IIUG Insider (Issue #163) January 2014 Other Issues

Highlights: Elections for IIUG board of directors

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.

Contents:

• Editorial
• Highlights
  • Elections for IIUG Board of Directors
• Conference corner
  • DONT BE SHUT OUT OF THE 2014 IIUG CONFERENCE!
• Developer corner
  • Informix Chat with the Lab
  • Informix Business Partner Chat with the Lab
  • Webcast on Combining SQL and NoSQL Data for Powerful, Big Data Enterprise Application
• Informix news
  • SOAPBox Release 1.5 Now Supports IBM Informix
  • Informix 11.70.xC8 is available
• Support Corner
• Informix corner
  • One Point Solutions and Strategy 7 Form IBM Data Alliance
  • Informix Swat
  • What is IBM Knowledge Center?
  • Informix 12.1 Bootcamp
• Calendar of events
• Informix resources
  • Informix blogs and wikis
  • Forums, groups, videos, and magazines
• Useful links
• Closing and credits

Hi friends and colleagues,

The IIUG Board of Directors will have its first 2014 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal in February. There are many good things happening with Informix, and the IIUG Board, with the help of our community, is planning to help IBM make 2014 a great year for Informix. In February we will start the election process for the 2014/2015 Board. If you want to take part please make sure you submit your nomination by February 24th. Last but not least, register for the IIUG conference being held April 27th through May 1st. There is a good chance the hotel will be fully booked so I advise you to register as soon as possible.

See you in Miami.

Gary Ben-Israel
IIUG Insider Editor

Each year the membership of the International Informix Users Group elects its Board of Directors. Anyone who became an IIUG member at least a month prior to the election is eligible to vote via online ballot at http://www.iiug.org. This year the new Board of Directors will be installed on May 2, 2014.

The election is a democratic process whereby the candidates who get the most votes and confirm their interest to serve in a timely manner after being contacted with the results will be confirmed as elected. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, votes are automatically tallied and manually validated by the members of the IIUG Nominating Committee who are not standing for election.

The IIUG Board of Directors election is overseen by a Nominating Committee that supervises both the nomination process and the election. The members of Nominating Committee are appointed by the current Board of Directors.

2014 Election Timeline

Notes to the above.

1. Nominations must be made by email to the Election Commissioner at the email address board-election@iiug.org. The email must state the following:
   • Applicant's name.
   • Applicant's parent organization and role in that organization.
   • Applicant's IIUG membership number.
   • A brief description about why the applicant would be a good candidate for the role on the IIUG Board.
   • A brief description about the attributes that the applicant has and can apply to the work of the IIUG Board.
   • A statement acknowledging that the applicant has the time commitment to devote to the work of the IIUG Board that will include, amongst other things, a daily commitment to email correspondence, a monthly commitment to conference calls and at least two Board meetings (normally 3 days plus travel) and attendance and assistance to the IIUG Informix conference in North America (normally 5 days plus travel). For all the events, attendance is compulsory.
   • The IIUG Board may, at its discretion, reject any nomination for any reason without disclosing such reason.
   • Nominations received after 5pm US Eastern Standard Time on the 24th of February 2014 will not be eligible.
   • You may nominate yourself. If nomination is for another person, that person must acknowledge their acceptance of the nomination in a separate email to the Election Commissioner at board-election@iiug.org.
2. An election will only occur if there are more nominations than Board positions.
3. The election will run over a two week period.
4. Following the election, the successful nominees will be required to confirm their availability. This will be by way of written correspondence with the Election Commissioner.
5. The election result will be officially declared by the Election Commissioner on the 21th of April 2014 and announced via the Insider eNewsletter, IIUG Website or email blast to members.
6. The new IIUG Board will take up their responsibilities from the close of the IIUGInformix Conference in Miami, Florida. There is no specific requirement that new Board members attend the Miami conference.

The Candidates

Candidates for the IIUG Board of Directors are selected by the IIUG Nominating Committee who try to find nominees that represent a wide geographical membership as well as a mix of product utilisation, and who can meet the many and varied challenges and functions of the Board.

Candidate Selection Process

IIUG members who are interested in running for a seat on the IIUG Board of Directors should submit the completed Nominee Questionnaire below to board-election@iiug.org prior to the close of the announced deadline for nominations. The resulting nominees are announced prior to the election and candidate statements are posted on the IIUG Website and on the ballot as well.

