Level: Introductory Inge Halilovic (ingeh@us.ibm.com), Information Developer, IBM
03 Mar 2005 This article summarizes some of the key features of IBM Informix Dynamic Server, Version 10.0 and provides insight into the general business problems they are intended to solve.
Introduction
IBM Informix Dynamic Server, Version 10.00 contains new features in the following areas:
- Security enhancements
- Server usability enhancements
- Performance enhancements
- SQL enhancements
- Enterprise Replication enhancements
- Backup and restore enhancements
- Storage enhancements
- Extensibility enhancements
- Installation enhancements
- Interoperability enhancements
Security enhancements
IBM Informix Dynamic Server 10.0 provides significant advances in database server security, encryption, authentication, and availability.
Column-level encryption
You can use the new SQL statement, SET ENCRYPTION PASSWORD, to implement column-level encryption and improve the confidentiality of the data. New built-in functions provide methods for encrypting and decrypting data. The system catalog does not identify which columns contain encrypted data, and the same column can include both encrypted and unencrypted values. This security enhancement feature supports data confidentiality and data integrity.
This feature is primarily documented in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Guide and IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax.
Server utilities check for secure environment before starting (UNIX)
This feature was first available with version 9.40.xC3. Server utilities
on UNIX now check if the environment is secure by testing for the
following conditions before starting:
- The permissions on $INFORMIXDIR and some directories under it are
correct. For each directory, check that the directory exists, that it is
owned by user informix and the correct group, and that its
permissions do not include write permissions for the group or other
users.
- The permissions on the ONCONFIG file are correct. The file must
belong to the DBSA group. If the DBSA group is group informix
(default), then the ONCONFIG file should be owned by user informix
too; otherwise, the ownership is not constrained. The file must not
have write permissions for others.
- The permissions on the sqlhosts file are correct. Under a default
configuration, the sqlhosts file is $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts; the
owner should be user informix, the group should be either the
informix group or the DBSA group, and there should be no public write
permissions. If the file is specified by setting the INFORMIXSQLHOSTS
environment variable, then the owner and group are not checked, but
public write permissions are not permitted.
- The length of both the file specifications
$INFORMIXDIR/etc/onconfig.std and $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG must
each be less than 256 characters.
If the tests for any of these conditions fail, the utilities exit with
an error message.
This feature is primarily documented in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Guide.
Restricting registration of external routines
The Database Server Administrator (DBSA) can use a new built-in role,
called EXTEND, to specify which users can register UDRs that include the
EXTERNAL NAME clause. User-defined routines use shared-object files that
are external to the database server and that could potentially contain
harmful code. The DBSA can use the GRANT statement to confer the EXTEND
role on a user (typically the DBA of a local database), or can use
REVOKE to withdraw that role from a user. The DBSA can disable this
feature by setting to "off"; a new IFX_EXTEND_ROLE configuration
parameter. This feature is intended to improve security and to control
accessibility.
This feature is primarily documented in
IBM Informix Guide to SQL:
Syntax
,
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Guide
, and
IBM
Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference
.
Preventing denial-of-service attacks (UNIX)
Informix Dynamic Server provides multiple listener threads available to handle
connections and imposes limits on the availability of the listener VP
for incomplete connections. This feature reduces the risk of a hostile
denial-of-service attacks by making it more difficult to overwhelm the
listener VP that handles connections. The default incomplete connection
timeout period is reduced from 60 to 10 seconds. The default maximum
number of incomplete connections is 1024.
You can customize this feature with the following two new configuration
parameters:
- LISTEN_TIMEOUT. Sets the incomplete connection timeout period.
- MAX_INCOMPLETE_CONNECTION. Restricts the number of incomplete
requests for connections.
You can change the value of these configuration parameters with the
onmode utility while the database server is running.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Server usability enhancements
The server usability enhancements include features for ease of
administration, scalability, and high availability.
Configuring page size
This feature adds support for specifying the page size for a standard or
temporary dbspace when you create the dbspace. You might want to specify
a nondefault page size if you want a longer key length than is
available for the default page size. The root dbspace is the default
page size. If you want to specify a page size, the size must be an
integral multiple of the default page size, not greater than 16
kilobytes.
