HQbird 2018: New version of advanced FirebirdSQL distribution

We are glad to release the new major version of advanced Firebird (2.5 and 3.0) distribution: HQbird 2018. The key new features are the following:

  1. Online initialization of asynchronous replication (in the Enterprise edition). Now it is possible to initialize and re-initialize database replicas with zero downtime of the master server.
  2. Automatic performance monitoring (in all editions), with the performance reports which show the slowest and the most frequent SQL queries, and with the advanced monitoring of long-running active transactions.
  3. Pool of connections for external statements (for version 2.5) which greatly increases the performance of Execute On External statements
  4. Pool of prepared statements (for version 3.0) which greatly improves the performance in case of frequent parametrized queries
  5. New version of Firebird SQL Studio, now with the support of encrypted databases

Please refer to HQbird User Guide for more details!

For those, who downloaded trials of previous HQbird versions: we have reset all previous trial registrations to the end of December 2017.

All registered users of HQbird 2015, HQbird 2016 and HQbird 2017 will receive the free upgrade to HQbird 2018!
For Windows users – it is possible to install HQbird 2018 over the existing installation and keep the configuration.

HQbird 2018 comes in 3 editions:

  • Standard ($399): automatic backups, automatic maintenance, and automatic performance monitoring
  • Professional ($599): Standard + Recovery tools (FirstAID Tech Support) + SQL Studio.
  • Enterprise ($799): Professional+ replication (asynchronous and synchronous)

More details here: https://ib-aid.com/en/hqbird-features

Please feel free to ask any questions through email support@ib-aid.com

UDFs are deprecated in Firebird 4

From Firebird 3 to 4 list of know incompatibilities file :

UDFs are deprecated in v.4. That means that UDFs can’t be used with default configuration (parameter “UdfAccess” set to “None”) and all sample UDF libraries (ib_udf, fbudf) are not distributed any more. Most of functions in that libraries were replaced with builtin analogs in previous versions and therefore already deprecated. A few remaining functions got safe replacement in UDR library “udf_compat“, namely div, frac, dow, sdow, getExactTimestampUTC and isLeapYear. Users who still wish to use UDFs should set “UdfAccess” to “Restrict <path-list>”. If you never used to modify this parameter before path-list is just UDF and resulting line in firebird.conf should be:
UdfAccess = Restrict UDF
Recommended long-term solution is replacing of UDF with UDR.

Ps: Here is the related git commit .

Fast, Furious, and Cheap: server with good-enough performance for small business database for less than US$1000

It is easy to get a powerful server if you are ready to spend many $$$: there are leading vendors like Dell, HP, and many less known hardware companies, they will be happy to sell you a powerful machine.
However, money is always a problem, especially for small businesses and start-ups, so there is a great demand for «good-enough» cheap solutions.

The new article from IBSurgeon describes the practical approach for building «good-enough» database server with the sufficient performance for small business. It also contains calculations and links to the specific products we recommend.
Fast and Cheap Server?

Firebird 4 alpha

Firebird Project announces the first Alpha release of Firebird 4.0, the next major version of the Firebird relational database, which is now available for testing.

This Alpha release arrives with an early preview of the features and improvements currently under development by the Firebird development team, as well as with countless bugfixes. Our users are appreciated giving it a try and providing feedback to this mailing list. Apparent bugs can be reported directly to the bugtracker.

Alpha releases are not encouraged for production usage or any other goals that require a stable system. They are, however, recommended for those users who want to help in identifying issues and bottlenecks thus allowing to progress faster through the Beta/RC stages towards the final release.

Please read the Release Notes carefully before installing and testing this Alpha release.

Download page:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/firebird-4-0-0-alpha1/

Release Notes:
http://web.firebirdsql.org/downloads/prerelease/v40alpha1/Firebird-4.0.0_Alpha1-ReleaseNotes.pdf


Dmitry Yemanov

Fighting Petya: our experience with retrieving data from the Firebird database files encrypted by ransomware crypto-viruses

As you know, recently several crypto viruses have attacked many companies – most well-known are Wannacry and Petya. Usually, as reported by many companies, it is necessary to pay a ransom, or, in the case of Petya, all encrypted files will be lost.

Read how we can defeat Petya:
https://ib-aid.com/en/articles/fighting-petya-our-experience-with-retrieving-data-from-the-firebird-database-files-encrypted-by-ransomware-crypto-viruses/

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