0

I have received a .fdb file along with a username and password. How do I setup a ODBC drive to retrieve data out of it. (This file was transferred to me via dropbox and I don't have a Firebird server setup yet)

Mark Rotteveel
  • 100,966
  • 191
  • 140
  • 197
Krishna Vanapamula
  • 1
  • Have you read [the documentation](https://firebirdsql.org/file/documentation/html/en/refdocs/fbodbc20/firebird-odbc-driver-20-manual.html)? Exactly what are you stuck on? You need a Firebird server (or Firebird Embedded) to open the database. Username and password are not tied to a database file, so are irrelevant, and the proper way to transfer a database is using a backup (having a copy of the database itself can result in problems with mismatched versions or platform differences). – Mark Rotteveel Jul 30 '21 at 07:59

1 Answers1

1

  1. Use IB Surgeon FirstAid to check the file format (ODS - on-disk structure). And that your file actually is a Firebird file not something else. You would probably have to subtract 32768 from the first number in the ODS value. See also How to easily determine version of .fdb-file (Firebird database)

  2. Knowing the ODS determine Firebird version that can open this file. Your real choice would probably be between FB 2.5, 3.0 and (rare case for today) 4.0. FB 2.5 is backward compatible down to ODS 9 of Interbase 5.x of 1990-s. But FB 3 and FB 4 are not compatible with different ODS than their only one. ODS table can, among many places, be looked at https://ib-aid.com/en/articles/all-firebird-and-interbase-on-disk-structure-ods-versions/

  3. Try to use Firebird Embedded, which ignores username and password and gives you access to all data regardless of it. Easy to do with FB 2.5 on Windows, more complex with FB3+ or FB2/Linux

  4. If you can not, then install a normal, standalone Firebird server, and then create the user in it (that you were given the name for), with any password of your choice.

  5. Open the database file using usual Firebird development tools (IBExpert Personal, FlameRobin or any other) using the given username and the password you made (for standalone FB, for embedded FB - any username and password would do). Check that you can see the tables and data in them.

  6. Install ODBC driver for Firebird (but notice that driver is almost abandoned and did not see updates for long, so if possible use some other database API instead) and make the settings for DSN matching ones you did in step 5.

Arioch 'The
  • 15,799
  • 35
  • 62