All currently elected board members are REQUIRED to attend at least two board meetings that could be held anywhere in the world and the annual IIUG Informix Conference. Failure to do so will result in removal from the board. Expenses will be covered as part of being a member of the IIUG Board. Also a one hour conference call is held each month (during business hours). All Board members are expected to be part of this call. Failure to do so, could also result in removal from the IIUG Board. Interested candidates for IIUG Board should clear this with their employer prior to submitting their name as a candidate.

• IIUG Board of Directors Nominee Questionnaire (Web Page)
• IIUG Board of Directors Nominee Questionnaire (MS Word version)

IIUG Board Members Duties

Serving on the IIUG Board of Directors is a minimum one-year commitment. It requires travel to meetings, monthly conference calls, and regular e-mail communication with other Board members as described above. The Board meets formally for two to four days up to three times a year, whenever possible during weekends.

In addition to representing and serving Informix users worldwide, Board members are expected to think strategically about the future of the Informix community and their relationship with IBM. Fringe benefits of serving on the IIUG Board include expenses-paid attendance to the IIUG Informix User Conference and all other required meetings, direct contact with IBM executives, early access to product and service news, visibility and leadership development.

To learn more about what it is like to be a member of the IIUG Board of Directors, please see Being an IIUG Board Member. A personal view, by Neil Truby.

This year's registration numbers are impressive. We have more than twice as many attendees who took advantage of the early bird discount than the previous two years. With such an increase in registered attendees, you won't want to be shut out of booking your reservation at the JW Marriott. Remember, this hotel has fewer sleep rooms than we are accustomed to and we don't want you to miss the chance to reserve your room. We estimate you can expect to pay $100 or more per day at another hotel if you wait too long. NOTE: To ensure you receive the special conference room rate be certain to use the special Marriott link provided once you register for the conference.

Early bird pricing ended on January 15th, but you can still save $125 on the conference registration if you register by February 28th. You can still use your IIUG membership and save an additional $100 on your Conference registration. Don't forget the Thursday tutorials are included with all paid registrations for additional savings. We have prepared a justification document listing the advantages of attending this conference; feel free to share this with your boss.

The speaker submissions for the 2014 Conference were overwhelming this year. The Conference Planning Committee met in December to review the submissions and we have selected the best speakers and best topics for this year's conference. Selected speakers have been notified and we are awaiting their confirmation. Once the speakers have confirmed their selection we will begin posting the sessions and speakers to the conference website. Please continue to review the website to see the updated list of sessions, hand-on labs and tutorials.

The speakers for this year's conference are the best the Informix community has to offer, including not only many of your favorites, but newcomers eager to share their collective experience and expertise. The sessions we've chosen cover interesting and relevant topics that can be used to reinforce your professional skills and keep current in today's changing market. Topics include sessions on the popular Informix features, as well as tried and true "must have" topics like those involving maximizing your system performance while minimizing system downtime.

We also have a few Sponsor slots available for this year's conference. If you want to be a sponsor or there is a sponsor you would like to have at the conference you can submit the information to Bruce Simms, bsimms@iiug.org and we give them a personal invitation to be a part of this year's conference.

See you April 27 - May 1, 2014 in Miami.

If you have any questions about the conference please contact us at conference@iiug.org.

Presented by: Jerry Keesee - Director, IBM Informix Database Development (IBM), Ram Sivaguru - Sr. Software Engineer - CTE Informix Competitive Technical Enablement (IBM)

Informix Warehouse Accelerator uses an in-memory, columnar approach to accelerate queries up to (or over) 100 times, with no change to business applications and no database tuning required. Informix 12.1 introduced new automated partition refresh and trickle-feed features to help ensure that the data mart is always current for real-time analytics. The new release also introduced significant SQL enhancements for faster business intelligence (BI). This lab will present typical hard data warehouse problems and how to use Informix 12.1 to solve them.

Register Here

For technical questions, contact support at support@collabserv.com

For questions about this event, contact the host at: mckeithe@us.ibm.com

Hosted by: Anita McKeithen (IBM)

Presented by: Jerry Keesee - Director, IBM Informix Database Development (IBM), Gayathri Magie - Business Development Executive (IBM), Gary Proctor - IM Channel Sales Leader (IBM)

Come learn about the exiting new opportunities for Informix Business Partners in our annual 2014 BP Sales Play Kick Off Web cast. We will cover the Informix value props and plays with Big Data, Analytics, Internet of Things, new applications with NoSQL, Cloud and Mobility offerings. We are excited to bring you fresh updates of our collateral and discuss the key messages and talking points that can help you in your market place. Please join us on Wednesday, Feb. 19. at 10:00 am CST. Replays from our IBM Informix web site in PartnerWorld will be available after the event.

