dbFront.com - Recent questions in Installation

Is a distributed install really 100 times more secure?

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:29:48 +0000

A distributed dbFront install is where the Web Application is installed in the DMZ and the Application Service is installed inside the secure network near the Database and Authentication servers. See: Distributed Install

The Installation Overview page claims that a Distributed Install can be 100 more secure than a single server install. How is that?

How to Disable Specific Protocols in dbFront

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:45:39 +0000

In order to satisfy a security scan we need to disable the use of TLS 1.1 by dbFront. How do we do this?

Enable SSO and User Authentication at the same time

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 16:13:09 +0000

We have users who want to access the database but who are not part of our SSO.

What are the options?

The Service and UI versions of dbFront don't match!

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 14:56:21 +0000

After updating dbFront I get the following error:

The Service [1.2.6.7932] and UI [1.2.6.7021] versions of dbFront
   don't match!

What is causing this error and what can I do about it. My dbFront install is down?

HTTP Error 404 after installation when accessing localhost/dbFront

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 17:00:54 +0000

After installing dbFront we get a simple HTTP Error 404: The requested resource is not found.

This is when going to the page http://localhost/dbFront

The install completed successfully.

How do I configure SSL for a server that is hosting dbFront?

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 15:42:36 +0000

We have installed dbFront on a new server but it is working only when used http://servername/dbfront but not https://servername/dbfront

How do we configure SSL on the server for dbFront?

Error after upgrade: "Can't load lookup data for [foreign key] - Value can't be null"

Tue, 18 May 2021 19:28:10 +0000

We tried to upgrade DBFront from 1.0.15.5851 to the latest. The installation went fine, but we got the following error on some tables:

"Can't load lookup data for [foreign key] - Value can't be null"

In a lot of cases where we didn't have lookup tables previously, we added them so that DBFront could generate dropdown tables for acceptable values. We did this in a quick and non-standard way - we left the values in the main table as is, got a distinct list of values, and created a new lookup table with this list. One of those values (for a number of tables) was null, which I assume is causing the problem above.

Is there a quick fix for this on your end (since this worked before), or will we need to create IDs and more proper lookup tables?

Thanks.

What are the minimum requirements for running dbFront?

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 03:19:03 +0000

I am looking for the system requirements for running dbFront.

How do I install software on client machines on Pro version

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 20:01:03 +0000

I'm buying the pro version which says 100 users can connect to the application. If I have the SQL database installed on the server along with dbfront do I have to install a new DBfront on each client system and if so how do I do that if each install comes with a different server ID. I think my question is how do I connect the client machines to the DBfront installed on the server?

HowTo debug IIS FastFail errors

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 00:13:47 +0000

How can I compare a before / after IIS configuration.

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 22:42:24 +0000

What is the easiest way to compare IIS configuration before and after a change.

HTTP Error 500: This page can't be displayed

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 14:51:19 +0000

I installed dbFront on a server that already had an IIS application install and get this error page.

How do I completely reinstall dbFront?

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:31:56 +0000

What are the steps to reinstall dbFront since I have an odd server error that I don't have time to diagnose.

How do I rollback to a previous version of dbFront?

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 14:34:07 +0000

I have installed a Beta version of dbFront and would like to rollback to the feature or stable version of dbFront.

Connected to MySQL, but can't see any database, or table

Sun, 27 May 2018 00:31:28 +0000

I can connect to MySQL, but can't see any database, or table.

NOTE: Included image showing 'Information Schema'.

I have installed the 6.9.12 mysql connector.

"HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden" error - A default document is not configured for the requested URL...

Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:05:24 +0000

After installing dbFront, I get a web page that says:

HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden
The Web server is configured to not list the contents of this directory.
Most likely causes:

A default document is not configured for the requested URL, and directory browsing is not enabled on the server.

....

What can I do?

Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 04:04:36 +0000

The user can't logon and the Login Screen just show the error: "Invalid login"

When I examine the logfiles I see more detail and the error message:

Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type
at this computer

What does this mean and how do I fix it.

Lookup from large table / pre-filtering a field based upon another field

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 12:51:26 +0000

More a configuration question than an installation question.

Consider a scenario where you have three tables: sales, product, product_specification. Product contains the high-level information about a product and product_specification contains different permutations of that product (e.g. colour, size, etc.). Product is a big table, but product_specification is a HUGH table.

You want to be able to reference a specific product specification in the sales table, but looking it up directly is difficult due to the size of the table (and product_specification does not contain information in the product table, which might help you to select the correct product).

Is there any way that DBFRONT supports making this more manageable? For example, by allowing the user to select the product in one field and a second field (product_specification) is then pre-filtered based upon what was entered into the product field?

Stuart

Error opening database preferences: Can't get fields from driver

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 01:14:07 +0000

I've just installed the trial, imported the Adventureworks full DB export and am trying to follow along with the video tutorial.

Connection seems to work OK and database is showing up. When I hit the "Preferences" gear icon though, I get the following error:

Can't get fields from driver: Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.Type'

The number of tables etc is showing up in the list, but I can't get beyond this rather unhelpful message.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Tcp channel protocol violation: expecting preamble.

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:01:19 +0000

After installing and registering dbFront I get the following error:

Alert: I am sorry but I could not generate the main content, 
Tcp channel protocol violation: expecting preamble.

Installation Prerequisites

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 14:33:18 +0000

dbFront sounds wonderful - just what i'm looking for - but, I'm not sure if I have the right set up to install it based on what you specify at your website.

I am currently running
Windows Server 2008 Standard

Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 10.0.5538.0
Microsoft Analysis Services Client Tools 10.0.5500.0
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 6.0.6002.18005
Microsoft MSXML 3.0 6.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.50727.4253
Operating System 6.0.6002

I am in the process of upgrading to:
Windows Server 2016
SQL Server 2016

If your website is up-to-date, it sounds like I can't install it.... is that accurate?

Thank you (and I'll be so sad if I can't try and use dbFront!)

Oracle Database Connection

Tue, 30 May 2017 20:29:10 +0000

Our oracle servers have multiple databases on them. How should the server name be formatted to capture the specific database on the server? I'm currently getting the •ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified error.

receiving iis7 page on first login after install

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 13:47:18 +0000

When trying to test the install I receive a page with IIS7 image. I have walked thru the install steps multiple times to review but cannot figure this out.

I need some guidance.

thanks

dbfront run on Mac?

Fri, 16 Dec 2016 16:02:11 +0000

I am using mac 10.12.2. Is dbfront for window based or both os?

How do I migrate all of my dbFront work over to another server?

Sat, 16 Jul 2016 12:25:48 +0000

I installed dbFront on my local computer and now I would like to transfer/move it and all my connection preferences to another server. How do I do this?

How to backup dbFront before an upgrade. I don't want to lose my settings.

Sat, 09 Jul 2016 10:26:17 +0000

After I’ve downloaded the latest version, do I just need to do a custom install and install the updated service, or do I need to do a full install. I don’t want to overwrite all of what I’ve already done.

Can dbFront be hosted by Azure, GoDaddy, or Amazon AWS?

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 00:48:31 +0000

What kind of hosting requirements does dbFront have? Can I host it in an ordinary webhost?