Highlights: Try the new IBM Informix forum
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 Try the new IBM Informix Community forum
3.1 Make your reservation to attend IIUG World 2019
3.2 Don’t forget to attend the Customer Advisory Council (CAC)
6.1 Hilscher: Connecting companies with IoT and edge analytics
6.2 North America IBM Informix Roadshow page
6.3 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – Bangalore
6.4 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – Mumbai
6.5 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – New Delhi
6.6 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day in Guadalajara
6.7 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day Mexico City
6.8 Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Paris. September 10, 2019
6.9 Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Casablanca. September 12, 2019
7.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
Table of Contents
1) Editorial
The IIUG board had a successful meeting in Lisbon Portugal.
You will see improvements to our website soon, especially in the new member area and updated content.
IBM wants to make Informix great again. We are already seeing results. More sales effort, plans for revision in the Informix editions and more. Stay tuned.
HCL has released Informix 14.1 UC1 and is working on UC2.
IIUG World 2019 is getting closer and the conference planning committee is working hard on making it our best conference ever. I hope to see many of you there.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
2) Highlights
2.1 Try the new IBM Informix Community forum
Our old IIUG forums have been replaced by a new Informix forum at the IBM community site.
Please go to /community join, participate and enjoy.
We will copy our old IDS forum posts on the new site. New great posts are already there.
Have a question? Want to share? This is the place to be.
Gary Ben-Israel
3) Conference Corner
3.1 Make your reservation to attend IIUG World 2019
IIUG World 2019 will be held September 22 – 26, 2019 at the Torrance Marriott Redondo Beach (Los Angeles, California, USA area).
If you wait until after August 18, you may not be able to use your IIUG membership number to save $100 off the regular price. You also might not be able to get a room at the hotel!
In addition, you might not be able to obtain these airfares into LAX, which are current as of Wednesday July 31 …
| From: | ATLanta | Chicago | DENver | NYC | SEAttle | London |
| 335 | 255 | 99 | 260 | 147 | 537 |
The above are ALL NON-STOP ROUNDTRIP fares on MAJOR airlines. If you have time to connect or prefer discount airlines, fares will be even cheaper. Of course fares are subject to change, but the time to book your flights is NOW.
Your paid registration includes 3 full days of technical content, all the evening events, breakfast, lunch and the Thursday in-depth tutorials. Did you say you want to save more? Remember to register by August 18 using your IIUG membership number to save an additional $100 off the registration cost. Not an IIUG member yet? Go here to join for free: https://members.iiug.org/join.html
Then register for IIUG World 2019 at: https://www.iiug.org/conf/2019/iiug/register.php
Don’t forget to book your hotel room at the Torrance Marriott Redondo Beach, even if you are not ready to register. This will ensure a room is available for you at IIUG World 2019 at the special event price of $179. Book your room now at: www.iiug.org/iiugworld/book-room.php
IIUG World Planning Committee
3.2 Don’t forget to attend the Customer Advisory Council (CAC)
The 2019 Customer Advisory Council (CAC) meeting will be held prior to the IIUG World conference on Sunday Sept 22 from 10am-4pm local time. The purpose of the CAC is to gather detailed feedback and usage experiences from our customers and partners. Attendance is by invitation to past and new members of the CAC to promote an active discussion format.
If you would like to attend the CAC and have not yet received an invitation, please send an email request to one of the following:
Rajesh Govindan IBM Informix Marketing Manager
Milind Tamaskar IBM Informix Product Manager
Current CAC members will receive a direct invitation by email.
We look forward to seeing you at IIUG World 2019!
4) IIUG Corner
4.1 IBM and HCL relationship
It is time to evaluate how the several years old relationship between HCL and IBM related to HCL taking over Informix development and support has been good and/or bad for the Informix Community. We as a Community and the IIUG Board as your representatives have complained when things seemed to be going “bad”. Some have accused us for being all doom and gloom, so I wanted to set the record straight. While there have been things to complain about over the past few years, there have also been good things to celebrate. Overall, I think that this has been a mixed bag with good things happening and bad things happening. Let me lay out the highlights on both ends:
- Informix development is now immune to IBM’s employment purges. – Good
The last purge before HCL took in the Informix team saw the Informix Community (and specifically the Informix Development Team) lose several of its most talented and knowledgeable members. The latest purge could not touch us any longer. - There was initial friction between IBM and HCL as they worked out the boundaries of their relationship to each other and to the larger Informix Community. – Bad.
