Bill, we have been running what in our understanding was a "huge" mixed dBase/Delphi 7 application until 2006. DBFs until 2004, then switched to Firebird for data, then replaced (nearly) all code by C#/.net.
When the performance of an application on a well equipped Classic Server is worse or even much worse than on a weak SuperServer which also runs RDP sessions, then definitely something is wrong in the total application setup. >From 2004 to 2006 we have been using dBase/BDE to access a ClassicServer 1.5.2 on a 4GB XEON. Even when the CPU runs at 70% and there virtually is no RAM left, any query sent from a 2012 client machine still runs much faster on the CS than on a locally installed SuperServer. There are people who can help you improving your application setup, to get a huge performance boost, but it most likely requires some changes in code and attitude. The weakest among many weak points in using dBase/BDE as frontend for SQL databases is the lack of a good datagrid. dBase/BDE requires constant read/write connections and a lot of silly indexes to work smoothly. I think this stuff does not really belong here, but there is a specialized Newsgroup for this: news.dBase.com, group "SQL-Servers". You don't need a login and password there. You will meet several people who are using dBase/BDE/Firebird. You will get step-by-step help there to improve the Firebird experience. > Thanks for the information. In regards to the Windows 2003 Server > running RDP, it is running Firebird Superserver 2.1.3 32-bit. What I > have noticed is it only uses 1 CPU and it is running at 60-100% > utilization. In regards to the dbase Plus programs, there are some > dbase files used in conjunction with the firebird files. We have > experimented with a Windows 2008 Server, 64-bit with 8gb RAM, dual > E5430 XEON processors and Firebird 2.5.2 64bit. Firebird utilized > the multiple CPUs and the Utilization never went above 19%, but the > performance was worse. We also encountered frequent not-responding > messages during program execution. The screen goes white. There is > no certain pattern to the not responding messages and in some cases > the program ends normally, but in a few cases, the program ends > without completing. If you run the same programs from a workstation > with firebird 2.5.2 client-only install, they run properly, but run > much slower. The test workstation is an Intel I5-661 with 4gb of memory and > Windows 7 32-bit. > --- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, André Knappstein <Knappstein@...> > wrote: >> >> If you have enough know-how to manage all the basic linux stuff, then >> go with a linux system. If you don't then better use windows. >> >> But something else needs your attention (or mine *g*). >> Are you using StoredProc objects in dBPlus 2.6 to deal with stored >> procedures in Firebird? >> If so you should be warned, there is an undocumented bug in dBase >> that - only on XEON systems - leads to exceptions in the dBase >> StoredProc object. The bug persists in the freshly released dBase plus >> 8. >> >> If your application experience is fine with RDP sessions, then keep >> it. Never change something you are satisfied with! >> If you will go real client/server, you might get a huge improvement, >> because a lot of workload is transmitted to the quite >> potential workstations. Depending on how complex your GUI stuff is, >> this can render a huge performance gain for the server, which in turn >> can much better use the power for the database stuff. >> But if your implementation is not too clean, you also might >> experience the opposite! >> 2.6.2 still is firmly tied to the BDE, which means you need a special >> approach to use dBase as front end for *any* SQL server backend. >> >> So far you only needed changes in pixels to go over the wire. >> Full client/server would also mean that the data you operate on will >> have to go over the wire. >> You better make sure that data is as small as you really need. >> >> Typical dbase/BDE behaviour is: create many many many indexes with the >> poorest of selectivity *and* doing a full table select as often as >> possible. This will break your neck in client/server. >> >> >> >> > We are trying to determine the best platform for Firebird SQL >> > 2.5.2. Our firebird databases are 40-60gb in size and are being >> > accessed by dbase plus 2.6.2 programs. Currently we are running on >> > Windows 2003 Server with dual Intel XEON E5430 quad-core processors >> > and 8gb RAM. This server is being accessed with Windows Remote >> > Desktop. We are in the process of replacing this server with a new >> > server using 2 Intel XEON E5-2640 processors and 16gb of RAM. We are >> > trying to determine whether we should go with Windows or Linux. We >> > also want to consider client/server versus the current model we are >> > using. We would use Intel I7-3770K processors with 8gb of ram for >> > workstations. >> >> >>
