Firebird

Firebird is the database server that comes standard with Vertec. It is installed by default by Vertec Setup.

The following Firebird databases are included:

• vertecempty.fdb: This is the empty Vertec database. Setup copies this database and creates a database named vertec.fdb. The vertecempty DB remains and can be used later as an empty database.
• vertec.fdb: This is the default database that you start Vertec with and enter your data into. This is also the database that should be backed up.

The Database Section in the Vertec.ini configuration file typically looks like this for a Firebird configuration:

Servername=SERVER:\Programs\Vertec\DB\Vertec.fdb
User Name=SYSDBA
Password=UDQsK8owKnIwIF+Z

The Servername parameter specifies the connection to a specific Firebird database on a server.

In the standard form, server name consists of the name of the host on which the Firebird server is running and the (local) path of the database file on the server, separated by a colon. A server name in this form causes a connection to the Firebird server via TCP/IP.

If the computer name is prefixed with two backslashes and a backslash as separator (\\SERVER\C:\Program Files\Vertec\DB\Vertec.fdb), NetBEUI is used as the network protocol to connect to the Firebird server.

The database must be running on a local disk of the machine with the Firebird installation.

If Vertec is running on the same machine as the Firebird server, the computer name in server name can also be omitted (only the database path in server name). In this case, a local connection is established, which does not require a network protocol.

Logins and passwords

Logins and passwords are defined per Firebird instance (Firebird Server). Therefore, they are database server specific and are not created per database.

User name under Firebird is always SYSDBA. Firebird stores user accounts in a security database (usually ) in the Firebird installation directory (from Firebird version 3.0 onwards you can have as many security databases as you want). The actual databases only refer to users defined in them. This means that the database system administrator (SYSDBA user) does not log in to the database, but to the Firebird server. Of course, a database can then deny access to certain data to a certain user. But if someone has access to the , they’ll get the data anyway.

Password specifies the password to log in to the Firebird server. This value can be set using the Customer Portal Encrypted and then entered.

Firebird Page and Buffer Size

Firebird saves its data in so-called pages and applies them as a whole into memory. The maximum quantity of pages that can be saved in memory is determined by the buffer size. The performance of the Firebird database can be improved by providing the database server with more memory for its database. Read more about this in the article Firebird Performance, Pages and Buffer Size .

Since Firebird as a default database can already be installed by the Vertec Setup program, in most cases a separate installation of Firebird is unnecessary.

If Firebird is installed separately, the database password is set to a default value. It is not recommended to run the database with the default password, as this is publicly known.

To change the database password, you need an administration program for Firebird, e.g. IBOConsole, which is supplied with Vertec. Open the program IBOConsole. Double-click the entry Local Server in the tree view. If it does not already exist, register a local server via the menu Server > Register Server. Enter SYSDBA as username, enter masterkey as password (this is the default Firebird password).

Next, select User Security... from the Server menu. In the next dialog, enter the new password twice and press the Apply button.

Now you have to use the new password in Vertec.ini. Use the Customer Portal – instructions can be found in the article Customer Portal operation .

If Firebird is installed by the Vertec Setup program, the password has already been changed to the Vertec standard or to a password you specify.

If Firebird 4.0 is installed

If Firebird 4.0 is installed manually, the parameters must be in the firebird.conf file (located in the Firebird installation directory) AuthServer shall be adapted as follows:

AuthServer = Srp256, Srp

Older Firebird versions are not compatible with Firebird 4.0.x. It is important for operation that the correct version of the client library fbclient.dll is available in the Vertec installation directory (see File > Properties).

Desktop App Setup then automatically installs this file on the clients as well. For software distributions without Desktop App Setup, if a file named fbclient.dll on the clients, these will be replaced by the new Vertec installation directory on the server.

Vertec versions before 6.5.0.1 use the file gds32.dll instead of fbclient.dll. If Firebird is installed manually in a version before 4.0.1, the gds32.dll in the Vertec installation directory must be replaced by the corresponding version of Firebird. In Firebird 4.0.x the corresponding file is called fbclient.dll, which is the new name of the same DLL (see http://firebirdsql.org/manual/ufb-cs-clientlib.html). This can be copied to the Vertec directory and renamed to gds32.dll.

Firebird comes by default without GUI Manager program. The Vertec Setup installs the Manager Program in addition to Firebird IBQuery (IBQ.exe), which can be registered directly on Firebird database files (*.fdb). Information at www.mitec.cz/ibq.html.

The following settings can be made in Ibquery under Session > Preference > Configuration:

If you check FDB Firebird Databases under Registered File Types, the databases can be opened directly by double-clicking.

Please note that this product is not manufactured by Vertec. Vertec cannot apply any liability for this product.

Using the command line, you can change the password of a Firebird installation as follows (from the Firebird directory):

gsec -user SYSDBA -password masterkey
 modify SYSDBA -pw <neues Passwort>

Replace <neues Passwort> with the new password you want. You can apply the rest as it is here.

Backing up Firebird databases

Firebird stores the data in the database in a very structured way, so anyone can read and interpret the data if they know the structure. The data is also not encrypted, but the prerequisite is physical access to the file.

The Firebird server decides when to save changed data. Therefore, a file in use cannot be copied without reservation, especially not in a production environment. To back up the data online, there is the gbak Tool (Firebird backup Tool). This is a utility from Firebird for backing up and restoring databases (see article ). If a file is not in use (i.e. no Firebird server or other client has access to it), the files are not open and can be moved easily.

The Problems of Encryption of Vertec Databases

Vertec databases, like most databases out there, are not encrypted because such encryption is impractical for the following reasons:

In order to answer SQL queries, the database server must be able to read the database file. Thus, the database server must know a secret to decrypt the database file regardless of the login.

Accordingly, there are the following ways to deal with an encrypted database:

• When starting the database server, a user would have to enter a password. This variant would be safe, but the entire Vertec installation would not run once the server unexpectedly reboots. And the SQL Server would still keep the data in memory unencrypted.
• When the database server starts up, it accesses a password somewhere. This variant would be very complex and would jeopardize the entire system, because this access could also potentially be compromised.
• The password is provided by the client software (Vertec Session). This would mean that Vertec would have to know a secret that only Vertec knows and the user / admin does not, i.e. another symmetrically encrypted secret e.g. in the Vertec.ini – File . In addition, the question of how the database server should create readable backups would not be resolved.
• As soon as the first user accesses the database (via Vertec), they would have to enter a password. This would mean that everyone would have to know the password, which greatly diminishes the usefulness of the password.

For these reasons, the Vertec databases are operated unencrypted. Please also refer to the section Logins and passwords .

Learn more about Firebird

Firebird is an open source project, which has been continuously developed over the last few years. All information about it can be found at www.firebirdsql.org.