Highlights: Informix 14.10.xC2 available
Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community.
Contents:
2.1 Informix 14.10.xC2 available
5.1 Informix Channel on YouTube
5.2 The edge and beyond (Video) https://youtu.be/NcHdm9TACbA
5.3 Write a Review to Unlock a Donation!
5.4 Compare the IBM Informix v.14.10 editions
7.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
Table of Contents
1) Editorial
The greatest Informix event this year was the IIUG World 2019. The conference had many high quality technical sessions presented by the top Informix professionals. In addition to education, the conference was a unique opportunity to meet other Informix users and Informix development and support engineers.
For me, this conference was like a family reunion. Meeting many friends, hanging out and sharing memories, technical information and insights.
We missed our friends that could not make it this year. We would like to reach more users next year. The IIUG Board is looking for ideas. We are open to suggestions. Let me know if you have any.
Last month I wrote about the new Informix forum. It is very active and is the best place to find product information and answers to technical questions. It is also an opportunity for you to help others. Please join. Just go to the IBM community site /community register and start sharing.
The highlight of this issue is the latest release of Informix 14.10. It is now October 14. I am releasing the Insider today because in Europe this date is 14.10.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
2) Highlights
2.1 Informix 14.10.xC2 available
The following list is the most recent report of defect fixes for customer-reported defects in 14.10.xC2 releases.
| APAR | ABSTRACT |
| IT28600 | LINUX INTERNAL STACK UNWINDING DURING ASSERTION FAILURES MAY CAUSE RECURSIVE EXCEPTION FAILURES |
| IT28752 | CREATE SP INCLUDING A CREATE FUNCTION STATEMENT FAILS IN GETVARTYPE INSTEAD OF RETURNING A -201 |
| IT28832 | DATABASE USING SQL_LOGICAL_CHAR > 1 CAUSING MIGRATION FAILURE DURING UPGRADE TO VERSION 14.10 |
| IT28982 | ON AN UPDATABLE_SECONDARY, IF TABLE IS CREATED WITH VERCOLS, IFX_ROW_VERSION IS INCORRECTLY UPDATED AND FAILS WITH -244/-7350 |
| IT29028 | PROCEDURE CREATION SQL TEXT IS LOST FROM SYSPROCBODY TABLE DURING CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE STATEMENT |
| IT29084 | ENCRYPTED 12.10 INSTANCE CANNOT BE MIGRATED TO 14.10.XC1 WITH CIPHERS AES128 AND AES192. (AES256 MIGRATES PROPERLY) |
| IT29095 | DBACCESS MAY THROW ERROR “34389 ILLEGAL CHARACTER” EVEN IF ALL CHARACTERS ARE VALID |
| IT29147 | DBSCHEMA DOES NOT DISPLAY THE CORRECT COMMANDS FOR REPRODUCING THE PLOGSPACE |
| IT29531 | ERROR 874 AND AF GENERATED WHEN USING EXTERNAL TABLE |
| IT29670 | WINDOWS: ONTAPE BACKUP TO DIRECTORY WILL FAIL IF BACKUP FILE IS BIGGER THAN 2GB |
| IT29753 | NVL IN CASE MAY THROW ERRORS 9628 OR 486 |
| IT29904 | MEMORY LEAK IN LGR MEMORY POOL ON SECONDARY SERVERS WHEN PROCESSING LARGE LOG RECORDS |
| IT29968 | WINDOWS: CRASH WHEN DOING A TRUSTED CONNECTION |
| IT29969 | SELECT STATEMENT WITH LEFT JOIN AND SUBQUERY IS EXTREMLY SLOW |
| IT29971 | PERFORMANCE PROBLEM WITH LVARCHAR INDEX WITH SELECT FIRST QUERY |
| IT30091 | PHYSICAL LOG OVERFLOW WITHIN THE CHECKPOINT WHEN A LOT OF DIRTY PARTITIONS ARE INVOLVED |
Gary Ben-Israel
3) Conference Corner
3.1 IIUG World 2019 Sessions
The IIUG Board and Planning Committee would like to thank IBM, our sponsors, and speakers for your help with IIUG World 2019. Without your help, these events would not be possible. A huge thanks to all of our attendees, we hope you found technical sessions, tutorials and hands-on labs that met your needs.
We have had some great feedback about IIUG World 2019. Thanks for that.
As promised, the session slides are available for download. So, if you missed a session or were not able to attend IIUG World 2019, you can download the session slides at: /sessions.zip. PLEASE NOTE: If a session is missing it is because the speaker did not upload their presentation. You will have to contact the speaker for missing sessions or let us know and we can try to contact the speaker for you..