Register Here

For technical questions, contact support at support@collabserv.com

For questions about this event, contact the host at: mckeithe@us.ibm.com

NoSQL databases are known for their ability to store rich, unstructured document data for ready access by burgeoning web and mobile applications, but their lack of support for relational database concepts limits their use in mission-critical, enterprise applications.

Now, developers of web and mobile applications no longer have to sacrifice reliability and transactional integrity when dealing with semi-structured and unstructured data. They can instead build compelling Web and mobile applications utilizing NoSQL storage and query concepts along with traditional SQL.

Attend this webcast to hear how enterprises, large and small, can develop applications that bridge the gap between new computing technologies designed for big data, cloud, and mobile computing, with their enterprise world of relational data.

Register Here

Article published on PRWeb and Virtual-Startegy-Magazine.

See Thoughts from Information Management support.

Why dbaccess always query DNS server while connecting to a database?

On certain Operating System (for example: Linux) you may noticed dbaccess (and other client applications) always doing DNS lookup while connecting to a database, even after found out the hostname or IP address in the local host file. This behavior sometimes caused slow connection, if you have problem related to DNS. Following is an excerpt of strace output shows the sequence of file accessed by a dbaccess request:

 $ strace dbaccess sysadmin -e | grep open

...

open("/etc/services", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/etc/resolv.conf", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/etc/host.conf", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/etc/hosts", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/lib64/libnss_dns.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/lib64/libresolv.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 6

open("/etc/hosts", O_RDONLY) = 6

...

Question is why a connection request to database server from dbaccess is trying to access DNS server for hostname resolution, after it found the same in the local host file.

Traditionally, hostname and service name resolution were performed by functions such as gethostbyname(), getservbyname() etc. These traditional lookup functions are still available, however those are not forward compatible to IPv6. Instead, the IPv6 socket API provides new lookup functions that consolidate the functionality of several traditional functions. These new lookup functions are also backward compatible with IPv4, so a programmer can use the same translation algorithm in an application for both the IPv4 and Ipv6. The getaddrinfo() is the new primary lookup function and a connection request from the dbaccess ultimately calls this socket API. You can pass several parameters to the getaddrinfo(), one of those parameter is addrinfo structure. By default, dbaccess passes value "AF_INET6" for addrinfo.ai_family. The ai_family field indicates the protocol family associated with the request, and will be PF_INET6 for IPv6 or PF_INET for IPv4.

If the ai_family set to AF_INET6 (IPv6) the getaddrinfo() will search the DNS everytime. If the ai_family set to AF_INET, then it don't query the DNS server. You can consult the 'man' page for getaddrinfo() for detailed information.

Beginning with Informix 10.00.xC4 and Client SDK 2.90.xC4, the database server checks, on startup, whether IPv6 is supported in the underlying operating system. If IPv6 is supported it is used. If the underlying operating system does not support IPv6, the IPv4 address is used.

In case of a problem with DNS lookup and encountering slow connection to databse, you may use the environment variable IFX_DISABLE_IPV6 (IFX_DISABLE_IPV6=1) to disable Ipv6 and this will set the ai_family to AF_INET only and will not do subsiquent query to the DNS server.

- Sanjit Chakraborty

IBM business partners One Point Solutions and Strategy 7 continue in their alliance to provide answers, support, and licensing to Informix and other customers using IBM data products across the USA. The partners provide a "one point of contact" model focused entirely on Informix and other IBM data solutions such as Genero, Informix-4GL, DB2, Cognos reporting, data integration, and IBM POWER7 hardware (formerly pSeries). Services include:

• Cognos, Informix and DB2 licensing review, discounted purchase and renewals
• Virtual DBA, 24x7 support
• 4GL projects, Genero conversions
• Data warehousing and reporting with Informix, Cognos and other IBM products

For further information please contact us or to stay updated with our E-newsletter via our IIUG welcome page:

www.One-Point.com/IIUG

Informix Loyalty

Company leaders Ron Flannery (One Point) and Joe Rodriguez (Strategy 7) have collectively focused on the Informix world for a total of about 40 years between them. Flannery, who is also the author of Informix Handbook and former long-time IIUG board member, is looking forward to the ongoing IBM enhancements and support for Informix: "One Point remained loyal to the Informix product line through thick-and-thin and I'm just amazed at how much IBM has done with Informix."

