Basic Informix instance customization

When installing and setting up infx, you may want to customize the Informix environment.

The infx discovery service automatically detects instances and sets their basic Informix connection parameters e.g. INFORMIXDIR, INFORMIXSERVER, and ONCONFIG. You may also need to specify a DBDATE parameter, or other environment variable such as LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

It is important to make these settings before starting an instance with the infx utilities. These variables will be set before start up, as well as when executing the infx services.

infx uses a multi level approach that allows you to apply settings to just one specific instance, or to all instances.

Installing informix software with infx

When installing Informix, consider installing to a version specific location, instead of accepting the default.

This will allow you to install multiple versions, and switch between them as needed.

For example, to install and test a new version, while the existing version continues to run.

Use the infx idsinstall command to automatically install Informix software to a version specific location.

Automatic Informix instance discovery and set up

After you install infx, you run the discovery service to locate existing Informix instances. This automatically configures infx to access and manage them.

The infx disco command locates instances in the output of onstat -g dis, reads their ONCONFIG files, and creates the required files and directories.

This all happens automatically in the background, the purpose of this post is to go through each of those steps in more detail.

Installing infx

Just a short note about installing infx.

The infx package file e.g. infx-v1.2b.tar.gz, is a tar archive file.

You cannot gunzip it, use tar to extract the contents directly from the archive instead.

i.e. tar xvf infx-v1.2b.tar.gz

Sorry about any confusion.

Thanks,

Jason

infx v1.2b available for download

infx 1.2b is available for download at http://www.infx.me/download

This release contains bug fixes and a few enhancements.

It fixes issues with the dashboards under Internet Explorer. Some issues are still outstanding with Firefox. I always recommend you download and install the Google Chrome browser.

It also has enhancements for setting up SSH keys to access remote hosts, and to remotely install and update infx.

The release notes are attached.

Please feel free to contact me with questions and comments.

Thanks,
Jason

How to use the infx profile dashboard to get detailed database stats

A short demonstration of how to get detailed table and index information using the infx table profiler. Includes statistics on sizing, locking and access for each table and index.

Comparing the Infx Management Suite and Open Admin Tool

I have just completed an overview that highlights the differences between infx and the Open Admin Tool. It helps explain what infx does and why you might need it!

You can read it here: Comparing infx and OAT

Feature comparison: infx and OAT feature list

Feel free to post questions in the comments or email me directly for more info. In the near future I hoping to announce the beta version...