You can also use the new BUFFERPOOL configuration parameter to create a
buffer pool that corresponds to the page size of the dbspace.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic
Server Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Reference
.
Defining buffer pools
You can use the new BUFFERPOOL configuration parameter or the onparams
utility to define a buffer pool for pages that correspond to each unique
page size in use by your dbspaces. When you use the BUFFERPOOL
configuration parameter or the onparams utility to define a buffer pool,
you specify information about the buffer pool including its size, the
number of LRUS in the buffer pool, the number of buffers in the buffer
pool, and lru_min_dirty and lru_max_dirty values.
The BUFFERS, LRUS, LRU_MAX_DIRTY, and LRU_MIN_DIRTY configuration
parameters are no longer used. Information that was specified with the
BUFFERS, LRUS, LRU_MAX_DIRTY, and LRU_MIN_DIRTY configuration parameters
prior to Version 10.0 is now specified using the BUFFERPOOL
configuration parameter or the onparams utility. Information you enter
using the BUFFERPOOL configuration parameter or onparams utility
supersedes any information previously specified with the deprecated
parameters.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic
Server Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Reference
.
Managing the tblspace tblspace
You have enhanced flexibility in managing the tblspace tblspace. The
tblspace tblspace is a set of pages that describe the location and
structure of all tblspaces in a given dbspace. Use the onspaces utility
to move or drop the chunk containing the tblspace tblspace.
You can also specify the size of the first extent and of subsequent
extents when dbspaces are created:
- Use the TBLTBLFIRST and TBLTBLNEXT configuration parameters to
specify the size of the extents in the root dbspace. You must set
these configuration parameters before creating the root dbspace.
- Use the onspaces utility to specify the size of nonroot dbspaces
during creation.
This feature allows you to reduce the number of tblspace tblspace
extents and reduce the frequency of cases where those extents are placed
in nonprimary chunks.
These features are primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic
Server Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Reference
.
Administering the database server in single-user mode
As a Database Administrator, you can use a new single-user mode that is
an intermediary mode between quiescent mode and online mode. While the
server is in single-user mode, new connections are accepted only for
user informix. Use this mode to perform any maintenance task, including
tasks requiring the execution of SQL and DDL statements, when no other
users are connected to the database server. Administrators can also
perform all other functions available in online mode. You can set this
mode using the oninit or onmode utilities, or the IBM Informix Server
Administrator (ISA).
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Managing database permissions through default roles
You can create a default role and assign that role to individual users
or to PUBLIC on a per-database level. Each user who is assigned to a
default role receives the privileges of that role as well as whatever
other privileges are granted to the user individually. The syntax of the
GRANT, REVOKE, and SET ROLE statements support this feature. This
feature allows client applications to reset permissions (to the default
role) of the user running the application, instead of requiring the DBA
to reset permissions manually.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax
.
Renaming Dbspaces
If you are user informix or have DBA privileges and the database server
is in quiescent mode, you can rename a previously defined standard
dbspace. You might want to rename standard dbspaces if you are
reorganizing data in an existing dbspace and see a need to change the
dbspace name. The rename dbspace operation only changes the dbspace
name; it does not reorganize data. The database server automatically
updates the system catalog so that database objects residing in a
renamed dbspace are registered with the new name, but subsequent DDL
statements referencing that dbspace must specify the new name, rather
than the old name.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Specifying which events trigger the alarm program
You can use the new alarm configuration parameter, ALRM_ALL_EVENTS, to
specify whether the event alarm program operates for all events that are
logged in the MSGPATH or only specified noteworthy events.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Specifying shared memory size greater than 4 GB
You can now specify that segments for shared memory be created as large
as your operating system platform or the SHMMAX parameter allows.
NOTE: ON-Monitor does not support Shared Memory Size greater than 4 GB.
Therefore, the size specified for SHMVIRSIZE, SHMADD and SHMTOTAL in
the "Shared-Memory screen" cannot be greater than 4 GB.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Setting up HDR with external backup and restore
You can set up High-Availability Data Replication using standard ON-Bar
or ontape commands for external backup and restore. Doing so can
significantly reduce initial setup time.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Backup and Restore Guide
.
