Highlights: IIUG YouTube Channel has a custom URL
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.
Table of Contents
Editorial
Unable to travel and meet in person the IIUG board held a meeting using WebEx. The meeting took place on the 19 and 21 of March.
Running the IIUG and providing you with the same services at this time is quite a challenge. Some tasks like maintaining the website or publishing the Insider are unchanged. Others like having a conference are much more challenging.
We are planning an online event. It cannot replace an actual conference but it is the closest we can get.
For me meeting in person has much more then attending presentations.
I miss you friends. Let’s hope 2022 will be back to normal.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
gary@iiug.org
Highlights
IIUG YouTube Channel Has A Custom URL
We have our own YouTube channel it is called “Informix Tech Talks by the IIUG”
It has already 129 subscribers and seven great talks.
The URL is: https://www.youtube.com/c/InformixTechTalksbytheIIUG
Please subscribe and view the talks. If you would like to contribute it will be awesome.
Contact Lester Knutsen who is leading this great initiative. lester@iiug.org.
We will be adding more talks so make sure you are visiting this channel frequently.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Corner
Informix Tech Talks
April: Getting Serious About Redundancy! by Tom Girsch
April 29 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: We all *say* we want redundancy for maximum uptime. But are we really willing to invest the money, time, and effort to get there? In this presentation, we’ll cover the many ways to eliminate single points of failure and also discuss ways in which redundancy could be improved even more with product enhancements.
Tom Girsch – Auto Europe
May: Large Table Operations by Ben Thompson
May 27 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: Many databases are getting larger as systems mature and organizations put more value on data. Size can present challenges for a DBA when making schema changes especially where low downtime is a requirement. This presentation covers some of the methods that can be used to undertake large table operations and provides tips on choosing the most suitable method for a given situation.
Ben Thompson – Sky Betting & Gaming
Registration Coming Soon!
March Replay: Informix SQL Performance Tuning Tips by Jeff Filippi
Learn how to improve your Informix SQL statements to optimize performance on your Informix Database system.
Jeff Filippi, Integrated Data Consulting, LLC
Informix Tech Talks On Our YouTube Channel
Available Tech Talks:
1. Creating Informix Non OS Users by Lester Knutsen
2. Migrating and Upgrading to Informix 14 in-house or in the cloud
3. Three ways to capture data changes when they happen! by Art Kagel
4. Informix SQL Performance Tuning Tips by Jeff Filippi on March 25, 2021
More exciting videos are in development and on the way.
Lester Knutsen,
IIUG Board
IIUG Informix Virtual Tech Conference
You would have thought the logistics of a virtual event would be easier than an in-person event. We are finding out there are just as many challenges planning a virtual event as there were planning an in-person event. They are just different.
We are still planning a multi-day event. Session will be offered during different times allowing ALL our members an opportunity to attend all or part of the event. Each day will be a combination of 1-hour pre-recorded and live presentations. Pre-recorded sessions will be presented with chat and discussion opportunities. We are planning to have one or two keynote speakers join the event.
We opened the Call for Speakers back in February and it will remain open until we confirm the dates and times of the event. That means you still have time to visit the IIUG website to submit your Speaker Abstract.
As you know, these events are driven by the Informix user community. Our goal has always been to include our Informix users as session presenters. If you aren’t sure about a topic to present, feel free to reach out to a Board member for suggestions. If you are uncomfortable speaking in front of you peers, this new format is ideal for you. Now is the time to share your knowledge with the Informix Community.
Continue to visit the IIUG website for updates as they become available. As always, if you have any questions, you can contact us at iiug@iiug.org or you can contact me directly at rhonda@iiug.org.
Thank you for your patience as we work through the challenges of our first virtual event.
Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board and Conference Committee
IBM Corner
IBM Informix Advanced Enterprise Edition Cartridge for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data
Find out all about it at:
https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS221-121
Possible Performance Impact Running Informix on Power Architecture
An issue was reported recently that revealed that Informix running on IBM power 8 and power 9 systems (AIX 7.1 and AIX 7.2) may experience a performance drop under certain workload conditions.
Architects from HCL Informix lab and observations by IBM Expert Lab staff at multiple customer venues team have determined the root cause after in-depth diagnostics and testing. HCL and IBM have collaborated to code and test a fix that is scheduled to be released as part of the upcoming Informix 14.10.FC6 fixpack. This problem and the fix are within the server and not at all user tunable.
This problem is strictly limited AIX on the Power platform and DOES NOT impact Informix running on any other hardware environment.
If you are currently running Informix under AIX on IBM power architecture, please make sure to upgrade to Informix 14.10.FC6 or later (when available) at your earliest convenience.
Scott Pickett
IBM Informix WW Technical Sales
IBM Informix WW Cloud Technical Sales
IBM Informix WW Cloud Technical Sales ICIAE
IBM Informix WW Informix Warehouse Accelerator Sales
33 Years Informix User
Why Should You Already Be Upgrading to Informix 14.10?
The short answer is this … because 14.10 is the fastest, most secure, highest quality, feature rich, Informix version available today with the easy to use administration and monitoring tool, InformixHQ, right in the box!
Over the next few newsletters, we will dig more into this question and highlight some of those key features and use cases that will bring your business the best value upgrading to 14.10.
First Benefit: 14.10 is available in many different and easy to use deployments!
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As a traditional install on your existing physical and virtual systems.
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As an add-on cartridge to Cloud Pak for Data which brings the power of Informix to the modern infrastructure of the Cloud Pak to further enable your journey to AI.
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As a pre-packaged container on docker hub to easily provision and deploy a test or development instance.
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As a hosted offering, IBM Informix on Cloud is easy to order and provision on the IBM Cloud.
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And finally, We are working to provide a stand-alone container via RedHat Marketplace for even easier deployment utilizing Operators and Kubernetes.
Be sure to check back here next month to see more reasons why you need to start that upgrade now!
RFE Corner
IBM has an 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.It is friendly and has a nice look and feel.
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: 108 (+0)
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 today’s 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: 89 (+0)
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: 80 (+1)
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: 74 (+1)
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Gary Ben-Israel
IBM Informix Forum Corner
Join and visit the IBM Informix community forum at http://www.iiug.org/community
Recent posts
Creating a series from two char columns
Seems InformixHQ doesn’t like me
Gary Ben-Israel
Informix Resources
IIUG website
www.iiug.org
IBM Informix community
http://www.iiug.org/community
Informix Blogs and Wikis
Please note: The list below contains only blogs that were active in the last six months.
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IBM Informix community https://community.ibm.com/community/user/hybriddatamanagement/communities/community-home/recent-community-blogs?communitykey=cf5a1f39-c21f-4bc4-9ec2-7ca108f0a365&tab=recentcommunityblogsdashboard
Technical Articles
https://www.oninitgroup.com/technical-articles/
https://www.oninitgroup.com/faq-items/cloud-backups-with-informix-14-10/
Social Media
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/InformixTechTalksbytheIIUG
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25049
Twitter : https://twitter.com/iiug
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/IIUG.Informix
Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
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The IIUG old forums at http://www.iiug.org/forums/technical.php *** NO LONGER ACTIVE ***
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Informix Marketing channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/informixmarketing?feature=results_main
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.
Editors: Gary Ben-Israel, Rhonda Hackenburg
For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org or rhonda@iiug.org