Software Cost Savings and Compliance:

The alliance's joint focus on IBM data products allows them to specialize and understand all the nuances of licensing the products, which are always changing. They provide no-cost analysis of licensing, ensuring lowest-cost options and software compliance, and suggest ways to improve license models.

IIUG Conference

The IIUG conference is a terrific way to keep up on Informix products at a cost that's very low compared to most conferences. Sessions are mostly technically-oriented and a great way to pack many hours of learning about various topics into 4 days. We hope to see you there!

Please contact us via the link above, 248-887-8470x40 or at IIUG@One-Point.com.

The Informix Special Worldwide Advanced Technicians home page is not just one more non-human search engine for anonymous Informix resumes.

Informix Swat is built upon Informix worldwide community members who serve the most critical Informix user companies on the planet, as well as the numerous mid or small sized ones who have been trusting IBM Informix bullet-proof technology for so many years, and do so with the highest standards of quality, efficiency and professionalism.

If you are searching an Informix Expert

You can search for an Informix Architect, an Informix DBA, an ESQL/C, Informix 4GL, or x4GL (Querix, Genero or Aubit) developer, an SQL or Stored Procedures Language specialist, a mix of all that, or simply someone that can quickly resolve a tricky technical problem. You will find in this website the highest density of fully skilled and experienced Informix technical people's Curriculum Vitae — people wishing to make their contribution to the success of your Informix projects.

The home page lists a summary of Informix Swat members. If you wish to access to the full contents, including how to contact Informix Swat members directly, please check the You are searching an expert page and proceed.

If you are an Informix Expert

If you are looking for an Informix job or you are an Informix contractor in search of a new assignment, this is the right time to register. Please check the You are an expert page and proceed. You will be requested to complete a form that will guide whoever is looking for you to clearly understand your Informix skills. You also can upload the full version of your best Curriculum Vitae that highlights your Informix skills and experience. You can, if applicable, merge your Informix Certification Diplomas with your resume pdf document.

We also will be happy to talk with you so that we can understand your profile more in depth. And since we share the same passion, your registration is totally free of charge.

http://www.informix-swat.com

Currently in an open beta until February 2014, IBM Knowledge Center gathers all IBM product information into one easy-to-access place. IBM Knowledge Center provides an improved search experience that supports saving your searches for future use, and capturing personalized collections of just the information you need.

• Search across the whole library, or limit your search to the products and versions you care about.
• You can use filters to narrow your search results.
• You can apply multiple search filters to get specific results for what you need — more of what you need and less of what you don't need.
• Once you have the search results, you can assemble those topics and not lose them.
• Collect your favorite topics (like collecting your favorite shells, pins, or stamps).
• You get more bang for your buck if you put single topics in your collections — skip all the navigation. Saving single topics allows for easier retrieval at a later time.
• Organize just the topics you need for viewing and printing.
• Build custom PDFs that are tailored for your needs, with only the topics that you are interested in.

Put the power of information to work for you. Try IBM Knowledge Center today at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/.

This bootcamp is for IBM Business Partners. IBM Informix is the database software which has been voted twice as number 1 in customer satisfaction. Clients love Informix because it is reliable, low cost, and administration free. Solution providers choose Informix for its best-of-breed embeddability. Available on Windows, Linux, Unix, and MAC, this technical workshop provides training on IBM Informix 12 in a classroom setting.

Register Here.

http://www.informix.com or directly at: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/

Blogs and Wikis that have been updated during the last month

• PlanetIDS: Blogs, Videos, News and more *** Up to date feeds from many blogs ***
• Fernando Nunes
• Art Kagel
• ognjen.orel
• Informix documentation team
• IDS Experts blog
• Eric Vercelletto (In French)

More Blogs and Wikis

• John Miller
• Keshava Murthy
• Andrew Ford
• Louis T. Cherian
• Ajay-Gupte
• Fred Ho
• Martin Fuerderer

• The IIUG forums
• Informix Marketing channel on YouTube
• IBM data magazine
• Credentials, the IBM Certification Newsletter
• The Informix Zone

There is now an Informix group on LinkedIn. The group is called "Informix Supporter", so anyone loving Informix can join, from current IBM employees, former Informix employees, to users. It will also be a good occasion to get in touch with others or long-time-no-seen friends. If you fancy showing the Informix logo on your profile, join.

http://www.iiug.org/quicklinks.html

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 Data Management division. Key programs include local user groups and special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch through growth.

For comments, please send an email to gary@iiug.org.