Firebird

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 (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.

Password specifies the password to log in to the Firebird server. This value is retrieved during Vertec installation and entered encrypted here. If for some reason this did not work or you need to change the password, you can encrypt your password using the Customer Portal and enter it here.

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 .

Firebird comes without a GUI Manager program by default. Therefore, the Vertec Setup also installs an administration program in the Vertec installation directory, with which Firebird database files (*.fdb) can be opened by double-clicking.

As of Vertec version 6.7.0.11 this is the Firebird Editor Pro, in earlier versions IBQ.

Firebird Editor Pro

The Firebird Editor Pro is stored in the FirebirdeditorPro folder in the installation directory of Vertec.

To open Vertec databases conveniently by double-clicking directly in Firebird Editor Pro, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the Windows explorer and right-click on a Firebird database, e.g. on Vertec.fdb and select Open with > Choose another app.
2. In the appearing dialog, select FirebirdEditorPro and click on Always.

The first time you open a Vertec database with Firebird Editor Pro, you will need to enter your Firebird login (see Logins and passwords section above):

This is stored by default and is no longer queried for further accesses to the same database.

Then the Vertec database opens:

To manually create index statistics, see Database performance and index statistics.

For more information about Firebird Editor Pro, see https://www.texteditor.pro/firebird/.

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

IBQ

The program IBQ.exe is located in the Vertec versions before 6.7.0.11.

In IBQ under Session > Preference > Configuration the following settings must be made:

If the .fdb file extension is associated with IBQ (“Open file with,” see above), the Vertec databases can be opened directly by double-clicking.

You can find more information about IBQ under https://www.mitec.cz/wp/mibq/.

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

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.