Re: DB's on CD's (again)

[ posted and mailed ] Chuck Jackson wrote: > What we want to do is put historical OL 5.0 databases (along with the > 4GL's > that are current w/ the data) onto CD-ROM where they can STILL be > accessed ON LINE. [...] We want to make "last year's" DB static but > also available for query and reporting (thru the 4GL's that currently > accompany it.) Chuck, we had a similar problem a while ago when our Mainframe with several year's worth of legacy data was phased out. Initially we wanted to be able to access the data via Informix, so we could use the same programs that we are using for our current Informix database. We planned to create an SE database, load all the data into it and then move the whole .dbs directory onto a CD-R. I asked in this newsgroup about this, but all the responses I got were like "It has never been done, but might be possible. Let us know if it works." We finally decided against this because we only need those data every once in a while, and now have them in two flat files that we "query" with UNIX statements like grep, awk etc. I don't think that you can put a complete Online database onto CD-ROM because Online needs things like a writable physical log. There is a product called Online-Optical which allows you to put BLOB data onto WORM drives, but AFAIK not other data or complete databases. However, I am still rather sure that it should be possible to put a SE database onto CD-ROM for read-only access. Even if it is a database with transactions, you can always put the log file onto a writable file system with the START DATABASE WITH LOG IN "<full pathname>" command before transfering it onto CD-R. Since SE uses the standard UNIX file I/O, I see no reason why this should not work. Even if your database is larger than fits onto a single CD-R, you can put your tables into different directories with the CREATE TABLE statement (Option IN "<full pathname>" for SE) and then mount the CDs on these directories. Hope this helps, Richard -- +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-3413 | | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-8886 | | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+