Highlights: Informix 15 Is Now Available
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
We are happy to announce the new IIUG Board of Directors that will serve in 2025-2026.
We would like to welcome our two new board members: Thomas Girsch and Karen Qualley.
And the returning members: Thomas Beebe, Gary Ben-Israel, Carlton Doe, Rhonda Hackenburg, Art Kagel, Cindy Lichtenauer, Vicente Salvador, and Bruce Simms
More information about the board members can be found at: https://www.iiug.org/en/about-iiug/board/.
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor
IIUG Board of Directors
gary@iiug.org
Highlights
Informix 15 Is Now Available
IBM Data and AI
We are excited to announce that Informix 15 is now available with its unparalleled scalability for the modern data-driven world.
This latest release brings significant enhancements with new features and functionalities that will take your database management to the next level. Informix 15 is poised to revolutionize the database performance and scalability, enabling near infinite data storage scalability, enhanced Informix HQ monitoring tool and support for the latest libraries, non-English language sets thereby simplifying global application deployment and complex data management.
Read the blog on Informix 15: Unparalleled Scalability for the Modern Data-Driven World to know more.
Stay tuned for the latest information on your Informix webpage.
We look forward to sharing the excitement of Informix 15 with you!
Carlton Doe
IBM
Conference Corner
IBM TechXchange Conference 2025 – Orlando, FL, USA
The next IBM TechXchange Conference is scheduled for October 6-9th 2025 in Orlando FL, USA.
Book by January 7, 2025 for the lowest price.
For details about TechXchange 2025, IBM TechXchange Conference 2025 – Orlando, FL – October 6-9.
Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board
Informix Corner
A Survey About 4GL Usage
IBM is considering enhancing products that have not seen much change over the years. One of these products is Informix 4GL. It used to be pervasive in the greater Informix world but today we aren’t sure what real-world usage looks like. To that end, there are some questions we’d like answered. Your answers will help shape our decisions as we look at this product.
Click here to complete this very short survey! Thanks for your time and feedback.
Carlton Doe
IBM
Informix – My View – Art Kagel
The world of database systems technology has just been taken to a new level by Informix!
That’s right, that RDBMS that was supposed to be dead 20 years ago according to pundits, but has actually been alive and well all these years.
IBM and it’s IP partner HCL have just announced the release of Informix v15.0 which blows the lid off claims that RDBMS cannot handle the massive data that needs to be processed in today’s world. Informix 15 has removed nearly all of its limits. New features are industry shattering..
Click here to read more.
Art Kagel
ASK Database Management
IBM Informix 15.0 Compatibility Mode and Native Mod
Informix Version 15 supports larger tables, chunks, and pages. This support is dependent on the enablement of a new infrastructure that makes low-level disk changes. These changes are so fundamental and extensive that reverting them in-place is not practical. In order to satisfy the potential need for reversion following a migration from an older version, Informix 15 requires explicit enablement of the new infrastructure by the administrator.
Immediately after the successful completion of an in-place migration from an older Informix server version, an Informix 15 instance is in compatibility mode. While in this mode the legacy infrastructure, referred to as Infrastructure Version 0, is in effect. The purpose of compatibility mode is to allow the testing of applications against the Version 15 server while still supporting reversion if necessary. The drawback of compatibility mode is that many Version 15 features are disabled.
Enabling all Version 15 features requires switching your instance from compatibility mode to native mode. Once an instance is in native mode it cannot be reverted in-place to an older Informix version. Nor can it be returned to compatibility mode without the physical restoration of an archive. In this case no logical restore may be performed, otherwise the recovered instance will be switched to native mode by a record in the logical logs.