Replicating indexes to HDR secondary servers
You can replicate an index to a secondary server in an HDR pair that
contains a corrupted index. Replicating an index does not require a lock
on the table. You can manually replicate an index when you detect a
corrupt index with the onmode -d index command. Alternatively, you can
configure automatic index replication with the onmode -d idxauto command
or the DR_IDXAUTO configuration parameter. This feature increases the
availability of the HDR primary server because replicating an index is
quicker than dropping and then rebuilding the index on the primary
server.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Automating HDR failover
You can automate switching servers for High-Availability Data
Replication if the primary server fails by using the DRAUTO
configuration parameter. If DRAUTO is set to either RETAIN_TYPE or
REVERSE_TYPE, the secondary database server switches to type standard
automatically when an HDR failure is detected. If DRAUTO is set to
RETAIN_TYPE, the original secondary database server switches back to
type secondary when the HDR connection is restored. If DRAUTO is set to
REVERSE_TYPE, the original secondary database server switches to type
primary when the HDR connection is restored, and the original primary
switches to type secondary.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's
Reference
.
Determining version information
You can now use the new -version option with all server utilities to
provide detailed information on the build operating system, build
number, and build date. The -version option provides more information
than the existing -V option. This feature enables DBAs and IBM Technical
Support personnel to track version- and build-machine information,
access documents before installing a product, be sure they are ready to
install a product, and diagnose problems.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Reference
.
IBM Informix Server administrator enhancements
IBM Informix Server Administrator (ISA) supports the following new
features:
- Single-user mode.
- Enterprise Replication templates.
IPv6 format for IP addresses support
You can use the IPv6 format for IP addresses with Informix Dynamic Server. The
IBM Informix JDBC Driver, Version 3.0, supporting the JDK 1.4, is IPv6
aware. That is, the code that parses the connection URL can handle the
longer (128-bit mode) IPv6 addresses (as well as IPv4 format). This IP
address can be an IPv6 literal.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
.
Renaming an Informix Dynamic Server instance on Windows
The IBM Informix Server Instance Manager utility has an option to change
the name of a Informix Dynamic Server instance on Windows platforms. You no
longer need to uninstall and reinstall the server or create a new
instance and reload the data to change the name of an instance.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server
Administrator's Guide
.
Improved conversion and reversion framework
When you convert or revert to different versions of Dynamic Server, you
can use Informix Dynamic Server conversion and reversion scripts to manually
upgrade or revert your High-Performance Loader onpload database.
In addition, you can use the IFX_ONPLOAD_AUTO_UPGRADE environment
variable with the ipload or onpladm utilities to automatically upgrade
the onpload database the first time that you invoke an HPL utility using
the ipload or onpladm command after you migrate to a new version of the
database server.
Performance enhancements
The performance enhancements include improved query performance and recovery time. In addition to the topics discussed below, enhancements
have been made to improve performance in the following areas:
- XA transactions
- Nested ANSI-compliant left-outer joins
- Subqueries
- Full-outer joins
Allocating memory for non-PDQ queries
This feature was first available in 9.40.xC4. You can specify how much memory is allocated to non-PDQ queries. The default of 128K can be
insufficient for queries that specify ORDER BY, GROUP BY, hash joins, or other memory-intensive options. Use the new configuration parameter,
DS_NONPDQ_QUERY_MEM, to specify more memory than the 128K that is allocated to non-PDQ queries by default.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Guide
and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Guide
.
Storing and applying external optimizer directives
You can create, save, and reuse external optimizer directives. In previous releases of Dynamic Server, external optimizer directives existed as text strings within DML statements, but were not stored as separate entities. External optimizer directives are useful when it is not feasible to rewrite a query for a short-term solution to a problem, for example, when a query starts to perform poorly. In this release, the DBA (as user informix) can create external optimizer directives and apply them to subsequent queries, without changing existing application code. This feature is implemented as a new SQL statement, SAVE EXTERNAL DIRECTIVES, to create and register external optimizer directives in a new sysdirectives table of the system catalog. Use the new IFX_EXTDIRECTIVES environment variable and the EXT_DIRECTIVES configuration parameter to enable this feature.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Guide,
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference, and
IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Reference.