If you want to know more about the sessions found in the zip file, you can find the session descriptions at: /iiugworld/speakers/2019/pubsessgrid.php. If you want to know more about the conference or view our sponsors ads you can find that information in the conference guide: /iiugworld/guide.pdf..
IIUG World Planning Committee
4) RFE Corner
IBM has created a new RFE – Request For Enhancements website.
https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.aha.io/?project=INFX
Please visit this site to vote for your favorite enhancements and place new requests.
As you can see, it is a new RFE site. It is friendly and has a nice look and feel.
Recent
Lift 32K limit on SQL queries/results
SQL statements that exceed 32K in their collective data types currently crash. For example, if you select 10 LVARCHAR columns of 5000 each, totaling 50000 you get an error, crashing the application. This limit is way too low and it is causing our mission critical applications to stop, causing big problems. Even the small Cloudscape database did not have this limitation
Votes: 0
Created: September 29, 2019
Status: Needs Review
Shorten the time spent by “onstat -z” when zeroing internal structures
As was diagnosed in ticket TS002495910, in customer’s system “onstat -z” processing is causing about 1 second “block” every 5 minutes for all threads, that needed to acquire the global mutex. This causes problems in customer’s system (one of the largest polish banks), which performs servicing card transactions (Visa, Mastercards, POS, etc.), as multiple sessions are blocked. Moreover, when checkpoint request is triggered at the time of such block, then all sessions modifying data are impacted – this is due to the fact, that the global mutex wait occurs within critical section, and that causes long wait time for threads going out of critical sections, while other sessions are prohibited from entering critical sections.
The problem impacts all customer’s of the bank and also all institutions Poland wide, which perform card payment transaction validation in this bank’s system (an example of such institution is Poland wide petrol station operator). For example the 1 second “block” causes Visa or Mastercard transactions to be rejected at the time of block.
Currently there is no workaround for this behaviour – to eliminate the problem “onstat -z” was disabled for the time being.
Votes: 1
Created: September 26, 2019
Status: Needs Review
I would kike InformixHQ Backup Sensor notify me whenever Backup Level 0 is greater than 24 (hours).
But the Backup Sensor did not work with “hours format”, just “timestamp”, so It is impossible to know
when the backup is older than 24 hours because you would need to do a calculation on the
monitored data before evaluating the alert.
Votes: 1
Created: September 18, 2019
Status: Needs Review
alter table online when modifying char length without killing the sessions
Today my db is accessed through many web server. the main table is frequently modified : char increased and new fields. i had to bounce the engine to remove all the sessions easily.
Votes: 1
Created: September 18, 2019
Status: Needs Review
create a foreign key allowing one to one tables relationships
Our Primary Key and Foreign key constraints always have allowed creaing and ensuring ‘1 to many’ table relationships. After researching, there is no direct way to implement such a case with Informix. The only safe way is to create a primary key on the ‘parent’ table, a unique index on the ‘child’ table plus a trigger with references that will catch insert and delete. This trigger will fire a SPL that will count the rows in the parent table matching the new key. If 1 row, the child row is created, else the SP returns an error. Same principle for DELETE
Votes: 1
Created: September 17, 2019
Status: Needs Review
Support query parameters in projection clause
This works with DB2 according to IBM support staff.
Votes: 1
Created: September 11, 2019
Status: Needs Review
Targeting Developer, students, and consultants creating apps on macOS
Votes: 1
Created: September 5, 2019
Status: Future consideration
Popular
Backup from RSS or HDR Secondaries using ontape, onunload, onbar, dbexport
In HDR environments, being able to backup or export databases from and HDR, HDR read-only, or an RSS secondary server is critical. Programs like ontape, onunload, dbexport, and onbar generate locks on tables during backups and data-exports. This creates problems while applications and users using Informix try to use the system during backups in 24 x 7 x 365 production environments. Being able to backup or export data on secondary systems is critical for compliance and backup integrity.
Votes: 85
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Obtain the query plan of a running query
Many times a DBA is called to check upon a slow process. Most of the times those processes are running a slow query.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if the query is using the best query plan or not. A DBA can reproduce the query, but it it was prepared without values or if the statistics were changed after it started there is no guarantee that the query plan seen by the DBA is the same as the running query.
We have “onstat -g pqs” which sometimes can give us a clue, but it’s mostly cryptic and undocumented. If a user has X-Windows he can try xtree, but it’s a bit strange for todays standards.
We also have SQLTRACE, but if it was not set when the query was launched it will not capture the info (and besides, due to the circular nature of the buffer it may not be there at the time we need it).
