comment on

Thanks to respondents to my first posting: ODBC Connect with compression=gzip

I've spent a week trying to make the Proxy/ProxyServer transparent compression work.

I have an Access97 database that will be used internally as a HelpDesk and it is finished except for a few reports. The second stage of the project is to make the live data accessible externally.

I thought that the best plan would be to have dbiproxy running on a Windows platform so that I can still use the Access97 interface internally (the current test box is Win98; a bad choice perhaps?) and access the data via either a Sun Solaris Apache web server or telnet clients using Perl CGI scripts or Perl standalone program.

The dbiproxy is attractive because of its transparent compression (if I can ever get it to work) and encryption (I pray that implementing it will be easier). It also allows for client and client/transaction access control via the dbiproxy config file. Is there a better/less buggy way to achieve the second stage?

If I forget about the compression most everything else works except changing the dbiproxy to mode=>threads or mode=>fork but that may be a result of either/or both ActivePerl/Solaris Perl not having been compiled for threads. Seems to me that at least the mode=>fork should work though. Using the dbiproxy as mode=>single means that:

"If the server has accepted a connection, he will enter the Run() method. No other connections are accepted until the Run() method returns (if the client disconnects)."

So, I guess that if I connect, execute a run statement, and disconnect each time I run a query, dbiproxy will be able handle a small number of users (probably not more than two or three at any given time) easily?

The dbiproxy debug messages:

Mon Jul 16 22:37:25 2001 debug, Server starting in operation mode sing
+le
Mon Jul 16 22:37:26 2001 notice, Server starting
Mon Jul 16 22:37:26 2001 debug, Writing PID to /tmp/dbiproxy.pid
Mon Jul 16 22:37:59 2001 debug, Connection from 99.99.99.99, port 4259
+9
Mon Jul 16 22:37:59 2001 debug, Child clone: DBI::ProxyServer=HASH(0x1
+d20410)
Mon Jul 16 22:37:59 2001 debug, New child starting (DBI::ProxyServer=H
+ASH(0x1d20410)).
Mon Jul 16 22:38:00 2001 debug, Accepting client from 99.99.99.99, por
+t 42599
Mon Jul 16 22:38:00 2001 err, Child died: Unexpected EOF from client a
+t 
    C:/Perl/site/lib/RPC/PlServer.pm line 149.
Mon Jul 16 22:38:00 2001 debug, Child terminating.
[download]

The DBI->trace(9) level diagnostic says:

    DBI 1.18-nothread dispatch trace level set to 9
    -> DBI->connect(dbi:Proxy:hostname=99.99.99.99;port=3333;compressi
+on=gzip;
          dsn=DBI:ODBC:HelpDesk, , ****)
    -> DBI->install_driver(Proxy) for perl=5.006 pid=21198 ruid=0 euid
+=0
          install_driver: DBD::Proxy version 0.2003 loaded from 
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/DBD/Proxy.
+pm
    New DBI::dr (for DBD::Proxy::dr, parent=, id=)
          dbih_setup_handle(DBI::dr=HASH(0x16aa50)=>DBI::dr=HASH(0x22d
+d28), 
          DBD::Proxy::dr, 0, Null!)
    dbih_make_com(Null!, DBD::Proxy::dr, 172)
    dbih_setup_attrib(DBI::dr=HASH(0x22dd28), Err, Null!) SCALAR(0x249
+e9c) 
          (already defined)
    dbih_setup_attrib(DBI::dr=HASH(0x22dd28), State, Null!) SCALAR(0x1
+6ac5c) 
          (already defined)
    dbih_setup_attrib(DBI::dr=HASH(0x22dd28), Errstr, Null!) SCALAR(0x
+249eb4) 
          (already defined)
    dbih_setup_attrib(DBI::dr=HASH(0x22dd28), Handlers, Null!) ARRAY(0
+x2db214) 
          (already defined)
    dbih_setup_attrib(DBI::dr=HASH(0x22dd28), Debug, Null!) 0 (already
+ defined)
    <- install_driver= DBI::dr=HASH(0x16aa50)
    >> connect     DISPATCH (DBI::dr=HASH(0x16aa50) rc1/3 @5 g0 a19524
+8) at 
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/DBI.pm lin
+e 416.
    -> connect for DBD::Proxy::dr (DBI::dr=HASH(0x16aa50)~0x22dd28 
          'hostname=99.99.99.99;port=3333;compression=gzip;dsn=DBI:ODB
+C:HelpDesk' 
          '' **** HASH(0xe9960))
    !! ERROR: 1 'Cannot log in to DBI::ProxyServer: Unexpected EOF fro
+m server at
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/RPC/PlClient.pm line 83
+.'
    <- connect= undef at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-sol
+aris/DBI.pm
          line 416.
    >> errstr      DISPATCH (DBI::dr=HASH(0x16aa50) rc1/3 @1 g0 a1951b
+8) at 
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/DBI.pm lin
+e 417.
    -> errstr in DBD::_::common for DBD::Proxy::dr (DBI::dr=HASH(0x16a
+a50)~0x22dd28)
    <- errstr= 'Cannot log in to DBI::ProxyServer: Unexpected EOF from
+ server at
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/RPC/PlClient.pm line 83
+.
          at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/DBI.pm 
+line 417.
       DBI->connect(hostname=99.99.99.99;port=3333;compression=gzip;
          dsn=DBI:ODBC:HelpDesk) failed: Cannot log in to 
          DBI::ProxyServer: Unexpected EOF from server at
          /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/RPC/PlClient.pm line 83
+.
[download]

The Solaris Sun box program says:

DBI->connect(hostname=99.99.99.99;port=3333;compression=gzip;dsn=DBI:O
+DBC:HelpDesk)
   failed: Cannot log in to DBI::ProxyServer: Unexpected EOF from serv
+er at 
   /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/RPC/PlClient.pm line 83.  at o
+dbc.p line 21
[download]

The dbiproxy batch file:

@echo off
call dbiproxy --configfile hdproxy.cfg --compression gzip --debug
[download]

The dbiproxy config file:

 {  facility  => 'daemon',
    pidfile   => '/junk/dbiproxy.pid',
    localport => '3333',
    logfile   => 'STDERR',
    autocommit => '0',
    RaiseError => '1',
    LongReadLen => '100000',
 
 # Access control
 
    clients => [
       # Accept the following addresses as clients
       { mask => '^999\.999\.999\.999', accept => 1 }, ## Sun Solaris 
+box
       { mask => '^999\.999\.999\.9',   accept => 1 }, ## my office co
+mputer
       { mask => '^99\.99\.99\.99',     accept => 1 }, ## my home comp
+uter
       # Deny anyone else
       { mask => '.*',                 accept => 0 }
    ]
 }
[download]

The Sun Solaris perl program:

 #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
 use strict;
 use DBI;
 use Compress::Zlib;
 use Socket;
 use Sys::Hostname;
 
 my $who = `who -m`;
 my $symname = (split(" ",$who))[-1];
 $symname =~ tr/\(\)//d; ## remove parens
 my $addr = inet_ntoa(scalar gethostbyname($symname || 'localhost'));
 
 my ($fctr, $data, $dbh);
 my $dsn = "DBI:ODBC:HelpDesk";
 my $proxy = "hostname=$addr;port=3333";
 my $compression = "compression=gzip";
 
 unlink 'dbitrace.log' if (-e 'dbitrace.log');
 DBI->trace(9, 'dbitrace.log');  ## turn level 9 trace on
 $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Proxy:$proxy;$compression;dsn=$dsn",'','');
 DBI->trace(0);  ## turn trace off
[download]

Almost everything here was based on examples and suggestions I found in "Programming the Perl DBI". Does anyone have any clues on this?

Thanks for any help you can give. If I can't resolve this soon we'll have to buy and setup a NT server and run MS SQL (Ick!)

In reply to More info on Proxy/ProxyServer compression=gzip by jlongino

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