Highlights: IIUG virtual conference, 5-7 October 2021

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.

Editorial

COVID-19 is refusing to leave. There are almost 5 million active case in the US. Trend shows improvement but traveling is still not permitted in many countries.

We cannot count on October being different. So, the best we can do under the circumstances is offer virtual evens and do virtual meetings. I hope that we will be able to have board meeting towards the end of the year. Time will tell.

In the meantime, we highly recommend our YouTube channel:

“Informix Tech Talks by the IIUG” The URL is: https://www.youtube.com/c/InformixTechTalksbytheIIUG

Join our 201 subscribers.

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
gary@iiug.org

Highlights

IIUG Virtual Technical Event, 5-7 October 2021

Although things are slowly getting back to pre-COVID status, this year’s event will remain virtual. The event is October 5-7 2021 beginning at 10:00 AM EDT. This time was selected to allow the event to be available to as many attendees as possible. We understand this is not ideal for everyone and want to let you know replays will be available for all registered attendees.

We are planning to open registration on August 1st. The fee to attend this event will be $199 for all three days. Register by September 1st to take advantage of our early bird price of $150.

If you read the May IIUG Insider, there is a new IBM Informix Administrator exam that will be available soon. This exam coincides with the new IBM badge format. This means you will now receive a badge for passing the exam instead of “certification” classification. The cost of the exam will be $150. NOTE: this is a proctored online exam and will have to be scheduled when a proctor is available.

We have some good news. If you register for the IIUG Virtual event we will waive the fee for the new Administrator exam. Basically, this is a buy one get one free offer. You will have the option to register for the exam and receive a free pass to the IIUG Virtual event in October. Register and pay for the exam by September 30^th to receive your free admission to the Virtual event.

We still have opportunities for user speakers to participate in our first Online Technical Event. Why not consider sharing what you know with other Informix users. Your presentation only needs to be a 40-50 minute presentation on a topic you think could be helpful to others. We have all been in enough technical sessions to realize that if the topic is good, questions and discussion will always more than fill the allotted time slots.

The Call for Speakers will remain open until August 31, 2021. Please consider submitting your Speaker Abstract today. We will pull the schedule together shortly after that. We hope to begin announcing our speakers and topics shortly.

Visit the IIUG website and watch your email for future updates.

If you have any questions, please email us at conference@iiug.org.

Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board and Planning Committee

Informix Corner

Informix 14.10 xC6 is Now Available

We are excited to share about the GA of Informix 14.10.xC6 (try it here).

Key Features:​

• Backup and Restore on Remote Standby Secondary (RSS) – top voted RFE​

  • Enables each remote replica to maintain a local L0 backup and Log backup.​

• ER Performance Improvements:​

  • Achieves major performance enhancements for ER across the board, including ER sync.​

• Informix Audit Logs to Syslogs (Linux and AIX) – key enhancement for Financial sector​

  • Enables forwarding of auditable events for centralized Security Information Management​

Other notable items:​

• TLS 1.3 Encryption support​

• Large Segment Aliasing (LSA) on AIX Power 9​

• InformixHQ Schema Manager​

You can catch the replay of the 14.10.xC6 content overview here.

Carlton Doe is also currently holding two technical deep dives into the xC6 content.

The replay for the deep dive covering ER enhancements, new kernel and SQL features can be found here.

There is still time to sign up for the second xC6 technical deep dive being held July 13^th covering InformixHQ and Backup from RSS here.

IIUG/IBM xc6 Webcast – IHQ and Backup from RS secondary

Title: IHQ and Backup from RS secondary

When: July 13, 2021 at 11 am Eastern (July 13, 2021 15:00 GMT)

Speaker: Carlton Doe

https://www.iiug.org/event/iiug-ibm-xc6-webcast-ihq-and-backup-from-rs-secondary/

NOTE: This was originally scheduled for June 29, 2021.

3.3 Washington Area Informix User Group Meeting

When: July 22 at 1 pm Eastern (July 22, 2021 17:00 GMT)

Speakers: Carlton Doe, Scott Pickett and Paul Watson

Meeting number: 182 284 6819
Password: G0!Informix (40046367 from video systems)
Agenda: Informix Tech Talks from the IIUG hosting the Washington Area Informix User Group Meeting (WAIUG)

Join by video system
Dial 1822846819@webex.com
You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Join by phone
Use VoIP only

Register Here

IIUG YouTube Channel

Catch replays of all past Tech Talks presentations on our YouTube channel Informix Tech Talks by the IIUG.

We are still looking for users who are interested presenting at one of these sessions in the upcoming months. If you are interested for have any questions, please contact us at: lester@iiug.org or rhonda@iiug.org.

Rhonda Hackenburg

IIUG Planning Committee

Virtual Partner Event

IBM is planning to hold one, possibly two, Virtual Informix Partner events this summer. This event is intended to update partners on current Informix offerings. Sorry, this event is ONLY open to approved Partnerworld partners.

If you are an authorized IBM Partnerworld partner and wish to be participate, please send an email request to Stuart Litel – slitel@ibm.com with the Subject line: Partner Event. The email MUST be sent from your corporate email. We will not accept personal emails such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc. to verify you are an approved partner. All requests will be verified for an invitation.

Stuart Litel

IIUG Partner Inquiry Survey

The IIUG has created a small survey, 4 questions, to find out who our Informix partners are and learn more about them. We are asking our IIUG members for your help. If you would complete this survey by the end of July we would appreciate it.

Thank you for your help.

Cindy Lichtenauer
IIUG President

RFE Corner

IBM has a Request For Enhancements (RFE) 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.

Recent

Convert Log “Raw” data into SQL Statements

Backup on RSS – option to allow with raw tables.

14.10.FC6 multiple page sizes for temp dbspaces – intelligent use based on page size.

Unload to file should have option that prevents over writing of an existing file

Add metrics for reverse index scans and number of retries.

Popular (Over 50 votes)

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: 94 (+1)

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: 86 (+3)

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: 78 (+2)

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

Last Month’s Replays

IBM Informix v.14.10.xC6 Feature Overview

IBM Informix v.14.10.xC6 Deep Dive-1

Recent Posts

How many CPU do i need ?

LIMIT DELETE ROWS

How to configure informix to store TPS on logfile (without query on sysmaster)

how increase log space (12204: RSAM error: Long transaction detected)

Setting “HOME” directory for client when using SYSTEM command

Client SDK Download

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.

• Art Kagel http://informix-myview.blogspot.co.il/

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

• The IIUG old forums at http://www.iiug.org/forums/technical.php *** NO LONGER ACTIVE ***

• 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