Highlights: Get your free Informix Developer Edition
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:
Table of Contents
Editorial
Since the Informix acquisition in 2001 IBM had a conference in the October time frame which had Informix content. It was first called Information Management and had mainly DB2 and some Informix.
Then it changed to Information on Demand. Other products were added but Informix still had its spot.
It changed again to Insight. Databases were no longer the focus but you could still find Informix sessions.
You could still find them last year if you looked really hard when the name changed again to World of Watson. Since 2005 the best Informix gathering is the IIUG conference which took place in the April-May timeframe. For the first 3 years it was a joint IIUG/IDUG event and since 2008 it is a dedicated Informix conference.
Everything is going to change in 2018.
The IBM October conference will cease to exist. What will replace it? I’m not sure. Probably the “Think” conference which is now planned March 2018. This means we will probably be moving our conference to October 2018.
More updates whenever I have them.
Stay tuned.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
Highlights
IIUG President Speaks on the New IBM/HCL partnership
Everyone has their own thoughts concerning the IBM/HCL partnership and what this means to Informix.
Stuart Litel, IIUG’s president, wants to share his thoughts regarding this topic.
Click here for: ENGLISH FRENCH GERMAN SPANISH
2.2 Get your free Informix Developer Edition
No one ever needs to use an open source database. With Informix, you can get a free download and the best User group to help you use and support it. The new out of the box configurations for version 12.10+ start up your instance with an excellent start up configuration.
Informix Developer’s Edition is a fully functioning Informix database for the purpose of developing new systems. The DE version is realized for every new fix pack version of Informix.
Just go to the IIUG Home Page: www.iiug.org and follow the Free Database Download link
Enjoy
Gary Ben-Israel
RFE corner
Just in case you are not aware, some time ago IBM created a public website to collect the requests for new features directly from users. The RFE (Requests For Enhancements) website is included in developerWorks. You can access it here.
Once you logged in with your usual IBM ID, choose “Information Management” in the Brand dropdown box and “Informix Servers” or “Client Products” in the Products dropdown box.
The interesting thing is that any request, including your request, if you place one, is submitted to be voted on. This means the RFEs that receive more votes have a greater chance to be considered by the architecture and development teams for further consideration. In other words, this IS your opportunity to provide enhancement ideas even if you are not the biggest IBM customer on the planet earth.
Some RFEs will be of great interest, others will not seem useful to you. This is why your opinion is important. Do not hesitate to vote and place comments!
The idea of the RFE corner is to provide a digest on new Informix RFEs and make those RFEs more visible and accessible for the community, so that you can vote for them in a faster and easier way. By participating actively in this website, IBM will have solid and useful elements from the customer base to introduce new functionality to Informix product.
Also in the area of IBM website, a new functionality has been released: MyNotifications. You will want to register this webpage in order to receive the notifications of your choice (new product defects, new patch release, new versions etc…, on the frequency of your choice (daily, weekly). I have registered and will definitely remain registered, due to the value of the information delivered.
Check at this place.
New RFEs for May 2017
I am not sure if this is due to a question during the Q&A session at IIUG 2017, but there were six new RFEs added this month.
create indexes for external tables
External tables are a great asset for ETL, and extending a bit the concept, they could be the base for a great ETL client. Request the possibility to create indexes on external tables. Votes: 5
select task(‘onstat’,’-g mem’) ONLY returns first 30k (Currently Hardcoded to 30K)
When executing a select when you want to run and “onstat” command, it only displays the first 30k and the message ‘Truncating message at 30KB\ ‘ is displayed. Request to display full command Votes: 1
Appendable External Tables
Request to create an option to open/create an external table that appends to the file(s) defined on the table on insert rather than overwriting the file(s). Votes: 13
Enable switching of primary/mirror chunks with “onspaces”
Request to Provide syntax in “onspaces” to switch a primary and mirror chunk pair with Informix on-line throughout. Votes: 7
When using onsmsync, the -t option should ONLY query Storage Manager for objects that fit criteria.
It appears based on logs from storage manager that when the -t flag is used in onsmsync that the Storage Manager is queried for all objects residing in the sysutils database, and not just for those objects that are greater than the date time value applied by the -t flag. Votes: 2
Allow for multiple worker threads on SSL port
Request to Allow for more than one worker thread to handle connections coming to SSL port. Votes: 1
TOP 12 RFE’s
Do not forget to vote for one or several of those RFE’s if they fit your requirements.