Methods of determining the current mode
onstat
onstat –
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 15.0.0.0 — On-Line — Up 18:23:33 — 2998160 Kbytes
2024-11-27 10:09:34 — Infrastructure Version: 0 (Compatibility mode)
This onstat output indicates the instance is in compatibility mode.
onstat –
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 15.0.0.0 — On-Line — Up 00:00:44 — 2998160 Kbytes
2024-11-27 10:23:57 — Infrastructure Version: 1
This onstat output indicates the instance is in native mode.
oncheck
oncheck -pr
Validating IBM Informix Dynamic Server reserved pages
Validating PAGE_PZERO…
…
…
This oncheck -pr output indicates the instance is in compatibility mode.
oncheck -pr
Validating IBM Informix Dynamic Server reserved pages
Validating PAGE_PZERO…
This oncheck -pr output indicates the instance is in native mode. Instead of “Version 1 infrastructure enabled” oncheck -pr will display “Version 1 infrastructure only” for an instance that was initialized from scratch in Version 15, as opposed to migrated from an earlier version.
SQL
dbaccess sysmaster -<<END
select hex(value) from sysshmhdr where name = “sysflags”;
END
Database selected.
(expression)
0x0000000000001041
1 row(s) retrieved.
Database closed.
When in compatibility mode, this flag value will not contain 0x1000000.
dbaccess sysmaster -<<END
select hex(value) from sysshmhdr where name = “sysflags”;
END
Database selected.
(expression)
0x0000000001001041
1 row(s) retrieved.
Database closed.
When in native mode, this sysflags value will contain 0x1000000.
Message Log
When in compatibility mode, the online log will contain messages like this:
…
…
10:11:28 On-Line Mode
10:11:28 (Compatibility mode)
…
…
10:17:37 Quiescent Mode
10:17:37 (Compatibility mode)
John Lengyel
IBM Informix 15.0 Large Row Identifiers and Their Implications for Old and New Clients
Immediately after the successful completion of an in-place migration, an Informix 15 instance is in compatibility mode, meaning that most new features are disabled. Enabling all Version 15 features requires switching your instance from compatibility mode to native mode.
If you perform a complete disk initialization using Informix version 15, the instance will begin and always remain in native mode.
Tables created by Informix Version 15 in native mode use 8-byte row identifiers by default. The new rowid size and format allow these new tables to grow much larger than they did prior to Version 15. Tables that make use of large rowids are called LARGE tables.
Because rowids are embedded in the sqlca structure, which is passed back and forth between clients and the server, applications must be prepared for a new version of sqlca if they want to take advantage of the larger rowids.
New applications compiled and linked using Client SDK version 15 are already compatible with large rowids. Applications that communicate with the server using the Version 15 ODBC or JDBC drivers will also recognize large rowids along with the new sqlca structure.
If you want a legacy application to make use of large tables, before connecting it to a Version 15 instance in native mode you should recompile and relink the application with the version 15 header files and libraries. Note that because of the changes to internal structures the version 15 libraries have new names.
Version 15 also supports tables that use legacy 4-byte rowids. A table migrated from an earlier version of the server, for example, will always use 4-byte rowids. These are called SMALL tables. All tables created while the instance is in compatibility mode will be in small table format. Small tables may also be explicitly created while in native mode.
Applications compiled and linked with prior versions of the CSDK will continue to work with the Version 15 server, but only with small tables. If they attempt to create or read a large table they will receive a new error number:
-21569 This client cannot create or open tables that use large rowids.
Even when in native mode, all system catalogs, and all tables in system databases such as sysmaster, sysadmin, sysutils, sysuser, and sysha are in “small table” format so that both new and old clients may access them.
ROWID Columns
When a new application selects the ‘rowid’ hidden column from a non-fragmented table, the type of that column is BIGINT, whether the table is large or small. A legacy application that cannot access large tables will continue to see this ‘rowid’ column as an INT type.
When an application selects the ‘rowid’ hidden column from a large, fragmented table created using the WITH ROWIDS clause, the type of that column is BIGSERIAL. When a small fragmented table is created using the WITH ROWIDS clause, the type of the hidden ‘rowid’ column is SERIAL.
John Lengyel and team
Informix Tech Talks on YouTube
Upcoming Informix Tech Talks
Upcoming Tech Talks
There is no Tech Talks scheduled for December 2024.
Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board
Last Informix Tech Talks Replay
Replay of the Last Informix Tech Talks: Washington Area Users Group (WAIUG) Meeting – November 2024
- Informix advancements of HQ 3.0.0 – Shubham Kapoor, Sr. Software Engineer II – Informix Dev, HCL
- Securing Informix Connections with SSL – Tom Beebe, Vice President, xDB Systems
- Introducing of IBM Informix 15 – Carlton Doe, Informix Technical Product Manager, IBM
Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel
Our YouTube Channel now has:
-
523 subscribers (4 new subscribers)
-
111 videos (3 new videos)
-
20,301 views (434 additional views)
Informix Tech Talks YouTube Channel Videos
Past Informix Tech Talks Replays
In Search of Tech Talks Speakers
We are looking for additional speakers and especially any new speakers to share your Informix knowledge with our user Community via the IIUG Tech Talks. We will assist you in preparing for your Tech Talks presentation by prerecording your session. This will allow you to be available to answer any questions that come up in the chat during you presentation.
If you are interested in producing a 15 – 45-minute presentation, please contact either Art Kagel or Rhonda Hackenburg for additional information.
Rhonda Hackenburg
IIUG Board
Schedule Your Informix 14.10 Exam Today
The Informix 14.10 Badge exam is still available!
The exam will be administered online. You are required to complete the exam with a proctor from our approved list, or nominate one of your own, to be approved by IBM or the IIUG Board. You will be required to have a live webcam running as you complete the exam.
For those not familiar with the term Proctor: Proctor is frequently used to describe someone who oversees an exam. In today’s testing environment, a proctor will typically verify a student’s identity by checking a photo ID and ensure academic integrity guidelines are followed during the exam.
Click here to learn more or schedule your exam.
Informix Training
Free Informix Tutorials Videos – a step by step approach to using Informix Database Servers are available at https://advancedatatools.com/tech-info/informix-tutorials/
RFE Corner
IBM has an RFE – Request For Enhancements website.
Please visit the RFE site to vote for your favorite enhancements and place new requests. It is friendly and has a nice look and feel.
Recent
IBM Data and AI Ideas Portal for Customers
informix can restrict ip/host to connect with DB
Build a Informix HQ server Container
Limited the number of row processed with an update/delete statement
Enable/Disable Triggers at a Session or SQL level
In 4GL, add support for more modern Data and Object Types
In 4GL, ability to formulate and send emails
In 4GL forms, add support for a scrollable text field
In 4GL, Expand Character-Based forms beyond the current 24×76 size
In 4GL, ability to interrogate call stack, to determine where a function is being called from
4GL Support for direct calls to Java
In 4GL, ability to directly execute Linux/Unix commands
In 4GL, provide ability to read/write to text files in the local file system
Add Native 4GL support for build/parse of JSON and XML formatted data
In 4GL, Add support for non-Informix Databases
Add Web Services support directly in 4GL language
Enhance 4GL Language to offer a GUI Interface, for both WIndows, MAC, Linux X and Browset
Give ISAM/tabid when syspurge() fails
Request support for Windows 2025
Need to revisit timestemp for incremental backup
RSS_FLOW_CONTROL will be managed for each RSS separatly
SERVERNUM limitation need to increase
Popular (Over 50 votes)
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: 106 (+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: 93 (+0)
Created: December 24, 2018
Status: Future consideration
Gary Ben-Israel
IUG Board
IBM Informix Forum Corner
Join and visit the IBM Informix community forum
Recent Posts
MONEY(32) without scale as result of a numeric expression involving two MONEY(P,S) values?
Insert performance monitoring / tuning
Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Board
Informix Resources
Not a member, become an IIUG member and keep updated on all things Informix. It’s free.
Not a member, join the IBM Informix community and connect with other Informix data experts.
Blog
Art Kagel – https://informix-myview.blogspot.com/
Informix Requests for Enhancements.
Technical Articles
https://www.oninitgroup.com/technical-articles/
Over 10 Years of Informix Webcast Replays
Over 30 Years of Informix Blog Posts
Social Media
| YouTube | X (Twitter) |
Forums, Groups, Videos, and Magazines
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 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