Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different IPs

[JustMe]

A question I cannot find in the Docs or KB: DBs, can ones, on the same server, have the same name but different IPs
I need to setup a development database, I would like to use the same names that are in production, I was wondering if I can specify the IP address for the dev DBs? They will be running on the same server, will this cause me trouble (or is it even possible?)? I do not have multiple licensees so a separate server is not possible (unless I misunderstand the license). Any help is appreciated. I even tried proserve -help to no avail.

Thank you in advance ...

 

[Stefan]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Databases are served with a port number - you select the port number when serving and connecting with -S.

You can have multiple databases with the same physical name but different port numbers. Note that in OpenEdge Eplorer the placeholder names will need to be unique, but these have no relevance to connecting to the database.

Hmmm... You want different IP addresses for the databases. Not sure about this at all.

 

[Cringer]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Why would you want different IP Addresses? That doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[JustMe]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Databases are served with a port number - you select the port number when serving and connecting with -S.

You can have multiple databases with the same physical name but different port numbers. Note that in OpenEdge Eplorer the placeholder names will need to be unique, but these have no relevance to connecting to the database.

Hmmm... You want different IP addresses for the databases. Not sure about this at all.

It is easier to separate (at least in my old programming life) the environments by IP so that I do not walk on the production databases :-S

Thanks for the help, can it be done?

 

[JustMe]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Why would you want different IP Addresses? That doesn't make much sense to me.

It is easier to separate (at least in my old programming life) the environments by IP so that I do not walk on the production databases :-S I used the IP to prevent cross connection, If I use the ports and do not check to make sure I am pointing to the correct DB (port) I can "get the monkey" (an OH-NO token put on the desk of the last person that messed up). It is just the way I protected prod in my old job.

Thanks for the help,

 

[Rob Fitzpatrick]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

I tend to protect prod by segregating it from non-production, i.e. on a separate server, whether physical or virtual.

You may want to talk to your sales rep or vendor about licensing constraints, but first arm yourself with information. If you are a Progress AP, read the OpenEdge licensing guide and pull down an up-to-date media status report from the Customer Service portal. Some Progress license models are single-server and some are multi-server; I can't advise you on your situation.

That said, I don't think this business with different IPs gives you anything like real security/accident prevention. In my experience if you try to make an application idiot-proof, someone eventually builds a better idiot. Yes, people can use the wrong port and thus connect to the wrong environment. They can also use the wrong IP address and port and defeat your "protection" scheme in the same way.

You can choose to differentiate by IP address, but that's pretty limiting and makes the networking more complicated than it needs to be. However it should be possible. According to a fairly old (9.1D-era) KB article, you can run DB brokers on machines with multiple NICs, but you shouldn't specify -H.

http://knowledgebase.progress.com/articles/Article/P104794

Starting a database with a -H parameter means we will bind to the machine hostname, localhost or 127.0.0.1 only.

Start the database with a -S parameter. but do not make use of the -H parameter. This will allow the database to bind to a socket with whatever IP address TCP responds with.

Remember this is an old article. I've run DBs on many machines with multiple NICs, so I know it's possible. But their setup was before my time so I can't advise on specifics.

 

[RealHeavyDude]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Don't know whether this is of help to you. But, instead of working with different IP addresses pointing to the same host, why not working with different DNS aliases resolved to the same IP address. Whenever I have the possibility I work with DNS alias. Then, from the application's point of view I am not tied to any particular physical host. I can move the environments between machines or even have them on the same machine as long as the DNS alias is changed accordingly.

I have to admit though, that I never maintained the DNS aliases myself - I always had some able & willing network guy at my disposal who set that up for me ...
Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[RealHeavyDude]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

One thing I forgot: If you connect to the databases via SSL then you need to ensure that the SSL certificate imported into the Progress/OpenEdge key store is labeled with the DNS alias - not a the physical host name because otherwise you will get a connection error stating that the label in the server's certificate does not match the host name in your connection request ...

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[JustMe]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Don't know whether this is of help to you. But, instead of working with different IP addresses pointing to the same host, why not working with different DNS aliases resolved to the same IP address. Whenever I have the possibility I work with DNS alias. Then, from the application's point of view I am not tied to any particular physical host. I can move the environments between machines or even have them on the same machine as long as the DNS alias is changed accordingly.

I have to admit though, that I never maintained the DNS aliases myself - I always had some able & willing network guy at my disposal who set that up for me ...
Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

Thanks ... sounds like a possibility.

 

[JustMe]

Re: Question I cannot find in the Docs or KB DBs on the same server with different I

Yep it worked, I also added nics and filtered ports ...