You can access each RFE by clicking on the above links. At the bottom of each RFE page you will find a hyperlink to vote for it. You will see the Request stats, including number of votes for this request, on the right side of the request page. The more votes, the greater the chance an enhancement will be addressed by the Development Team, taking into consideration the general interest.
Take some time to examine the full list and vote for the enhancements you would like to see implemented.
Eric Vercelletto
Works for me
In this section I will write about things that help me in my day to day work. Most DBAs probably have their own ways to perform these tasks which may be different than the way I do them. So, if you find an error or can think of a better way, please let me know. If not feel, free to use these tips as is or modify them to fit your needs.
For this issue, this actually Works for Eric. Following are his scripts and comments:
Sometimes, one can install IDS and create an instance very quickly, and this instance can go on production on the same day.
Sometimes, the company has easy and fast to deploy monitoring tools, sometimes it has a nice project for monitoring but not yet deployed, and other times … nothing.
This happens to me very often but you do not want to leave an Informix production environment unattended. This is why I took some time a few days ago to develop a basic monitoring script that will at least provide a quick status of how this instance is going.
You can pipe the script’s output to the mailx command and put all this in Informix’s crontab.
So here we go. I works fine on Linux and should work on other UNIX platforms. I had no time to write it in Perl, although I should have done it for compatibility reasons.
I use sar -u, you can change sar to vmstat, which can provide with the same information.
Feel free to enhance it at will.
Have fun!
export TS=`date +"%y-%m-%d %H:%M"`
# dbspaces to ignore for day to day storage comparison
skipdbs="temp.*dbs"
#General status
onstat -
#System profile
# can be vmstat if sar not accessible
echo "System performance metrics at $TS"
sar -u 5 1 | awk ' NR == 3 || NR == 5 { printf("%s\n",$0) } '
# Basic profile
echo " "
onstat -p | awk ' BEGIN { printf("Read cache\tWrite cache\t Rows Read \t Rows Inserts \t Rows Updates \t Rows Deletes \t Transactions\n") } \
NR == 6 { printf (" %3d%%\t %3d%%\t",$4,$8)} \
NR == 9 { printf ("%16d\t%16d\t%16d\t%16d\t%16d",$4,$5,$6,$7,$8+$9)} '
echo " "
# CPU eff
onstat -g glo | awk ' BEGIN { printf ("cpu efficiency "); } \
$1 > 0 && $1 < 100000 && $3 == "cpu" { nr++ ;printf (" %s ",$8);toteff=toteff+ $8 } \
END { printf ("Average %3d%%\n\n", toteff/nr) }'
# Virtual mem
onstat -g seg | awk ' $6 == "V" { segnum=segnum+1 ;size=size+$4 ; blkavl=blkavl + $8 } \
END { printf ("SHMVirtual: %d segments, Total %d Mb, Avail %d Mb\n\n",segnum,size/(1024*1024),(blkavl*4096)/(1024*1024)) } '
#Storage
onstat -d | \
awk -v TMP=$skipdbs ' NF < 10 { if ( $2 > 0 && $2 < 1000 ) { printf ("%-40s\t%16d\t%18d\t%3d%\n",$NF,(2*$5)/1024,(2*$6)/1024,($6/$5)*100) } } ' > /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.now
awk -v TS="$TS" ' BEGIN { printf ("%-40s\t%16s\t%18s\t%s\n","Chunk Name","Total Size (Mb)","Available (Mb)","% Available") } \
{ printf ("%-40s\t%16d\t%18d\t%6d%\n",$1,(2*$2),(2*$3),($3/$2)*100) } ' /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.now
echo
echo -n "Storage variations since "
ls -l /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.yesterday | awk ' NF == 9 { printf("%s %s %s\n",$6,$7,$8) } '
egrep -v "$skipdbs" /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.now > /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.today
diff /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.yesterday /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.today > /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.diff
awk ' $1 == "<" { oldvalue=$4; } \
$1 == ">" { voldiff=$4-oldvalue;printf ("%-40s\t%16d\t%18d\t%6d\n",$2,(2*$3),(2*$4),voldiff) } ' /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.diff
if [ "$1" != "-keep" ]
then
cp /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.today /tmp/${INFORMIXSERVER}_storage.yesterday
fi
Eric Vercelletto
Informix corner
Informix event – June 13, Brussels, Belgium
Constructing the IoT solution: Creating real world sensor-to-business-value IoT applications
Businesses of all types – manufacturers, servicing organizations, public utilities for electricity, gas, water, and heating are adopting the use of sensor technology to lower operating costs or to increase business value for themselves and their customers. This half-day special event at the Hilton in Brussels will feature a real world solution using IBM and a leading Business Partner Gateway Platform and analytics solutions. Come and learn how real world solutions can be implemented now and take the opportunity to meet IBM and a Leading Business Partner team supporting IoT industry solutions.
