The Firebird Book Second Edition: Volume 3: Administering Firebird Servers and Databases

Since the original edition of The Firebird Book was published as a two-pound doorstop in 2004, the open source Firebird relational database management system has undergone three major releases through versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.5. The Firebird Book Second Edition brings Firebird technical users up to score across all of the releases from the original v.1.0 through to the latest 2.5. The whole book, too big to publish as a paperback, is distributed by the IBPhoenix company on a DVD. For print, it has been split into three partly overlapping volumes, of which this is the third in the series.

In Administering Firebird Servers and Databases:

Part I Firing Up with Firebird (pp. 1 - 106)
This section provides the basics for installing Firebird, setting it up on your network and getting it up and running. It contains a chapter of notes about migrating servers, databases and applications to newer versions. At the end is a detailed manual for using the interactive and command-line modes of isql, a tool that comes in every Firebird distribution, regardless of platform.

• 1 Installation
• 2 Network Setup and Initial Configuration
• 3 Operating Basics
• 4 Migration Notes
• 5 Interactive SQL Utility (isql)

Part II Configuring Firebird (pp. 107 - 156)
Here is where you can discover in detail how the configuration file, firebird.conf, provides the means to secure your servers and databases and make best use of network and hardware resources. It also covers the many switches available in the gfix command-line toolset.

• 6 Configuring Firebird and Its Environment
• 7 Configuration Parameters in Detail
• 8 Configuring and Managing Databases

Part III Administering & Securing Firebird (pp. 157 - 284)
This section describes and documents the tools for securing both servers and data, using tools and SQL privileges. Use of the two backup tools, gbak and nbak, is described, as is shadowing. Monitoring and tracing are covered and a chapter describes the Services Manager and a tool that enables you to access it directly.

• 9 Protecting the Server and its Environment
• 10 Monitoring and Logging Features
• 11 Database-Level Security
• 12 Backing Up Databases
• 13 The Services Manager

Part IV Appendices (pp. 285 - 389)

• I Context Variables
• II Firebird Limits
• III System Tables and Views
• IV Firebird Error Codes
• V SQLSTATE Codes
• VI Default Disk Locations
• VII Database Repair How-To
• VIII Healthcare for Databases
• IX Upgrade Scripts
• X Resources

Index

GLOSSARY (18 pp. at end of book)

Volume 1 of this series, Firebird Fundamentals, covers client/server concepts, the architecture of the multiple Firebird server models and the first tasks for installing a server, configuring it for the network and starting to work with Firebird. It moves on to the data definition language (DDL) lexicon that is used for creating databases and the objects in them to suit your requirements. Although it covers some of the same ground as this book on the subject of transactions, it is the precursor for this volume.

The second volume, Developing with Firebird Data, covers the data manipulation language (DML) lexicon that is used in client applications to retrieve, populate and modify data, and the procedural language (PSQL) for creating executable code in stored procedures, triggers and dynamic executable blocks.

Helen Borrie is a contracting software engineer and Firebird support consultant with IBPhoenix (www.ibphoenix.com) which commissioned the Firebird books. A former journalist, she has often found herself doubling as a technical writer. She has been involved with database development for 30 years and with Firebird and its ancestors since 1996. A member of the Firebird project team from its first day in July 2000, Helen is active in the Firebird online support community and Secretary and general bottle-washer for the Firebird Foundation Inc.

Helen has been the creator and collator of the verbose release notes for every Firebird release and sub-release, and still is. Her original book, The Firebird Book, published by Apress in 2004, is recently out of print.