This friction has caused uncertainty within the Informix user community with several companies making decisions to move away from Informix or limit new development projects using Informix. - Informix development has proceeded apace. The v14.10 release fixed some bugs, introduced a few minor features – including a few RFE’s long awaited – and improved performance for secondary servers and for some SQL queries. – Good
- The year before the HCL “take over” we were promised that Informix would move to a more agile development schedule with fix packs roughly every month or two. That has not yet materialized. Version 14.10.FC1 (there are no more 32bit or 32bit-on-64bit releases so no more “U” or “H” releases, only “F”) was released a couple of months ago and the .FC2 fix pack is not due until September. – Bad
- One result of the friction between IBM & HCL is an apparent recognition that IBM had lost something in the exchange. The result of this is that there is a new team of people dedicated at least half time to Informix marketing, product development guidance, and yes even Informix Sales. This includes the development of new sales strategies for what the IIUG Board of Directors humorously dubbed MIGA (Make Informix Great Again – apologies for the unfortunate similarity to some other acronyms) at our last meeting. – Good
- Part of the note immediately above has been a closer relationship between the IIUG Board of Directors and the IBM Informix Product Manager and Informix Sales Manager which harp back to the relationships that existed several years ago. – Good
One of the results of this were the recent increases in the resource levels for Informix Innovator-C Edition, Express Edition, and Workgroup Edition and a commitment to continue support for Innovator-C and Express as gateway products to bring new customers to Informix. - There is a new IBM sponsored Hybrid Data Community site that the IIUG Board has decided to adopt to replace our very aged Forums that were based on sendmail. Click on Resources on the new IIUG site’s top menu to see the link. – Good
- There is a new vastly improved RFE (Requests for Enhancement) site hosted by a third party. The site has dedicated IBM and HCL product persons assigned to follow the requests. I have personally found that the new site is much more responsive than the old one was. Also, as mentioned, long standing RFEs are appearing in Informix releases! – Good
- The IIUG Software Repository was moved from our home-grown repository to SourceForge giving users easier access to the source. The SourceForge site is echoed on GitHub for those who prefer that interface. This is the last item that remained on our old server and web site. The IIUG is completely updated! We will soon decommission the old server which will save a few $$. The new repository can still be reached at www.iiug.org/software – Good
Enough for now, I think that you get the idea that there has been good and there has been bad.
Art S. Kagel
5) RFE Corner
IBM has created a new RFE – Request For Enhancements website.
https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.aha.io/ideas
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
Certification of Informix Connection Manager with ESQL/COBOL
We are implementing Informix Connection manager with HDR as High Availability solution for our organization. During testing, we identified connection manager is not certified for ESQL/Cobol, our business-critical application is written in Cobol. it’s very important for us to have Cobol integrated with Connection Manager to have an uninterrupted system.
Votes: 3
Created: July 22, 2019
Status: Needs review
Create and use a BTS index over a temporary table.
drop table if exists tp01 ;
create temp table tp01 ( nome varchar(100) ) with no log ;
insert into tp01 select first 1000 tabname from systables ;
create index i1_tp01 on tp01( nome bts_varchar_ops) using bts ;
select * from tp01 where bts_contains (nome, ‘sys’);
#^
#(BTS92) – bts error – CLucene index does not exist
#
Votes: 1
Created: July 17, 2019
Status: Needs review
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: 78
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: 63
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: 59
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: 51
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: 50
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Gary Ben-Israel
6) Informix Corner
6.1 Hilscher: Connecting companies with IoT and edge analytics
New video at: https://youtu.be/bIzv7MEsgq0
6.2 North America IBM Informix Roadshow page
A series of free one day technical events designed to give you insight into the latest features released in IBM Informix v.14.10. These technologies and features are helping customers solve some of the toughest business problems in the world today.
This year’s series of events are one day in length and are presentation only, no hands-on labs.
A partial list of topics includes:
- The new installation mechanism
- New security enhancements including integrated backup encryption and changes to on-disk encryption!
- High Availability enhancements
- New SQL features and functions and application development enhancements
- New replication functionality including asynchronous post commit triggers
- Heterogeneous instance migration with codeset conversions
- The Informix HQ graphical monitoring tool
- More!!!
6.3 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – Bangalore
August 5 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
IBM Bangalore, IBM, C Block, 7th Floor, Executive Briefing Center (EBC) Embassy Golf Links Business Park (EGL), Koramangala, Off Indiranagar Ring Road,
Bangalore, 560 071 India
Register at: /conf/india/india.php
6.4 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – Mumbai
August 7 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
IBM Mumbai, IBM India Pvt. Ltd Nirlon Knowledge Park, B2-Pahadi Villag 7th Floor, Western Express Highway Near Hub Mall, Goregaon East
Mumbai, India
Register at: /conf/india/india.php
6.5 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day – New Delhi
August 9 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
IBM New Delhi, IBM India Pvt. Ltd. Plot #-4, Block – C, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj
New Delhio, asant Kunj New Delhi- India
Register at: /conf/india/india.php
6.6 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day in Guadalajara
August 20 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Guadalajara Meeting, Avenida Empresarios 135, piso 7 Puerta de Hierro, Zapopan
Jalisco, 45116 Mexico
Register at: /conf/guadalajara/guadalajara.php
6.7 IIUG 14.10 IBM Informix Tech Day Mexico City
August 22 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Hilton Reforma Mexico City, Av. Juarez 70. Colonia Centro
Mexico City, Distrito Federal 06010 Mexico
Register at: /conf/mexico/mexico.php
6.8 Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Paris. September 10, 2019
En tant que client privilégié d’Informix, nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à la Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Paris.
