firebird-mirror/doc/install_windows_manually.txt

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Firebird 4.0 manual installation notes
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Contents
--------

o Installation as a service
o Execution as an application
o Installation with a different service name
o Initializing the Security Database
o Uninstallation


Installation as a service
-------------------------

Firebird can be manually set up to run as a service in a windows
environment by executing the following steps:

  - Make sure that an existing version of Firebird is not running.

  - Unzip the archive into the new directory.

  - Set the FIREBIRD env var to point to the root of this directory.
    (It is also recommended that the FIREBIRD env var also be used in
    the PATH env var, rather than hard-coding a path.)

  - change the current directory to where v4.0 files are located

  - Execute install_service.bat

  - optionally, you can copy fbclient.dll to the OS system directory. 
    To do so, use the provided instclient.exe tool.


Execution as an application
---------------------------

Alternatively, Firebird can be run as an application. Most of the instructions
for installing as a service should be followed. However, you should skip the
step to run the batch file.

Firebird is run as application by executing it with the -a switch:

   fbserver.exe -a


Installation with a different service name
------------------------------------------

A feature of Firebird 4.0 is the option to run multiple Firebird services
simultaneously. To do this you need to make appropriate changes to the
firebird.conf file and then run instsvc with the -name option. For example:

  instsvc install -auto -superserver -guardian -name secondservice
  instsvc start -name secondservice

The install_service.bat will do this automatically for
you. After modifying the firebird.conf file just pass the servicename as a
parameter:

  install_service.bat secondservice

NOTE: If you are running multiple Firebird services it is essential that you 
do not configure the FIREBIRD environment variable at the system level.

Initializing the Security Database
----------------------------------
The security database (security4.fdb) has no predefined users. This is intentional.
You will need to create the user SYSDBA and set up the password for it 
using SQL CREATE USER command syntax in embedded mode as your first step to getting
access to databases and utilities.

Initialization is performed in embedded mode using the isql utility. For an embedded connection, an authentication
password is not required and will be ignored if you provide one. An embedded connection will work fine
with no login credentials and "log you in" using your host credentials if you omit a user name. However, even
though the user name is not subject to authentication, creating or modifying anything in the existing security
database requires that the user be SYSDBA; otherwise, isql will throw a privilege error for the CREATE USER
request.

The SQL user management commands will work with any open database. Because the sample database employee.fdb 
is present in your installation and already aliased in databases.conf, it is convenient to use
it for the user management task.

1. Stop the Firebird server. Firebird 4 caches connections to the security database aggressively. The presence
   of server connections may prevent isql from establishing an embedded connection.
2. In a suitable shell, start an isql interactive session, opening the employee database via its alias:
    > isql -user sysdba employee
3. Create the SYSDBA user:
    SQL> create or alter user SYSDBA password 'StrongPassword';
    SQL> commit;
    SQL> quit;
4. To complete the initialization, start the Firebird server again. Now you will be able to perform a network
   login to databases, including the security database, using the password you assigned to SYSDBA.

An effective password, using the default user manager Srp, can be up to 20 characters, although a password
of up to 255 characters will be valid.

The initialization can also be scripted using the file input option of isql with the content being same as interactive usage.
> isql -i init.sql -user sysdba employee


Uninstallation
--------------

  - To remove FB 4.0 you should run the uninstall_service.bat.

  - Pass the service name as a parameter if you have installed Firebird to
    use a different service name.

  - If you used instclient to deploy a library to system32 you should run

      instclient.exe remove <libname>

  - Delete installation directory. You may wish to keep the log file, security
    database, firebird.conf and databases.conf.