Agenda (all times are local):
08:30 – 09:00 Welcome and Coffee
09:00 – 09:45 Business value drivers for IoT solutions
09:45 – 10:30 IBM IoT architectures at the Edge and Cloud
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 11:30 Diversified Analytics – From the Edge to the Data Centre
11:30 – 12:15 Transforming industries through IOT Analytics
12:15 – 13:00 Q&A & Lunch
The Informix Tech Day
Agenda:
13:00 – 13:30 Catering & Coffee
13:30 – 13:45 Meet the IIIUG. Stuart Litel
13:45 – 14:00 Informix future development @ HCL. Marcelo Cabane
14:00 – 14:45 Informix 11.70 and 12.10 Overview and Roadmap. Shawn Moe
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 16:00 Encryption, Security, Replication & Hybrid development. Shawn Moe
16:00 – 16:30 QUERIX LYCIA. Eric Vercelletto
16:15 – 17:00 Questions, Wrapup.
16:30 Networking
/brussels/
HILTON BRUSSELS CITY
Place Charles Rogier 20, 1210 Brussels, Belgium
CLICK for MAP
Informix event – June 15, Paris, France
Constructing the IoT solution: Creating real world sensor-to-business-value IoT applications
Businesses of all types – manufacturers, servicing organizations, public utilities for electricity, gas, water, and heating are adopting the use of sensor technology to lower operating costs or to increase business value for themselves and their customers. This half-day special event at the Hilton in Brussels will feature a real world solution using IBM and a leading Business Partner Gateway Platform and analytics solutions. Come and learn how real world solutions can be implemented now and take the opportunity to meet IBM and a Leading Business Partner team supporting IoT industry solutions.
Agenda (all times are local):
08:30 – 09:00 Welcome and Coffee
09:00 – 09:45 Business value drivers for IoT solutions
09:45 – 10:30 IBM IoT architectures at the Edge and Cloud
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 11:30 Diversified Analytics – From the Edge to the Data Centre
11:30 – 12:15 Transforming industries through IOT Analytics
12:15 – 13:00 Q&A & Lunch
The Informix Tech Day
Agenda:
13:00 – 13:30 Catering & Coffee
13:30 – 13:45 Meet the IIUG. Stuart Litel
13:45 – 14:00 Informix future development @ HCL. Marcelo Cabane
14:00 – 14:15 Informix roadmap. Shawn Moe
14:15 – 15:00 Informix Overview & new functionality. Shawn Moe
15:00 – 15:15 Break
15:15 – 16:15 Encryption, Security, Replication & Hybrid development with Informix. Shawn Moe
16:15 – 16:45 QUERIX LYCIA – The future for your Informix 4GL applications. Eric Vercelletto
16:14 – 17:00 Q&A
17:00 Networking
/paris/
IBM France / Paris
17 avenue de l’Europe
92275 Bois-Colombes Cedex
France
Download MAP OR Google MAP
Calendar of events
June – 2017
| Date | Event | Location | Contact |
| 13 | Belgium – Informix Roadshow | Brussels, Belgium | |
| 15 | France – Informix Roadshow | Paris, France |
September – 2017
| Date | Event | Location | Contact |
| 18 | Brazil – Informix Roadshow | Sao Paulo, Brazil |
Informix resources
IBM Informix home page www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Informix Blogs and Wikis
Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month
- Blogs, Videos, News and more at http://planetids.com *** Up to date feeds from many blogs ***
- Art Kagel http://informix-myview.blogspot.co.il/
- Eric Vercelletto http://www.levillageinformix.blogspot.com/ (In French)
More Blogs and Wikis
- Fernando Nunes at http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/
- Ben Thompson’s blog at: https://informixdba.wordpress.com/
- Informix Experts at: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/idsteam?lang=en
- The Lenexa view at: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/smoe?lang=en
Social media
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25049
Twitter : https://twitter.com/IBM_Informix
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/IBM.Informix
YouTube : https://ibm.biz/BdH2nb
Informix IoT Channel : https://ibm.biz/BdH2nm
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
- The Informix Zone at http://www.informix-zone.com
- 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
