Setting Database Cache Buffers

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Besides opening a database, CONNECT can set the number of cache buffers assigned to a database for that connection. When a program establishes a connection to a database, InterBase allocates system memory to use as a private buffer. The buffers are used to store accessed database pages to speed performance. The number of buffers assigned for a program determine how many simultaneous database pages it can have access to in the memory pool. Buffers remain assigned until a program finishes with a database.

The default number of database cache buffers assigned to a database is 256. This default can be changed either for a specific database or for an entire server.

• Use the gfix utility to set a new default cache buffer size for a database. See the Operations Guide for more information about setting database buffer size with gfix.
• Change the value of DATABASE_CACHE_PAGES in the InterBase configuration file to change the default cache buffer size on a server-wide basis. Use this option with care, since it makes it easy to overuse memory or create caches too small to be usable.

Topics

• Setting Individual Database Buffers
• Specifying Buffers for All Databases