Setting up a portable Firebird Full with VS 2010

 Setting up a Portable Firebird

• Downloaded the ziped version of Firebird: 
• Firebird-2.1.3.18185-0_Win32.zip
• Extact to a folder
• I prefer classic architecture running as an application (you do not need FB Guard also The path to file with or without a missing / in the beginning will not cause DB corruption).
• Start the server with the bat file containing:
  "./FIREBIRD/bin/fb_inet_server.exe" -a -p 3050
• using this you can change the port to something else. The -p switch is optional. Even allocate the port dynamically from your application. Also you can use the -n switch to start it silently:
  "./FIREBIRD/bin/fb_inet_server.exe" -a -n -p 3050
• Stopping the portable classic server is easy. Just kill the process fb_inet_server. Of course this is assuming your application is done with everything (no pending transactions). There is no point in leaving the server running.

Changing the SYSDBA Password (default:masterkey) Actually it is masterke (since it is limited to 8 characters). But both work :)

• FIREBIRD\bin>gsec  -user sysdba -password masterkey
• GSEC>modify sysdba -pw yourpass
• GSEC>quit

yourpass will be the new password

Connect to the database (connection String):

• syntax
  IPAddress_or_ServerName/Port:Drive:\CompletePathToYourDatabasefile.fdb
• e.g
  150.236.161.183/3051:D:\database.fdb
  
• for softwares (e.g. FB development studio) that do not give you the option of port separately you need to specify the server as "IP/port". They use fbclient.dll 

For setting up Visual Studio 2010 with ADO.NET Entity Framework Designer just follow the procedure in the below post:

http://basaratali.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-firebird-development-with-vs.html

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

To run as SuperServer

• Start the server with the bat file containing:
  "./FIREBIRD/bin/fbguard.exe" -a
• Firebird should now be running fine (with an FB guard icon in the taskbar notification area) Note: there should not be any whitespace after -a switch other than newline. Otherwise FBGuard thinks you are trying to provid additional arguments and does not start.
  
• You might want to put a shortcut to this script in the startup. FB Guard ensures DB restart in case it crashes.
• Alternatively you can use fbserver.exe -a -n -p 3051
  
• This way you can even overwrite the default port on the command line (-p switch). But FB Guard is recommended for SuperServer.
  

Changing the default Port (3050) via the configuration file:

• You might want to change it so that your portable version does not conflict with firebird installed by someone else.
• open firebird.conf (in the main folder)
• Uncomment and change the following line:
  RemoteServicePort = 3051
• Restart Firebird

Choice of Firebird Architectures:
According to : http://www.slideshare.net/mindthebird/why-firebird-fact-for-decision-makers?from=ss_embed Classic can handle larger data and more users. Enough said :). Also I recommend the other presentations from : http://mindthebird.com/downloadmtb.html 

Using ISQL to create a new database (Recommended)

• isql is found in your firebird bin folder. Just double click it
• Type in the following:
  CREATE DATABASE 'D:\yourdb.fdb' user 'SYSDBA' password 'masterkey';
• Of course use your own SYSDBA password and the location of where you want the database to be.

 
Using Firebird Maestro to create a new database
I used Firebird Maestro to create the database. You need to use :

• Create New Database
• Protocol:Embedded Server
• Database:Complete path to where you want the fdb file

I feel it is the best manager directed specifically for firebird.