Running GSEC Remotely

Coming in Firebird 2.0

GSEC can be used to administer the security database on a remote server. To do this you must supply the remote security database name on the commandline as shown in the following example which connects my Windows XP client version of GSEC to my Linux server named Ganymede and allows me to manage the users on my Linux server.

C:\>gsec -database ganymede:/opt/firebird/security.fdb 
         -user sysdba -password masterkey
GSEC>

Note

In the above example, I have split the full commandline over two lines. This is to prevent it 'falling off' the right side of the page when this chapter is rendered as a PDF document. The whole command should, and must, be typed on a single line.

Once connected to the remote security database, you can manipulate users in the normal manner in either interactive or batch modes as described above.

Coming in Firebird 2.0

Under Firebird 2.0 there is a new commandline option of -server which allows the administrator the ability to maintain user details remotely without having to remember the full path name to the security database on all Firebird servers.

Using this new option is similar to the current -database option, however, from Firebird 2.0 the -database option will be deprecated and may be completely removed in a future version.

Taking the remote access example above, under Firebird 2.0 it will look similar to the example below.

C:\>gsec -server ganymede -user sysdba -password masterkey
GSEC>

The version of GSEC provided in Firebird 2.0 can be used to maintain the security database on previous versions of Firebird and it is hoped, Interbase from version 6.0 upwards. However, under version 2.0 of Firebird, the format of the security database will be changed and because of this, GSEC from an older version cannot be used to maintain the security database for Firebird 2.0.