Storing multiple table or index fragments in a single dbspace
You can store multiple fragments of the same table or index in a single dbspace, reducing the total number of dbspaces needed for a fragmented
table. Each fragment is stored in a separate, named partition in thedbspace. Storing multiple table or index fragments in a single dbspace improves query performance over storing each fragmented expression in a different dbspace. This feature improves performance and simplifies management of dbspaces.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Guide,
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Guide, and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference.
Recovering quickly with fuzzy checkpoints
You can set two new configuration parameters (FAST_RESTART_PHYSLOG and
FAST_RESTART_CKPT_FUZZYLOG) to reduce the time required for database
server recovery. This supports high availability by improving recovery
performance when using fuzzy checkpoints.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Guide.
Dynamically setting the OPTCOMPIND environment variable
This feature was first available with Version 9.40.xC3. You can use the new SET ENVIRONMENT OPTCOMPIND statement to set the value of the
OPTCOMPIND environment variable dynamically for the current session. For example, you might wish to change the value for different kinds of
queries. For a DSS query, you should set the value of OPTCOMPIND to 2 or 1, and you should be sure the isolation level is not set to REPEATABLE READ. For an OLTP query, you can set the value to 0 or 1 with the isolation level not set to REPEATABLE READ. The value that you enter using this statement takes precedence over the current setting specified in the ONCONFIG file. The default setting of the OPTCOMPIND environment variable is restored when your current session terminates. No other user
sessions are affected by SET ENVIRONMENT OPTCOMPIND statements that you execute.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax and
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Performance Guide.
SQL enhancements
The SQL enhancement improves database availability.
Creating and dropping indexes without locking tables
The SQL syntax of CREATE INDEX and DROP INDEX now supports the new ONLINE keyword. When you use the ONLINE keyword, DDL operations execute without applying an exclusive lock to the table on which the specified index is defined. If you use this syntax to create an index on a table
that other users are accessing, the index is not available until no user is updating the table. After you issue the new syntax to drop an index, no one can reference the index, but concurrent DML operations can use the index until they terminate. Dropping the index is deferred until no user is using the index. This feature maintains the availability of the table within a production environment after an existing index has ceased to be efficient.
This feature is primarily documented in the IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax.
Enterprise replication enhancements
The Enterprise Replication enhancements ease administration, improve data integrity, and allow additional SQL operations. These enhancements
are documented in the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Enterprise Replication Guide.
Master replicates
A master replicate is a replicate that uses a specified participant as a
master against which all other participants are tested for consistency.
Creating a replicate as a master replicate provides several advantages:
- Ensures data integrity by verifying that all participants in the
replicate have table and replicated column attributes that match the
master replicate definition. Verification occurs when the replicate
is defined and when the replicated is started, thus avoiding runtime
errors.
- Provides automatic table generation on participants that do not
already contain the table specified in the master replicate.
- Allows alter operations on the replicated tables.
Replicate templates
Enterprise Replication has a replicate template option that greatly
simplifies setting up the replication system. Replication templates
contain schema information about a database, a group of tables, column
attributes, and the primary keys that identify rows. You first define
the template by specifying schema information and then apply the
template on the database servers within the replication domain. If the
tables and primary keys do not exist on the server during the
realization of the template, then the tables and primary keys are
created according to the template definitions. Table attributes are
verified during the realization of the template to ensure that proper
replication can be performed on that database. Replicates created as
part of the realization of a replicate template are created as mastered
replicates and grouped as a replicate set.
You can create, realize, view, and delete templates using the Enterprise Replication command line syntax or IBM Informix Server Administrator (ISA).
Performing synchronization and repair
Enterprise Replication can perform an initial synchronization on data to be replicated as well as repair a system in which data may have failed to be applied. Initial synchronization is performed at the startup of a new replicate or when a new participant is added to an existing replicate. Repair jobs reconciles the differences when the normal replication process has failed. Repair processes can be optimized to only compare rows found in ATS or RIS files: if the row still exists in the source, it is re-replicated; if it does not, then it is deleted on the target.
