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FBScanner (Firebird Scanner) is a tool that can monitor and view all traffic between Firebird and InterBase servers and their client applications. It shows the real-time activity of connected clients:
- Connections (IP/Name, duration, CPU load),
- queries (query text, status, parameters)
- and transactions (with parameters).
FBScanner can be used to profile database applications, monitor user activity, manage database connections (including client disconnection on both Classic and SuperServer architecture). It’s also ideal for troubleshooting INET errors (INET/inet_error: send errno = 10054), as well as auditing existing applications and performance tuning.
FBScanner supports Firebird (V1.x and V.2x), InterBase (V4.0 to 2007). It is a useful tool for analyzing production Firebird and InterBase databases, especially if the application has been developed by third-party's and there is no source code available.
FBScanner is transparent as far as the database application is concerned and does not require any changes in application or database source code, logic or configuration.
FBScanner consists of two main parts: the service and the viewer. The FBScanner service works as a proxy of and examines all the traffic that takes place between the server instance and the client applications. The FBScanner service can work on the same computer as the database engine or on an alternative dedicated server. It analyzes all traffic between the application and the database and allows you to view and manage real-time database activity.
FBScanner V2.0 works on Windows only and requires the .NET 2.0 (or higher) Framework to be installed.
Issues that FBScanner can help to Resolve
- Real-time monitoring of connections. FBScanner shows all connections to the selected database server: the IP/DNS name of connected client, database and connection time.
- Real-time monitoring of SQL queries. For each connection FBScanner shows all the currently running SQL queries along with their transaction parameters.
- Detection of the oldest connection and the oldest active transaction to allow you to analyze that may have non-optimal transaction behaviour, or incorrect transaction design or show users who might be using the application in a manner that may be affecting performance.
- Client disconnects. Check that disconnections are taking place correctly and you can also use this software to disconnect users in order to perform maintenance or database upgrades.
- FBScanner allows the routing of specific applications or particular users to allow you to zoom in on specific applications or users.
- You can log the SQL queries. For debugging or for security FBScanner can log all the selected traffic to a special database for further analysis.
How it works
The FBScanner Service
The FBScanner service normally has to be installed on the same computer where the Firebird or InterBase server is running (as an option, you can install it on other computer and then redirect traffic to the actual Firebird or InterBase server). During installation the FBScanner configuration utility will ask you to choose: install FBScanner to the default port of InterBase or Firebird (3050) and change the configuration of Firebird service to 3052 (this can be adjusted), or install FBScanner to listen on another TCP port.
Important Note: FBScanner works only with TCP connections, so clients using either local (XNET) and NetBeui (WNET) connection strings will bypass FBScanner.
If you choose the first installation option, all of the applications requests will pass through FBScanner Service.
Clients request port 3050 -> (FBScanner Service routes traffic) -> 3052(Firebird)
Performance Impact
FBScanner does not change anything in transferred traffic and works simply like a transparent proxy, so all applications will continue as normal. FBScanner consume approximately 25-50Mb of memory (monitoring 100-200 active clients) and will decrease database performance by 5 to 10% when in use.
During testing we have checked FBScanner at work in several real-world environments and applications where the database has 30-200 active connections and noticed that the performance degradation wa minimal In most cases users were unaware of the monitoring.
Segmentation of Traffic
The use of FBScanner on a non-standard port allows it to segment different traffic from different applications.
For example, there are applications A and B. A is old and stable application which does not require any tuning or monitoring, and B is a new application. It’s easy to setup connection string for the new B application to use a non-standard port (e.g server/3052:Disk:\Path\database.gdb) and route all requests from the B application via FBScanner in order to monitor SQL queries and the application behaviour.
Application A at port 3050 -> Firebird
Application B at port 3052 -> FBScanner -> Firebird
Using this approach you can easily recognize and solve issues within a production environment, whether the issue comes from the new application, or even if it comes from particular segment of your local network.
Licensing
FBScanner is licensed on per server basis, i.e., each server requires a license to monitor it. FBScanner Viewer usage unrestricted and can be used by any number of users to work with the FBScanner service.
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