Firebird Database Server $MAJOR.$MINOR.$RELEASE (Release Candidate 1) ======================================================== This document is a guide to installing this package of Firebird $MAJOR.$MINOR on the Windows platform. These notes refer to the installation package itself, rather than Firebird $MAJOR.$MINOR in general. In addition, these notes are primarily aimed at users of the binary installer. It is assumed that readers of this document are already familiar with Firebird 2.5. If you are evaluating Firebird $MAJOR.$MINOR as part of a migration from Fb 2.5 you are advised to review the Fb $MAJOR.$MINOR documentation to understand the changes made between 2.5 and $MAJOR.$MINOR. Contents -------- o Before installation o Installation of MS VC runtime libraries o Deployment of gds32.dll o Installation of the Guardian o Re-installation of Firebird 3 o Other known installation problems o Uninstallation o Installation from a batch file Before installation ------------------- It is recommended that you UNINSTALL all previous versions of Firebird or InterBase before installing this package. It is especially important to verify that fbclient.dll and gds32.dll are removed from . See the UNINSTALL section below for more info on this. If you have installed a beta or alpha version firebird 3 the installer will rename firebid.conf and security3.fdb as these files are no longer compatible. Installation of MS VC runtime libraries --------------------------------------- Firebird 3 no longer needs to deploy the MSVC runtimes into the windows system directories so no redistributable run-time package is deployed. Firebird 3.0 loads the runtime libraries from the root installation directory. Deployment of gds32.dll ----------------------- This compatibility library is no longer deployed into the windows system directory by default. We cannot guarantee that the required MSVC runtimes will be available. However it remains an option at install time, along with system deployment of fbclient.dll. Be sure to check that your target system has the appropriate MSVC10 runtimes if you use these options. Installation of the Guardian ---------------------------- We are hoping to phase out the Guardian. It doesn't work with the Classic server and the binary installer does not offer it at install time if Classic is chosen. If SuperServer or SuperClassic are chosen it is offered but not selected by default. Re-installation of Firebird 3 ----------------------------- The binary installer does its best to detect and preserve a previous install. If the installer detects firebird.conf or security3.fdb it will not offer the option to install legacy_auth. Neither will it offer the option to set the SYSDBA username and password. Other known installation problems --------------------------------- o It is only possible to use the binary installer to install the default instance of Firebird $MAJOR.$MINOR. If you wish to install additional, named instances you should manually install them with the zipped install image. o Unfortunately, the installer cannot reliably detect if a previous version of Firebird Classic server is running. o There are known areas of overlap between the 32-bit and 64-bit installs: - The service installer (instsvc) uses the same default instance name for 32-bit and 64-bit installations. This is by design. Services exist in a single name space. - If the 32-bit and 64-bit control panel applets are installed they will both point to the same default instance. o Be sure to install as an administrator. ie, if using the binary installer right click and choose 'Run as administrator'. Otherwise the installer may be unable to start the Firebird service at the end of installation. o Libraries deployed by instclient may fail to load if the MS runtime libraries have not been installed. This may be a problem if installing on older Windows platforms. Uninstallation -------------- o It is preferred that this package be uninstalled correctly using the uninstallation application supplied. This can be called from the Control Panel. Alternatively it can be uninstalled by running unins000.exe directly from the installation directory. o If Firebird is running as an application (instead of as a service) it is recommended that you manually stop the server before running the uninstaller. This is because the uninstaller cannot stop a running application. If a server is running during the uninstall the uninstall will complete with errors. You will have to delete the remnants by hand. o Uninstallation leaves five files in the install directory: - databases.conf - firebird.conf - fbtrace.conf - firebird.log - security3.fdb This is intentional. These files are all potentially modifiable by users and may be required if Firebird is re-installed in the future. They can be deleted if no longer required. o A new feature of the uninstaller is an option to run it with the /CLEAN parameter. This will check the shared file count of each of the above files. If possible it will delete them. Installation from a batch file ------------------------------ The setup program can be run from a batch file. Please see this document: installation_scripted.txt for full details.