Posts about softwares and people currently using Firebird as database engine
In this next installment, we’ll be looking at two (arguably very contrasting) databases. The first is Gladius DB, which is a flat file database written in pure PHP. The second is Firebird, another database veteran, which has features similar to some of the better-known databases, such as Microsoft SQLServer.
So with that, let’s get going.
The article is on dzone too
You can read more about it from Wikipedia and the announcement from it’s mailing list , and the thread that discussed about Firebird support.
Question of the day is asked on LinkedIn Firebird group and there are quite a few interesting answers
Firebird on virtual servers anyone? I am aware that some IT depts are using virtual servers and I wonder if anyone here has experience of FB on this type of configuration.
Like most users when I started using Firebird I connected using the SYSDBA username. That is the default username for server administration: every server has it.
It looked like a good idea because I did not have to care with users management, but I have now realized that using SYSDBA for database development can cause problems when the database is deployed to the customer’s computer.
Read the rest on Accounting++ blog
Nikolay Samofatov wrote about his Large Iron production systems that he maintains :
We run Firebird to power larger systems (for 12 government agencies and 3 banks).
It has approximately 100000 end users multiplexed through 2500 (max) pooled connections.
Here is the snapshot of nearly idle system at night:
top - 03:20:39 up 10 days, 8:39, 7 users, load average: 2.08, 1.87, 2.15 Tasks: 1732 total, 1 running, 1730 sleeping, 1 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 11.9%us, 4.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 83.5%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.6%si, 0.0%st Mem: 529177288k total, 378587600k used, 150589688k free, 761532k buffers Swap: 1073741816k total, 130612k used, 1073611204k free, 333281232k cached [root mvv bin]# ps aux | grep -c rdb_inet_server 719
Database is on a small FusionIO drive:
mount: /dev/fiob on /mnt/db type ext2 (rw,noatime) df -h: /dev/fiob 587G 423G 135G 76% /mnt/db
Also later he mentions that he uses 2TB of RAM machines
Chipsets that can handle 2 TB of RAM and 8 CPU sockets (<=80 cores, <=160 threads) are the largest “commodity” type hardware available now. These are the largest systems we worked on. 8 GB of lock manager space per database should be just enough for them. With the allocation error check in place we’ll have this problem solved for the next year or two until larger systems become common.
Shirin Lee posted a job: Phacil is seeking a Project Manager that has experience with Firebird in Arlington, VA. To learn more and check this job post:
I almost wanted to say that this is spam on the group but at a second look saw the list of interesting customers for The Company also with a little help from google i found the job post
Phacil has an anticipated need for a Project Manager (Senior) for an important government customer in Sterling or Arlington, VA.
Clearance Requirements
Must have at least a Secret clearance
Scope
Experience project managing large IT projects including cost, schedule and performance management is required. Experience managing the execution of project tasks, Risk Management, Quality Control (QCP) and communication management are required.
Qualifications
Must have previous Task Manager/Project Manager experience of at least 5 years
Bachelor’s Degree with Masters Preferred in Computer Science or Information Technology
PMP highly preferred
Experience managing the system administration, training and support for the Firebird database management system is required. Conducted trainings on FIREBIRD system with users.
Experience with PMP PMBOK/PDCA, ITIL v3 foundations service delivery a plus
Firebird database software and tools technology experience required
Pierre Y wrote on Firebird-devel list about the new Firebird 3.x api and he created a project for it
Now I started playing with the new API. I created a project on github for it :
https://github.com/zedalaye/fb3-oo-api
Is the OO API complete ? I think very strange to still have to build
DPB by hand… Can you expose something that may give access to the
ClumpletWriter to ease that ?
We have this question on serverfault and the answer is in that thread too :
I have a server with 16 cores. What do I set the CpuAffinityMask to?
1111 1111 1111 1111 is 65535, should I put 65535?
Also, how to I configure the SuperClassic server?
This is for Firebird 2.5.
Here are the security notes for an application that uses Firebird:
Another thing to keep in mind while securing your database: sometimes when we release new versions of Fishbowl, it upgrades your database to a new version, as well. When this happens, Fishbowl makes two different backups. One is a copy of the database; the other is a Firebird database dump. I like to call these the “Murphy’s Law backups” because you shouldn’t need them, and you won’t need them – until you don’t have them. They are created for rollback purposes during the upgrade. Leaving these unprotected is just as bad as leaving your main database unprotected. You can find these files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Fishbowl\database\data – inside the “old” and “backup” directories.
A new case-study was added to FirebirdSQL site. It is always interesting to ready such articles, and know about other companies experiences with Firebird. This time it is about DRB Systems moving from InterBase 6 to Firebird to solve stability problems. Read more.