Altering replicated tables
You can alter a replicated table in any of the following ways:
- Add or drop UNIQUE, DISTINCT, or FOREIGN KEY constraints
- Alter next extent size
- Alter the locking granularity of a table.
- Add or drop default values
- Add or drop SQL checks
- Alter serial columns
- Add or drop fragments (new in 10.00)
- Attach or detach fragments (new in 10.00)
- Add or drop columns (new in 10.00)
- Create a clustered index or recluster an existing index (new in 10.00)
- Alter nonreplicated columns (new in 10.00)
Before attaching fragments place the table in alter mode. Alter mode is a new state of a replicated table. In this mode only DDL and select
operations are allowed. No insert, update, or delete operations are allowed in alter mode. After attaching the fragments, unset alter mode.
When performing any sort of alter other than attaching fragments, the database server automatically sets alter mode before altering the table and unsets it after the table is altered.
To set or unset the alter mode on a table, use the CDR command-line interface.
ALTER TABLE and ALTER FRAGMENT statements are allowed only on master replicates.
Remastering
An existing replicate can be redefined by remastering the replicate.
Remastering allows you to change what columns are in a replicate
definition without interrupting the replication. Also an existing
nonmaster replicate can be converted to a master replicate using
remastering.
Detecting event alarms with the event alarm program
Enterprise Replication event alarms are now detected uniquely by the event alarm program. You can specify what actions are triggered by specific Enterprise Replication event alarms.
Suppressing DataSync warning and error messages
You can selectively suppress any DataSync warning or error message that the ATS or RIS files contain with the CDR_SUPPRESS_ATSRISWARN
configuration parameter.
Backup and restore enhancements
The backup and restore enhancements improve performance and debugging. These enhancements are documented in the IBM Informix Backup and Restore Guide.
Performing point-in-time restores on tables with archecker
You can recover specific tables from an archive using the archecker utility. Tables can be restored up to a specific point in time. This allows you to restore specific pieces of data without having to perform a lengthy restore of the entire archive. Data can be restored without restoring the full database server on another instance. To perform a table level restore, archecker supports a command file which uses an SQL-like syntax to specify the source and destination table schemas.
Viewing logical logs backed up by ON-Bar
You can now view the logical-logs backed up by ON-Bar, similar to using the onlog utility to view the logical-logs backed up by the ontape utility. If you need to perform a restore, you can view the old logical-log files that were backed up by ON-Bar to find out the exact problem.
Enhanced debugging for ON-Bar
You can now change the ON-Bar debugging level while ON-Bar is running.
You can save a large amount of time and disk space by setting high
debugging levels only when you need them. You set the debugging level
with the BAR_DEBUG configuration parameter. The value of BAR_DEBUG
ranges from 0-9, with
0 being no debugging information and 9 being the
most detailed debugging information. You can change the value of
BAR_DEBUG as frequently as you want. Similar to the onstat -m command,
you can use ON-Bar to print the recent ON-Bar activity from the onbar
activity log file.
The ontape utility can use standard I/O
You can now specify that ontape uses standard I/O instead of a tape
device or disk file. During a backup, ontape writes the data to stdout
(standard output). During a restore, ontape reads data from stdin
(standard input). Specifying stdout or stdin allows ontape to use pipes
(an OS provided buffer mechanism to connect separate programs to a data
stream) for archives and restores. Using pipes, the data can be
processed by other programs without requiring that the data be saved in
files or tape devices. For example, you can use compression to save
media space, use cloning to duplicate the archive for safety reasons, or
restore the data onto another server instance. This feature is
especially efficient for setting up High-Data Availability Replication
by restoring the data to the secondary server while skipping the
intermediary step of saving the data to a file or disk.
External backup and restore using ontape
You can use the ontape utility to perform external backup and restore
procedures.
Storage enhancements
The storage enhancements improve ease of use.
