Client Server Database

January 30, 2007 10:32 AM

This is probably impossible but... Is there an open source client-server database that I can put on a shared Windows xp server without actually installing it? In other words simply copy up a bunch of files and have it work without going through a standard windows installation involving writing to the Registry etc... Actually i dont even care if its open source as long as it is small and relatively inexpensive. thanks in advance.
posted by rhcclark to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

What do you mean by client-server database?
posted by cmicali at 10:38 AM on January 30, 2007

MySQL can be run directly from e.g. a USB-stick without installation. See e.g. here for one distribution of it. It might be possible to run postgresql in a similar way, but at least in september it seemed like nobody had done it.
posted by rpn at 10:51 AM on January 30, 2007

I use WOS portable to test MySQL databases.
posted by ijsbrand at 10:55 AM on January 30, 2007

MySQL and Postgresql should both work fine, in that they just have a server binary that you run and it listens on a given socket or named pipe. They probably have an installer that tries to install this as a service (which would require an actual installation) but that is not necessary. Just unpack all the files, edit the config files, and as long as you have the right directory structure and correct options set you should be able to start the server.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:42 AM on January 30, 2007

I think SQLite will do this.
posted by SpecialK at 11:52 AM on January 30, 2007

Caveat: None of the above may be able to open a port through the windows firewall and be accessible as a server for remote clients without going through a windows install process.
posted by SpecialK at 11:54 AM on January 30, 2007

It sounds to me like you're looking for something like Microsoft Access. If you're developing the client in Java, then Apache Derby may work for you.
posted by jknecht at 3:01 PM on January 30, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the comments. What im trying to do is write a front end in MS Access 2002 but use an odbc connected client server back end.
posted by rhcclark at 5:55 PM on January 30, 2007

I believe XAMPP' does this. Dont download the installer just a .zipped version. You'll get SQL and you can develop the front end in php.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html


http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:04 PM on January 30, 2007

If you want the DB server to run automatically when the server starts up you're going to need to write something to the registry.

If you are looking for a way to use a filesystem based mutiuser database on a fileserver, I don't know what your options are these days. Once upon a time you would have used FoxBase or something.
posted by Good Brain at 7:27 PM on January 30, 2007

What im trying to do is write a front end in MS Access 2002 but use an odbc connected client server back end.


It's been a while since I worked with Access (Access-97, I think), but with that version, you could separate the front-end from the back-end, and use odbc to point to the database on a network file share -- I think there was even a wizard that would do this for you. Does this no longer work? Does nit not meet your requirements? Why does the database have to be a "server"?
posted by jknecht at 6:33 AM on January 31, 2007

Here's a link that might help explain what I'm talking about.

Oh, and another one from Microsoft.
posted by jknecht at 6:37 AM on January 31, 2007

And while I'm at it, if you really need a true database server, you may be interested to know that Oracle offers a free database server. The restrictions are: (1) only 1 instance per server, (2) may only be executed on one CPU, (3) up to 4GB of data, and (4) it may use up to 1GB of RAM on the host server.

IBM also offers a free version of DB2. This version is a little less restrictive than Oracle (up to 2 processors, 4GB of RAM, and unlimited data).

In my experience, DB2 has a few more "quirks" than Oracle, and I think that most Windows installations will have an Oracle driver already installed (this is not the case with DB2).

Microsoft also has a free database offering (SQL Server 2005 Express), but I'm not sure that theirs allows remote client attachments (I could be wrong -- I've been out of the Microsoft circle for a while).

In either case (as in the case of the other database servers suggested above), the registry will be updated on the server machine. But (also like the cases above), there is no need to update registry entries on the clients.

Good luck with your project. Sounds like fun.
posted by jknecht at 8:30 AM on January 31, 2007