database performance - test setup

database performance: test setup: Firebird

Firebird was open sourced in 2000, but it has not had the same level of success as MySQL and Postgres.
The current release is v1.5, but we also tested the 2.0 beta release for x86. (2.0 did not install cleanly on Fedora x86_64)

There are 2 main types of builds: the "Superserver" and the "Classic server". We went for the Superserver because it scales better with higher number of connections (although it lacks SMP support).

After downloading the RPM packages by hand, yum installed it after bringing some compatibility libraries as dependencies (compat-libstdc++-33):

yum install ./FirebirdSS-2.0.0.12748-0.amd64.rpm
chkconfig firebird on
/etc/init.d/firebird start

This takes care of the installation of the software, now for adding a database user, you must use the gsec utility. The original sysdba password is stored in plain text in the file SYSDBA.password.

./bin/gsec -user sysdva -password masterkey
> add test -pw test -fname test
> quit

Then to create a database (we create a directory to place the database files):

mkdir db && chown firebird.firebird db
echo "create database '/opt/firebird/db/test.fdb';" \
 | ./bin/isql /opt/firebird/examples/employee.fdb -u test -p test

The database can then be accessed with the following JDBC url:
jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost:3050//opt/firebird/db/test.fdb
The default connections will use isolation level 2: "Read Committed".