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Administration Guide |
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Database Administrator's Guide |
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Audience: |
Developers |
Subject: |
Installing, configuring, and maintaining the FairCom DB Database |
Copyright: |
© Copyright 2024, FairCom Corporation. All rights reserved. For full information, see the FairCom Copyright Notice. |
The FairCom DB database server provides a powerful engine you can use in your database-driven applications. This guide explains how to install and operate the FairCom Server. Installation is simple as the FairCom Server is ready to run right out of the box. This guide explains options that allow you to fine-tune this engine your your applications.
This manual has two main purposes for the FairCom DB Server Administrator:
The FairCom DB Server Administrator has the following areas of responsibility, each of which could be divided among several people:
1. Installation
Someone, not necessarily the Administrator, must physically load the FairCom Server software onto the computing environment. Once completed, installation issues usually are no longer a concern unless the FairCom Server needs to be re-installed, for example, to install a new version. See Server Quick Start for details.
2. Operating the FairCom Server
Starting and stopping the FairCom DB Server: Any user can start the FairCom Server by running the executable module, faircom (or ctsrvr for non-SQL versions), as any other program in the environment. See FairCom DB Server Operation for details.
3. Controlling access to the FairCom Server
Begin by setting up valid User IDs and passwords (including your own). Establish rules of access to given database files. Establish groups where users and files can be associated and control access according to membership in those groups.
Use the graphical FairCom DB Monitor (c‑treeMonitor.jar) or the command-line version (ctadmn) to control access with user IDs, file passwords, file permissions, and Administrator-defined groups with specified access rights to particular files. Documentation about the graphical tools is available in the book titled Java-Based GUI Tools on the FairCom website. Details about the command-line tools is available on the FairCom website in the book titled Command-Line Tools.
ctpass is used by the Administrator or any other authorized user to change the password associated with their User ID.
ctfile is used by the Administrator or any user to change file security information on any file owned by the user. See Controlling FairCom Server Access for details.
4. Maintaining Database Integrity
Schedule and conduct backups or dumps of system generated files for later use in recovering from problems or returning a database to its status at a prior time. See Backups and Database Integrity (Backups and Data Integrity, Maintaining Database Integrity) for details regarding the tools discussed in this section.
Use the utility ctdump to schedule dynamic dumps that can be used at a later time to restore database files or to roll back to a state at a previous point in time.
ctrdmp works with information saved in a dynamic dump to either recover from a catastrophic system failure by restoring specified files to a consistent, well-defined state or to roll back specified files to their state at a specified time.
Use the utility ctfdmp to recover from a catastrophic failure using a previously saved dynamic dump or complete backup, which may be made using any standard backup utility. This allows you to restore backups then ‘roll forward’ to a given time using preserved log files.
(For programmers) Use the ctldmp utility to carry out a transaction log dump, which records partial log-related information, for use in application development.
5. Configuring the FairCom Server
Understand how the FairCom Server is currently configured and, optionally, change configuration settings (e.g., to set memory allocation limits, to select communication protocols, to activate a particular dump description script).
The FairCom Server is started by any user authorized to start faircom (or ctsrvr). Routine starting of the FairCom Server is not necessarily a major responsibility for the Administrator.
The User ID “ADMIN” (default password is “ADMIN”) and members of the ADMIN group are the only users who can access ctstop, the utility for stopping the FairCom Server, so stopping the FairCom Server is always a major Administrator responsibility.
6. Customize the FairCom Server
No configuration file is required, but if the FairCom Server is to be reconfigured to replace any default settings, a file named ctsrvr.cfg must be created for the server to load at startup. See Configuring the FairCom Server for details.
Note: Utility names and methods of executing them may vary slightly in different environments, so see the individual sections in this manual for specifics.
The basic topics covered here are for orientation only. Installation and Operating the FairCom Server, are considered required reading for FairCom DB Server Administrators. FairCom Server Access Configuration, Backups and Database Integrity (Backups and Data Integrity, Maintaining Database Integrity), Configuration File Format, and Basic Keywords are recommended reading. The rest of FairCom DB Configuration Options is optional and intended for advanced users.