IBM Informix – v14.10 a été lancé en mars 2019, une étape importante dans le partenariat entre IBM et HCL. IBM a conclu un partenariat de propriété intellectuelle (IPP) sur une durée de 15 ans avec HCL afin de développer, de maintenir, de vendre et de commercialiser conjointement des produits Informix. La sortie d’une nouvelle version majeure d’Informix réaffirme l’engagement envers ce partenariat, pérennisant ainsi l’avenir d’Informix.
Joignez-vous à l’équipe de direction d’IBM et de HCL Informix pour une journée d’échanges techniques pendant laquelle seront expliquées les fonctionnalités d’Informix si enviées par la concurrence, incluant bien sûr les nouveaux points fort d’IBM Informix V 14.10 qui est sortie ce printemps.
Les clients et les partenaires intéressés par IBM Informix, ou qui cherchent à relever les nouveaux défis de la gestion des données, sont invités à cet événement.
Cet événement se veut sous la forme d’un forum interactif dont le but est d’amplifier vos connaissances sur les capacités d’Informix, les meilleures pratiques, mais aussi d’entendre comment les autres mettent Informix à profit dans leur environnement. Nous espérons que vous aurez l’intention de vous joindre à la discussion en partageant vos cas d’utilisation avec le groupe. N’hésitez pas à partager cette invitation avec d’autres membres de votre organisation.
La participation est gratuite.
ordre du jour
9h00 – 9h30 Inscription: Café/Petit déjeuner et réseautage
9h30 – 11h30 Informix 14.10 – Traitement transactionnel distribué inégalé à ce jour: Informix offre la possibilité de traiter plus de 2 millions de transactions par seconde.
- Tout ce que vous voulez savoir sur le flambant-neuf Informix 14.10
- Pérennisez votre entreprise avec Informix
- Plongez en profondeur dans les améliorations des performances du Log Replay (relecture des journaux)
11h30 – 13h00 L’architecture inégalée de Réplication d’Informix 14.10: les capacités D’Informix continuent de s’étoffer pour prendre en charge toutes vos implémentations Internet des Objets (IoT), même sur les plus petits appareils (nano-computers).
Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/informix-tech-day-paris-2019-tickets-64970129406
6.9 Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Casablanca. September 12, 2019
En tant que client privilégié d’Informix, nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à la Journée Informix Tech Day 2019 – Casablanca.
IBM Informix – v14.10 a été lancé en mars 2019, une étape importante dans le partenariat entre IBM et HCL. IBM a conclu un partenariat de propriété intellectuelle (IPP) sur une durée de 15 ans avec HCL afin de développer, de maintenir, de vendre et de commercialiser conjointement des produits Informix. La sortie d’une nouvelle version majeure d’Informix réaffirme l’engagement envers ce partenariat, pérennisant ainsi l’avenir d’Informix.
Rejoignez l’équipe de direction d’IBM et de HCL Informix pour une journée d’échanges techniques pendant laquelle seront expliquées les fonctionnalités d’Informix si enviées par la concurrence, incluant bien sûr les nouveaux points fort d’IBM Informix V 14.10 qui est sortie au printemps dernier
Les clients et les partenaires intéressés par IBM Informix, ou qui cherchent à relever les nouveaux défis de la gestion des données, sont invités à cet événement.
Cet événement se veut sous la forme d’un forum interactif dont le but est d’amplifier vos connaissances sur les capacités d’Informix, les meilleures pratiques, mais aussi d’entendre comment les clients tirent parti d’Informix dans leur environnement. Nous espérons que vous aurez l’intention de vous joindre à la discussion en partageant vos cas d’utilisation avec le groupe. N’hésitez pas à partager cette invitation avec d’autres membres de votre organisation.
La participation est gratuite.
Programme de la journée
9h00 – 9h30 Inscription: Café/Petit déjeuner et réseautage
9h30 – 11h30 Informix 14.10 – Traitement transactionnel distribué inégalé à ce jour: Informix offre la possibilité de traiter plus de 2 millions de transactions par seconde.
- Tout ce que vous voulez savoir sur le flambant-neuf Informix 14.10
- Pérennisez votre entreprise avec Informix
- Plongez en profondeur dans les améliorations des performances du Log Replay(relecture des journaux)
11h30 – 13h00 L’architecture inégalée de Réplication d’Informix 14.10: les capacités D’Informix continuent de s’étoffer pour prendre en charge toutes vos implémentations Internet des Objets (IoT), même sur les plus petits appareils (nano-computers).
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