Using long identifiers with the High-Performance Loader
The High-Performance Loader utilities onpload and onpladm include
support for long object names up to 128 characters, but the ipload GUI
does not. If you use long database, table or column names and create
jobs using onpladm, you cannot run these jobs using ipload. For ipload,
database, table and column names cannot exceed 18 characters.
Informix Interface for Tivoli Storage Manager
The Informix Interface for Tivoli Storage Manager (formerly known as
Tivoli Data Protection for Informix) is included with the Dynamic Server
installation. This feature eases installation. You can use Informix
Interface for TSM with ON-Bar to store data. Informix Interface for TSM
stores Informix Dynamic Server databases and logical logs on the Tivoli Storage
Manager.
This feature is documented in the
IBM Informix Backup and Restore Guide
.
Extensibility enhancements
The extensibility enhancements improve distributed transactions,
obtaining information from trigger executions, and Java® support.
Manipulating built-in opaque data types in external tables
You can use built-in opaque data types in remote queries involving
databases residing on the same database server. The built-in opaque data
types supported by this feature are BOOLEAN, BLOB, CLOB, and LVARCHAR.
User-defined types that can be cast explicitly to a built-in data type
are also supported. You can use these data types in DML operations and
as parameters and returned data types of UDRs between all databases of
the same Informix Dynamic Server instance. The target data type of the explicit
cast must be a built-in opaque type or other built-in SQL data type, and
all the casts and all the UDTs must be defined in all of the databases
participating in the query. The following types of operations are
supported:
- DML operations such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT on tables
across databases having built-in opaque data type columns. The table
can be a table, view, or synonym.
- DDL operations such as CREATE VIEW and CREATE SYNONYM at the local
database on cross-database tables having built-in opaque data type
columns. The view or synonym can be created only at the local
database.
- Implicit and explicit execution of user-defined routines (written
in SPL, C, or Java) with built-in opaque data type parameters and
return types. This is applicable for both functions and procedures.
This feature is primarily documented in the
IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax
.
Obtaining information from trigger executions
You can create user-defined routines that are invoked in trigger action
statements to obtain information about the triggers, triggering tables,
views, statements, and the values of rows involved in the trigger
actions. Using the new DataBlade API routines, you can write a general
purpose user-defined routine that can you can use to audit any table and
any trigger event.
This feature is documented in the
IBM Informix DataBlade API Programmer's
Guide
.
Support for JRE Version 1.4
J/Foundation supports JRE Version 1.4 and the JDBC 3.0 specification.
Installation enhancements
The installation enhancements improve usability. These enhancements are
documented in the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Installation Guide for UNIX and Linux
and the
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Installation Guide for Windows
.
IBM Software electronic licensing
Informix Dynamic Server, CSDK, JDBC, and ISA installation programs now include
the display and required acceptance of a License Agreement. The License
Agreement and License Information files are installed with the product
and available for customer review at any time.
New doc directory before installation
The following files are now available in a /doc directory that is
available before installing Dynamic Server:
- Release notes
- Machine notes
- Documentation notes
-
IBM Informix Dynamic Server Installation Guide
(in PDF format)
New installation program on UNIX and Linux
One of the installation options for Informix Dynamic Server on UNIX and Linux is
now based on InstallSheild.
Creating a cluster installation on Windows
The IBM Informix ClusterIT utilities provide two dialog boxes to perform
the following tasks:
- Create the primary node for a Informix Dynamic Server cluster
- Install and configure Informix Dynamic Server as a secondary node in a cluster
Interoperability enhancement
The interoperability enhancement improves communication between Informix and DB2 products.
Running Informix ESQL/C applications with DB2
You can run Informix ESQL/C applications with DB2 servers and databases.
The Informix ESQL/C product provides new libraries that are called when
you use the esql command to preprocess your files to work with DB2.
Informix ESQL/C runs with DB2 Version 8.2, or later, running on Linux,
UNIX, and Windows operating systems.
This feature is documented in the
IBM Informix ESQL/C Programmer's Manual.
Resources
About the author  | | | Inge Halilovic has been developing Informix documentation for over eight years. Inge was the documentation lead for the IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 9.4 and Version 10.0 releases. |
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