Re: [Firebird-devel] Feature request: database registration via aliases.conf, databases system tabl

 On 04/13/11 12:02, Geoff Worboys wrote:
>>> Why: developers/end users can more easily choose and connect
>>> to a database on a Firebird server, even point and click.
>> Point and click should be implemented by client, not by server.
> I cannot speak for the original author, but it seems to me the
> one BIG advantage of offering aliases.conf via a system table
> (even if limited to RDB$ADMIN) is the ability to let Firebird
> take care of the network connection/transfer aspects.
>
> That is:  At the moment maintenance of aliases.conf (and
> Firebird.conf) must necessarily take place outside Firebird.

Yes, and this is like all secure daemons work. Have you ever seen
something like DNS server, which changes it's configuration itself? Or
HTTP server, doing such tricks? File sharing daemon like samba can
change own configuration if it's conf file is shared, but for me this
means badly administered site. (And even in this case one can't make
changes active, i.e. restart samba). Why should database access server
modify his configuration?

> If access were offered via system tables then Firebird is able
> to use existing authentication and connection facilities that
> the developer can take advantage of to then offer point and
> click to administrative users.  That is: a developer need only
> learn one API to maintain their server, regardless of what
> operating system the server runs on.  This is quite a big plus
> from a developer's perspective: one interface and set of
> instructions to offer the user, however installed.
>
> Certainly access to such a feature would need to be very
> carefully controlled.  The current system of offering no
> access at all is quite secure - or at least secure from the
> point of view of Firebird, what the implementers may end up
> doing to work around the limitation (eg: sharing the program
> folder so remote administrators can access the files) is
> something quite different, but from Firebird's perspective
> that is SEP (Someone Else's Problem).
>
> So I can see the advantages of the suggestion.

To have all mentioned facilities one needs another tool - additional
service to manage server operation. And such tools exist - see for
example fbDataGuard.