Setting Up Network Communications for Servers
How to Configure Network Communications for PSQL Engines
The following topics cover the types of network communication protocols supported by PSQL, their default settings, and how to set protocol support for your network.
Determining What Kind of Network You Have
This topic explains how to determine the network protocol that you should use with the database engine. If you already know what protocols are supported on your network, you can skip this section.
•If your network is 100% Microsoft and you have a database Server engine, then your network probably uses TCP/IP. The Server engine does not support NetBIOS.
•If your network is 100% Microsoft and you are using Workgroup engines, then you can use either NetBIOS or TCP/IP.
•You can run applications over SPX on Microsoft networks if the applications use only the PSQL MicroKernel Engine (Btrieve or ODBC).
Engine Network Communication Settings
This section lists the configuration settings used by the PSQL engines for network communication. These settings may be changed using a command line utility or from within PCC on the engine properties.
The Advanced Operations Guide provides detailed information about each of the settings. See the following configuration settings in Advanced Operations Guide for network communication:
Setting Up TCP/IP Support
By default, TCP/IP is supported between PSQL clients and remote database engines or between multiple Workgroup engines. If you have modified the default settings or need to verify that TCP/IP support is available, refer to this section.
Note To perform any of the tasks in this section, you must have full administrator-level rights on the machine where the database engine is running, or be a member of the Pervasive_Admin group defined on the machine where the database engine is running.
►To Enable TCP/IP Support
Complete the following steps to ensure that the database engine can communicate with clients over TCP/IP networks.
1 Access Control Center (PCC) from the operating system Start menu or Apps screen.
2 In the PSQL Explorer, double-click Engines to display a list of the engines registered with PCC.
3 Right-click the target engine and click Properties. Login if prompted.
4 Click Communication Protocols, and the list of Supported protocols displays. If the list of Supported protocols shows the value TCP/IP checked, then TCP/IP is already supported.
5 Click TCP/IP then restart the database engine for the changes to take effect.
►To Enable Multihomed TCP/IP Support
Completing the following steps configures your Windows server to use two installed network cards.
1 Access Control Center (PCC) from the operating system Start menu or Apps screen.
2 In the PCC PSQL Explorer, double-click Engines to display the list of registered engines with PCC.
3 Right-click the target engine and click Properties. Log in if prompted.
4 Click Communication Protocols and click TCP/IP Multihomed to configure the server engine to listen for client connections on multiple network interfaces.
If you only have one network interface, this setting is ignored.
5 Restart the server engine for the changes to take effect. You do not need to make any changes to client settings.
Note If your server computer has two network interfaces, and you set the value of
TCP/IP Multihomed to
Off, you must edit the setting
Listen IP Address and specify the TCP/IP address of the interface on which you want the database engine to listen.
If you do not specify an IP address, the database engine will receive communications only from the first network interface to bind to the operating system. Because this can vary with driver installation, a working system can easily break after receiving driver updates. To avoid this problem, always set Listen IP Address.
Setting Up SPX Support
SPX is supported between PSQL clients and servers. If you have modified the default settings or need to verify that SPX support is available, refer to this section.
Your SPX Frame Type network setting does not have any effect on PSQL. All computers communicating over SPX should be configured for the same SPX Frame Type. The information given here is based on the Ethernet_802.2 frame type.
Note In order to perform any of the tasks in this section, you must be a member of the Pervasive_Admin group defined on the server.
►To Enable SPX Support
Complete the following steps to ensure that the database server engine can communicate with clients over SPX networks.
Note In an all-Microsoft environment, SPX can be used with applications that use only the PSQL MicroKernel Engine. Applications that use only the MicroKernel Engine do not require name resolution with SPX.
1 Access Control Center (PCC) from the operating system Start menu or Apps screen.
2 In the PCC PSQL Explorer, double-click Engines to display a list of the engines registered with PCC.
3 Right-click the target engine then click Properties. Login if prompted.
4 Click Communication Protocols, and the list of Supported protocols displays. If SPX is checked, then SPX is already supported.
5 Click SPX then restart the database engine for the changes to take effect.
Setting Up NetBIOS Support (Workgroup only)
By default, NetBIOS is supported among PSQL Workgroup engines. If you have modified the default settings or need to verify that NetBIOS support is available, refer to this section.
Note In order to perform any of the tasks in this section, you must be seated at the console of the machine running the Workgroup engine. You cannot remotely configure the Workgroup engine.
►To Enable NetBIOS Support
Complete the following steps to ensure that the database engine can communicate with clients over NetBIOS networks.
1 Access Control Center (PCC) from the operating system Start menu or Apps screen.
2 In the PSQL Explorer, double-click Engines to display a list of the engines registered with PCC.
3 Right-click the target engine then click Properties. Login if prompted.
4 Click Communication Protocols, and the list of Supported protocols displays. If NetBIOS is checked, then NetBIOS is already supported.
5 Click NetBIOS then restart the database engine for the changes to take effect.
Avoiding Unavailable Protocols
It may be possible to improve performance on the initial connection to the database by disabling database communications support for any protocols that are not available on your network or that you do not wish to use.
In order to perform any of the procedures in this section you must have one of the following:
•full administrator-level rights on the machine where the database engine is running
•membership in the Pervasive_Admin group defined on the machine where the database engine is running.
Note In order to perform any of the tasks in this section, you must be seated at the console of the machine running the Workgroup engine. You cannot remotely configure the Workgroup engine.
►To Remove Support for a Network Protocol
Note This procedure does not affect your operating system configuration in any way. This procedure only prevents the database communications system from attempting communications on unavailable or undesired protocols.
1 Access Control Center (PCC) from the operating system Start menu or Apps screen.
2 In the PCC PSQL Explorer, double-click Engines to display a list of the engines registered with PCC.
3 Right-click the target engine then click Properties. Login if prompted.
4 Click Communication Protocols, and the list of Supported protocols displays. Selected protocols are considered available for use by the engine.
5 Clear the check box for any of the selected protocols that are not supported on your network or that you do not wish to use.
You must leave at least one protocol selected.
6 Click OK then restart the database engine for the changes to take effect.