How to run Interbase developer in 10.4 and 11

[Gary 18]

Hello all,

 

I just installed Delphi 11 along with the developer edition of Interbase. All worked fine until I tried connecting from Delphi 10.4.

 

After trial and error I found that both installations create a developer_ib2020 instance. However each version uses it's own location path and the other cannot connect to this instance. C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\21.0\InterBase2020 for 10.4 and C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\22.0\InterBase2020 for Delphi 11.

 

So after installing Delphi 11 the Interbase Server Manager root directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\22.0\InterBase2020, and connections from Delphi 11 work fine, but not from Delphi 10.4

 

If I load Delphi 10.4 and reinstall Interbase the Server Manager root directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\21.0\InterBase2020, and now connections work from Delphi 10.4 but not Delphi 11.

 

How do I go about installing Interbase Developer so that I can connect from either version? 

I did find an article that Error: Unavailable Database (embarcadero.com)  and Changing InterBase connection defaults in RAD Studio (embarcadero.com) but no Joy.

 

 

[Hans J. Ellingsgaard 21]

If you connect via tcp/ip, it should not matter where your Interbase binaries are located, as long as the interbase service is running. You also need to check wich port it is running on. Normaly it's on port 3050.

[Gary 18]

I don't think Developer edition allows that. Just tried tcp/ip localhost anyway and received "Unable to complete network request..." 

[Hans J. Ellingsgaard 21]

Yes, the developer edition can run via tcp. Have you checked wich port it's using? You can do that with netstat. You should also be able to telnet the portnumber..

 

[corneliusdavid 220]

2 hours ago, Gary said:

How do I go about installing Interbase Developer so that I can connect from either version? 

Reinstall one of them to use a different port and instance name.  Then when you add a connection specify which port to connect.

[corneliusdavid 220]

However, I should ask why you would need two instances of the same version of InterBase running on the same machine--and likely using the same license...  Why not just use the existing installed IB from both versions of Delphi?

[Gary 18]

Hans,

 

My Apologies, it does work if I  leave the port number blank.

BTW I am trying to connect from the IDE, should have mentioned that. I simply add a FDConnection (or Unidac Connection) to a form and try connecting to the sample data, nothing fancy.

 

So the last IDE to install Interbase can set protocol to "local" and leave server blank, but to work on any other version you need to use tcp/ip. That applies to the connections in the Data Explorer as well. I had to modify each connection. 

 

That's great!

Thank you.

 

The last article in my original post talked about the install setting up IDE, I did find 2 environment variables dealing with Interbase but adjusting them had no effect. Still it must be possible to adjust the IDE to your preferred locations so they work as intended (protocol = local) 

 

 

[Gary 18]

David,

 

My sentiments exactly! However I must have missed something because if you select Interbase as a feature when installing you are never asked setup questions and it just overwrites the developer_ib2020 settings, as well as setting IDE environment variables.

 

This of course could be all me. I just let the installer do it's thing and ended up with this situation. If I had experience with Interbase maybe I could have installed it differently. Maybe I shouldn't have selected Interbase when installing Delphi 11 since it was already on the machine? Maybe the install would have picked this up, or it may not have even been necessary at all, I could just have used the TCPIP settings in Delphi 11.

 

I see you have multiple server instances in IBConsole. How did you set them up? One of my attempts to solve my problem, I downloaded the separate install of Interbase, and could create separate instances during the install, but I can't see any way to do that later.

 

Thank you for the response

Gary

[corneliusdavid 220]

8 minutes ago, Gary said:

if you select Interbase as a feature when installing

When I installed Delphi 11, I skipped the InterBase install since I already had IB 2020 installed so I only have one instance of IB 2020 installed on my developer machine.

 

9 minutes ago, Gary said:

I see you have multiple server instances in IBConsole. How did you set them up?

OK, I should explain--that screenshot is misleading. I originally installed IB 2020 with Delphi 10.4 on my developer machine. Then, I started doing some testing with web modules on my Windows Server under IIS so installed IB 2020 on there. After I registered that and started using it there, when I try to open a database on my developer machine, it tells me the license is already in use. I need to uninstall it from my developer machine--the only one I can really use in that screenshot is the one at the IP address that points to my Windows server.  I included the screenshot to show that it's possible to register multiple databases with different instance names and ports. Sorry for the confusion.

 

But to answer your question about how to setup up multiple databases in IBConsole (if that's what you wanted to know), when you right+click on "InterBase Servers" and select Add..., you get prompted for local or remote.  For my Windows Server, I selected Remote and entered it like this:

 

Hope that helps.

[Gary 18]

If you skipped the Interbase install, does firedac connect to the databases in Data Explorer or did you need to modify them? If not then that is the way to go!

 

My question about server instances had to do with the install I did of the standalone DB. It asked if I wanted multiple instances, I said yes and was able to set up 2 different ones. I was hoping it was possible to do this at any time not just during install. My intent was to set up instances using different paths in hopes that it would fix the problem. Turns out I just needed to use TCPIP.

 

Still, installation is able to set something inside the IDE so that it can use the local protocol. That should be configurable somewhere.

[corneliusdavid 220]

10 minutes ago, Gary said:

If you skipped the Interbase install, does firedac connect to the databases in Data Explorer?

Yes, FireDAC can connect to local or remote database, the same as IBConsole and you can view remote data from within the Delphi IDE. You just specify the SERVER and PORT to point to the other machine. And, of course, remember that the database filename is local to the SERVER, not the local machine (e.g. don't give the network share name of the location of the database).

 

13 minutes ago, Gary said:

It asked if I wanted multiple instances, I said yes and was able to set up 2 different ones.

One thing to keep in mind if you have multiple instances of InterBase: each one has to be licensed separately--you can't use the same license for two different ones.  It'll probably run fine for a short while but you'll soon run into the license problem like I did.