To start the SimpleDB server, first open a command window and execute the command rmiregistry, then in Eclipse, right click on dbserver.launch then select Run As -> dbserver. 

When I run the dbserver it gives me this error. "Could not find the main class:Workspace\simpledb/classes/. Program will now exit."

Not sure what that errors means... My eclipse runs fine with other apps. Any help? By the way following the instructions perfectly hmmm... Will I still be able to complete the homework with out actually running the dbserver?

First of all you don't need to run the server to complete HW3.

As for the problem, I suspect that it has something to do with which Java runtime Eclipse uses. The runtime that comes with JRE doesn't seem to support the "-Djava.rmi.server.codebase" option, which may be the cause of the problem. Try running rmiregistry under the project class folder (i.e. open a command window, change directory to the /classes folder under the simpledb project folder, then run "rmiregistry") and see if it works.