A simple pseudo-table in sysmaster could probably implement this with ease.
It could also be extended to support the “last” query plan making it easy to get the query plan in any tool
Votes: 67
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
SQL interface to obtain the temporary space usage (tables, hash, sorts…)
A DBA and possibly a programmer needs an easy way to monitor who is responsible for the temporary space usage.
Currently it’s possible a user may be consuming a lot of temporary space and impacting other sessions, without the DBA being able to quick and easily identify the session responsible.
Other reports (from IIUG mailing list) and another RFE (36245) mentions the need for programmers to be able to find out the current session’s temp tables (onstat -g ses shows this).
The definitive solution for this should be an SQL interface showing:
– session ID
– object name
– object type (explicit temp table, implicit temp table, hash join, sort …?)
– used space
– chunk/dbspace being used
– owner nam
– ??? (PID and others, but probably thos can be gathered with joins)
This should supersede RFE ID 36245 and this includes the request for that RFE and more.
Votes: 64
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Informix should be able to change owner on tables and any other objects
If user=informix creates all database and all tables, then programmer creates table but user=informix cannot change it. Only drop it.
Votes: 57
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Backup Individual database, not entire instance
Need a mechanism, similar to ontape, to backup a live database (as opposed to entire instance), without locking it.
Votes: 57
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Gary Ben-Israel
5) Informix Corner
5.1 Informix Channel on YouTube
Have you subscribed to the Informix Channel on YouTube? Here you can find demo and tutorial videos that deep dive into some of the newest Informix features. Watch one of our many InformixHQ videos, from getting started with InformixHQ to our latest video on the new customization features in InformixHQ for 14.10.xC2. Or watch our demos on ER to cloud, loopback replication, and more.
5.2 The edge and beyond (Video)
5.3 Write a Review to Unlock a Donation!
Tech jobs are among the fastest growing in the country, yet girls are being left behind. While interest in computer science ebbs over time, the biggest drop off happens between the ages of 13-17. Girls Who Code was founded with a single mission: to close the gender gap in technology. Write a review, and we’ll donate $10 to Girls Who Code! https://www.g2.com/g2gives/girls-who-code/and/ibm-informix
5.4 Compare the IBM Informix v.14.10 editions
Learn the differences in features, functions, and pricing models across all IBM Informix v.14.10 editions
/en/2019/10/08/compare-informix/
6) Events
6.1 IBM Informix Roadshows
2019 IBM Informix Roadshow – 14.1 Paris
October 17 – October 18
IBM Paris, 17 Avenue de l’Europe
Paris, France + Google Map
2019 IBM Informix Roadshow – 14.1 London
October 22
IBM London, 76/78 Upper Ground, Lambeth, London SE1 9PZ, UK
London, United Kingdom + Google Map
2019 IBM Informix Roadshow – 14.1 Rome
October 24 – October 25
IBM Office Rome, IBM Italia Spa
Rome, Italy + Google Map
2019 IBM Informix Roadshow – 14.1 Frankfurt
November 6 – November 7
IBM Office Frankfurt, Wilhelm-Fay-Straße 32, 65936 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany + Google Map
7) Informix Resources
IIUG website
www.iiug.org
IBM Informix home page
www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
IBM Informix community
/community
7.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis
Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month
- Andrés Repossi https://andreserepossi.wixsite.com/hablemosinformix (In Spanish)
More Blogs and Wikis
- Art Kagel http://informix-myview.blogspot.co.il/
- IBM Blogs https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/tag/550
7.2 Social Media
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25049
Twitter : https://twitter.com/iiug
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/IIUG.Informix
Informix IoT Channel : https://ibm.biz/BdH2nm
7.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
- The IIUG forums at /forums/technical.php
- Informix Marketing channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/informixmarketing?feature=results_main
- IBM DATABASE MAGAZINE at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com
- Credentials, the IBM Certification Newsletter at http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/email/201307credentials.shtml
- There is now an Informix group on LinkedIn. The group is called “Informix Supporter”, so anyone loving Informix can join, from current IBM employees, former Informix employees, to users. It will also be a good occasion to get in touch with others or long-time-no-seen friends. If you fancy showing the Informix logo on your profile, join. To join, simply go to: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/25049/5E4B2048E558
Closing and Credits
The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization designed to enhance communications between its worldwide user community and IBM. The IIUG’s membership database now exceeds 25,000 entries and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM’s Information Management division. Key programs include local user groups and special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch through growth.
Sources: IIUG Board of Directors
IBM Corp.
Editor: Gary Ben-Israel
For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org
