX (UNIX, LINUX) platforms

Preface

This article describes how to install Firedird 2.5.2 server in POSIX (Unix-like) operating systems such as Linux, Unix.

Please note the following before installation.

1. To install the Firebird server you will need root user rights.
2. If you are installing Firebird on Linux, then before installing you must make sure that the system has the libstdc++.so.5 run-time library. If this is not the case, then you should install the compat-glibc package (RedHat, CentOs, OpenSuse, Debian) or the libstdc++5 package (Mandriva).
3. If you are planning to install Firebird with the SuperServer architecture on Linux, which supports the new POSIX threading model, then you should choose the NPTL build of Firebird.

I. Selecting a distribution

There are quite a lot of Firebird distributions of different versions and developed for different operating systems.
At the time of writing this article, a stable build of this server version 2.5.2 is available, which can run on
32-x and 64-bit platforms Windows, LINUX and MacOSX.
However, before choosing the right distribution, you need to make a small digression.
There are several versions or architecture options for the Firebird server, namely Classic, SuperServer
and Embedded. They differ in the way they use machine and network resources. Without going deeply into details, we will briefly note the features of these architectures:
Classic- can be formally described by the formula “n connections to the database - n processes on the server”, i.e. every connection to the database

starts its *process* on the server. It works like this. On POSIX platforms, the [x]inetd daemon runs, which
listens on a port (by default it is port 3050, but if necessary, you can assign another one). This daemon starts a *separate* fb_inet_server process for each successful connection. Each process consumes certain server resources and creates a separate memory cache.

The SuperServer architecture uses computer resources more economically.
SuperServer can be briefly described by the formula “n connections to the database - one process and n *threads* on the server.” On POSIX systems this is the fbserver process. Superserver is a multi-threaded application, unlike the Classic architecture. Each connection is serviced in a separate thread.
Embedded- this is an architecture that operates as part of a separate application and in the usual sense is not a “full server”, i.e. is not intended to work as a server that serves many connections.
Most likely, you will make a choice between the Classic and Superserver architecture. If it is not possible to go deeply into details, then you can make a choice arbitrarily. The format of the database itself is in no way tied to a specific Classic or Superserver architecture and it is always possible, if necessary, to reinstall the server by choosing a different architecture.
And although, most likely, either architecture of these two will suit you, there is an opinion that for beginners who have just started working with Firebird, the Classic architecture is more preferable for learning and experimenting with Firebird, as it is more resistant to incorrect user actions.
Note that the Superserver uses a shared memory cache and may have some advantages in the case of a large number of simultaneous users. The superserver is limited by the size of the RAM used; at the time of writing, it cannot use memory exceeding 2Gb.
The Classic architecture can also be preferred if the hardware uses several processors and has significant RAM (> 2 GB).
This article is not intended to provide a detailed analysis and comparison of these architectures; more detailed information about this can be found on the Internet.

II. Selecting an installation method

To install Firebird, you must have root user rights.
The Firebird server is a free product; the distribution kit for its installation can be downloaded from the official website of the Firebird Foundation www.firebird.org.
Distributions are generated as *.rpm or *.tar.gz files, for example:

FirebirdCS-2.5.2.26539-0.i686.rpm

FirebirdCS-2.5.2.26539-0.i686.tar.gz

It should be noted that not all Linux builds support rpm installation; this can be clarified in the platform documentation in the “RPM Package Manager” section. In such cases, it is recommended to use "tar.gz" files.
On the Internet there are descriptions of manual installation methods by unpacking the archive and copying files, but such methods, if installers from the developer are available, are not recommended.

III. Installing Firebird 2.5 server

For example, let's take the installation of a Classsic architecture server.
Log in as root.
To install a *.rpm file, type:

$rpm -ivh FirebirdCS-2.5.2.26539-0.i686.rpm

To install a *.tar.gz file, type:

$tar -xzf FirebirdCS-2.5.2.26539-0.i686.tar.gz

$cd FirebirdCS-2.5.2.26539-0.i686.tar.gz

After running the installation scripts, the following actions will be performed:

1. An attempt will be made to stop all running Firebird servers.
2. If not yet created, the user will be created " firebird"and the band" firebird".
3. To catalog /opt/firebird the software will be installed in the directory /usr/lib links will be created
4. for libraries, to catalog /usr/include file headers will be placed.
5. To catalog /etc/services a gds_db entry will be added for port 3050 if such an entry does not already exist.
6. Localhost.localdomain and HOSTNAME will be added to the directory /etc/gds_hosts.equiv.
7. If SuperServer is installed, only the server startup script will be installed /etc/rc.d/init.d/firebird.
8. If Classic is installed, the launch script will be installed /etc/xinet.d/firebird or, for some lower versions of inetd systems, an entry will be added to /etc/inetd file.
9. New links will be added to /usr/bin for the init.d script and a Firebird server configuration entry will be created in etc/rc.config.
10. The server/service will start and Firebird should start automatically.
11. The SYSDBA user password will be randomly generated and written to a file /opt/firebird/SYSDBA.password.
12. An alias for the test database employee.fdb will be added to aliases.conf.

At this stage, you can check whether the Firebird server is installed correctly. To do this, we need the SYSDBA account password, which can be extracted from the /opt/firebird/SYSDBA.password file.
Let's type on the command line:

$cd /opt/firebird/bin

$./isql -user sysdba -password

SQL>connect localhost:employee.fdb;

SQL>select * from sales;

For these commands Firebird server connects to the test database employee.fdb and retrieves all records from the sales table.
The Firebird server, by default, runs as the user "firebird". Previously, by default, the server ran as "root". Running the server as "root" is not very correct from a security point of view , since the "root" user has the highest rights in the system and can create and delete any files and directories throughout file system. Such rights are unnecessary for the Firebird server, so you should check and configure the server to run as the "firebird" user.

To do this:

1. The user "firebird" must have write permissions to the directory in which the databases will be created.
2. The DatabaseAccess parameter in the /opt/firebird/firebird.conf file must be configured to deny access to all files and directories except those intended for storing databases. If in the aliases.conf file we create an alias for a file, then in the firebird.con file we must give access to this file.
3. It is recommended (desirable, but not required) to always use aliases to indicate abstract links to database files, without specifying their specific physical location.

Using the example of creating an empty database test.fdb, we will make sure that the creation of the Firebird server was successful.
There is more than one way to create an empty database (for example, on the client, using the IBExpert application),
Here is the easiest way, regular means Firebird on the server.
Select a directory for placement var/firebird.
So, you need to:
1. check for presence and, if not, create the /var/firebird directory. If the owner of this directory is not the user "firebird", then you should change the owner to "firebird":

$mkdir -p /var/firebird

$chown firebird:firebird /var/firebird

2. In the /opt/firebird/firebird.conf file, add permission to create a database in the /var/firebird directory.

DatabaseAccess = Restrict /var/firebird

3. create a database

$/opt/firebird/bin/isql -u SYSDBA - p

SQL>connect "/var/firebird/test.fdb";

In practical work with the Firebird server, some tools may be useful:
- changeDBAPassword.sh- script for changing the SYSDBA password.
- createAliasDB.sh- a script for creating an empty database, creating an alias and writing it to aliases.conf;
Usage example:

$createAliasDB.sh

IV. If something went wrong...

If it suddenly turns out that just yesterday the Firebird server was working great, but today it doesn’t start, or starts but doesn’t work properly, then perhaps studying the firebird.log will help you solve the problem.

V. Installing Firebird on Solaris, FreeBSD, Debian platforms

At the time of writing, installation of Firebird 2.5 for the Solaris, FreeBSD, Debian operating systems is not yet available, use previous versions Firebird, for example 2.0.

(c) Milkevich Taras
Polaris-Soft team,

Literature:

1. Firebird 2 Migration & Installation, Helen Borrie (Collator/Editor) 6 April 2008 - Document v. mi210_20 - for Firebird 2.1.
2. Interbase world. Architecture, administration and development of database applications in Interbase/Firebird/Yaffil. 2nd edition, expanded. Alexey Kovyazin, Sergey Vostrikov, KUDITS-OBRAZ, Moscow 2003.

Running Firebird on Linux/UNIX

1.1.3.1. Running the Linux Installer The first step is to set up your computer to boot from a CD. Usually, when you start your computer, you see a message on the screen: Press DEL to enter SETUP or Press F2 to enter SETUP In the SETUP program, you need to configure the computer to boot from CD/DVD (Fig. 1.2), If you