Managing database connections

If you have the correct permissions, you can view details about all the current connections, to the database that you have open. Current Connections provides information on who is logged in to that database, and their current level of activity.

Before you begin

You must be a member of the Database Management System Administrators group, and be connected to a Microsoft™ SQL Server database. If you are a system administrator for the database, but can only view your own connection, your server permission to View Server State might need changing.
To change user permissions:
  1. Start SQL Server Management Studio.
  2. Expand Databases, right-click the database, and then click Properties.
  3. Click Permissions, and then click View server permissions.
  4. In the Logins or Roles list, click the user to whom you want to grant the permission.
  5. In the Explicit permissions for user list, click to select the Grant checkbox next to View server state permission.
  6. Repeat step 4 through step 5 for each user to whom you want to grant the permission.
Note: Users with View Server State permission can view any databases they have access to. This permission can be revoked using Deny View Database State.

About this task

Database activity can be used to determine details about your database use. For example, the number of concurrent licenses that are needed, or the types of client that are currently open. In addition, as all connections must be closed before a database connection can be opened in iBase Designer, you can ensure that any connections that are not currently active can be closed.

Important: Ensuring a single open connection in iBase Designer prevents any potential data loss by administrator actions. Shutting down connections to the database logs out all active users and any unsaved changes are lost. Try to ensure that all connections are not in use before you shut down those connections.

Even after closing connections, you might encounter a “Database In Use” warning when you try to open the database in iBase Designer. This is because iBase Scheduler needs to be stopped. Check the iBase Scheduler status in Windows Services, and select Stop.

Procedure

  1. To open the list of current connections, select Tools > Current Connections.
    For each active connection, you can view the following information:
    Table 1. Details of current open database connections
    Column Description
    Application Type - User The type of application that is connected and the user that is logged in.
    Note: The user is displayed when the user information can be determined.
    Machine Name The machine that has the connection open.
    Login Time When the connection started.
    Last Access Time When the connection was last active.
    Reads The number of times information has been accessed from the database in this session.
  2. Optional: To close all the active connections to the database, click Close Connections.

    When Close Connections is clicked, the list of active connections is updated automatically over a time until all connections are closed, apart from one remaining connection.

    This last connection is your own connection, which is closed when you close iBase User.