Editorial
Still recovering from eye surgery. Work is hard but I’m doing my best for you guys.
Only virtual events are taking place. And work for many of us has slowed down or stopped.
It will take a while until things will return to normal.
I wish good health to all.
Stay safe.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
gary@iiug.org
2) Highlights
2.1 IIUG Survey 2020 – Your voice needs to be heard!
Dear Informix friends,
It has been some time since snapshots regarding the state of Informix and the means of representing Informix users were taken. For that purpose, the IIUG (International Informix Users Group) Board of Directors has devised a short survey regarding those two subjects. The idea behind this survey is to better shape the collective voice of the Informix Community and increase ways for IIUG to serve this Community.
Completing the survey will take no more than 10 minutes of your time and it would mean a lot to us and the future of Informix. The survey can be accessed via: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HSRBWXN. Please find some time in your busy schedule to complete the survey. Feel free to share this with your relevant coworkers, customers, etc.
Thanks in advance,
IIUG Board of Directors
Cindy Lichtenauer – IIUG President
3) IBM Informix Forum Corner
Join and visit the IBM Informix community forum at http://www.iiug.org/community
Recent posts
Informix 12 or 14 on Centos 8
A bit of reverse engineering on oncmsm
Release 14.10xc4
Adding primary to a table having duplicate rows
534 error occurs when executing set explain on
Gary Ben-Israel
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
Clear Indication when RSS_FLOW_CONTROL or SDS_FLOW_CONTROL is actively applied
Votes: 1
Created June, 25 2020
Status: Needs review
Add configurable per session/per PDQ thread log cache similar to Sybase user log cache
Votes: 1
Created June, 19 2020
Status: Needs review
Improve performance on multifact query on an informix database
Votes: 3
Created June, 16 2020
Status: Needs review
Make onstat -g rss log buffer(s) size configurable
Votes: 4
Created June, 4 2020
Status: Needs review
Add readahead per sessions/sql counters
Votes: 5
Created June, 4 2020
Status: Needs review
Allow placement of tablespace BYTE and TEXT data in a separate dbspace from the table’s base row data
Votes: 16
Created June, 2 2020
Status: Needs review
255 rows/page limit should be addressed
Votes: 13
Created June, 2 2020
Status: Needs review
Popular (Over 50 votes)
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: 102
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: 85
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: 72
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: 70
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Gary Ben-Israel
5) How To
Checking table authorization
Checking programmatically if a user has permission for a table is not easy. The permission scheme is hierarchical. For instance, if
role_2 has select permission on table table_1 and role_1 is the
grantee for role_2 and user_1 is the grantee for role_1 we need to go down the tree to determine if user_1 has select permission for table_1.
Lucky for us Informix has a connect by select statement that can deal with hierarchy.
This stored procedure’s parameters are table name, user name and permission type It returns true or false.
create function check_tab_auth(t_nm nvarchar(128), u_nm varchar(16))
returning boolean
define r_nm char(4);
define t_role nchar(32);
foreach
select b.grantee
into t_role
from systables a, systabauth b
where a.tabname = t_nm
and b.tabid = a.tabid
and b.tabauth[1] = 's'
if t_role = u_nm then
return 't';
end if
if (select count(*)
from sysroleauth a
where a.rolename = t_role
start with grantee = u_nm
connect by prior rolename = grantee) > 0 then
return 't';
end if
end foreach
return 'f';
end function;
6) Informix Corner
6.1 Informix 1410xc4w1 Rocks! New great top feature available
After the 14.10.xC4 embargo, finally, Informix Dynamic Server 14.10.xC4W1 has been released.
This new version includes tons of bug fixes as usual. You can check the list of the customer reported bugs fixed at: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/fix-list-informix-server-1410xc4w1-releases…
Vicente Salvador
Read the entire article
6.2 Informix – new release available
Hello! Informix 14.10.xC4 release was launched
Check here a small briefing of new features.
Starting with CSDK 4.50.xC4, Informix .NET Core Provider compatible with .NET Core SDK/Runtime v3.1 is shipped for Windows x64 and Linux x86_64 platforms….
Alexandre Marini
Read the entire article
7) Events
7.1 Upgrade with Success from Informix 11.70 to Informix 14.10
July 14 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Are you running IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 11.70? Join this session to help with your plans to migrate from Informix 11.70 to Informix 14.10 with ease. Please note that Informix 11.70 will reach End of Service (EOS) on September 30, 2020.
https://www.iiug.org/event/upgrade-with-success-from-informix-11-70-to-informix-14-10/
7.2 Creating Databases, Tables and managing Security
July 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
How do you build databases and tables in Informix? We will discuss best practices for creating and managing databases and tables, partitioning, and database security.
https://www.iiug.org/event/creating-databases-tables-and-managing-security-by-lester-knutsen/
7.3 Informix Database Server Monitoring
August 20 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
How do you use the command-line utilities to manage and monitor an Informix Server? We will discuss onstat, oncheck, and the new InformixHQ to manage your server.
https://www.iiug.org/event/informix-database-server-monitoring-webinar-by-lester-knutsen/
8) Informix Resources
IIUG website
www.iiug.org
IBM Informix community
http://www.iiug.org/community
8.1 Informix Blogs and Wikis
Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month
More Blogs and Wikis
8.2 Social Media
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25049
Twitter : https://twitter.com/iiug
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/IIUG.Informix
8.3 Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
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
