The StreamBase proxy server enables you to run StreamBase clients that were created with an earlier version of StreamBase than the current sbd. It does not enable you to run older sbd servers with newer clients. The proxy server runs separately from the sbd server.

The network protocol used for communication between the sbd server and clients typically changes between major StreamBase releases (for example, between 5.0 and 5.1). The proxy is used to provide compability between older clients and newer servers. By connecting through the proxy server, you can continue to use your clients. In this way, you can deploy a new sbd server immediately, and upgrade your client applications to the matching StreamBase version later.

The proxy server supports both enqueuing and dequeuing remote clients. It converts data from the older version's protocol to the new version, without performing any other processing.

The following figure shows the normal connection between an sbd server and a client using the same StreamBase version, with no proxy server involved.

For comparison, the second figure shows a client, created with StreamBase Version 3.7, connecting to a proxy server; the proxy server converts the data to the newer protocol and passes it to the StreamBase 5.0 sbd server:

Proxy servers are targeted at specific StreamBase versions: they support clients created with StreamBase Version 3.5 and later. Earlier versions are not supported. Clients created before Version 3.5 must be upgraded to run with the current sbd server.

To run the proxy server, see Running the StreamBase Proxy Server.