IIUG Insider (Issue #119) May 2010 Other Issues

Highlights: New Informix pricing

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
  • New Informix pricing
  • Informix edition summary
  • Software license entitlement migration
• Conference corner
  • Adria IUG Annual Conference 2010 - Recap
• Education
  • New! Informix courses
• Developer corner
  • Informix Chat with the Lab
  • What is the new onrestorept executable file?
  • New in DeveloperWorks
• Informix corner
  • IBM Discover the new face of Informix
  • IBM Informix Dynamic Server 11.50xC6 Fine-Tuning per Fix pack
  • Data Management Briefing and Luncheon in Denver
  • News from Advanced DataTools
• IBM corner
  • Months to go until ID 10.0 End of Supportt
• Informix news
• Informix resources
  • Informix Blogs and things
• Calendar of events
• Useful links
• Closing and credits

I have spent the last week in Croatia at the annual Adria IUG meeting in Zagreb and in the ALFATEC partner conference in Brijuni. The two events were a great success. It is wonderful to see so many Informix users and this is our newest LUG.

The greatest hype is around the new Informix edition. At first the new model looks complicated but after you read it carefully you see it is very complicated. However there are many options and it is worthwhile looking for the edition that suites your needs. I will do my best to supply the necessary information. If you have questions, comments, feedback or requests please email me. Is it better than the previous model? Is it what you expected? Please take a few minutes of your time and let me know.

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

There are now 6 Informix editions instead of the previous 4.

FREE EDITIONS:

Developer Edition: This edition provides all features of Informix for individual application development, testing and proof-of-concepts. Available on a wide variety of platforms, Developer Edition has some processing and storage limitations. Not available for production use. Community support is available.
This edition is unchanged.

Innovator-C Edition: Designed for low-cost embedded or workgroup computing, it allows small to medium-sized businesses to develop and deploy widely used database functionality, including replication and high-availability capabilities. The Innovator-C edition is available on a wide variety of platforms and is limited to one socket, or a maximum of four cores and 2 GB of memory. It can be deployed for production use. Selective Support at Elite Level is available as an optional purchase. This edition is available on all platforms.
New edition did not exist previously.

Ultimate-C Edition for Windows: This edition gives businesses, ISVs and OEMs with Windows-based environments the ability to develop and deploy enterprise-class functionality for departmental or small to medium-sized business solutions, including some replication and high-availability capabilities, at no cost. This edition is limited to 16 cores over a maximum of 4 sockets and 16 GB of memory. It can be deployed for production use. Selective Support at Elite Level is available as an optional purchase.
Ultimate-C Edition for Mac OS X: This edition has the same functionality and optional support as the Ultimate-C Edition for Windows, but is available on Mac OS X.
New editions did not exist previously.

FOR PURCHASE EDITIONS

Growth Edition: The Growth Edition provides powerful data management capabilities for departmental solutions or small to medium-sized businesses, including unlimited Enterprise Replication nodes, both root and leaf nodes, to send or receive data from other nodes in the enterprise grid. This edition supports up to a 3-node high-availability cluster (with 1 primary and 2 secondary nodes of any type: HDR, RSS, and SDS). The secondary nodes can now perform both reads and writes in hot standby mode. Shared Disk Secondary (SDS), formerly only available to the Enterprise Edition, is now included in the Growth Edition for up to a 3-node cluster. It is limited to 16 cores over a maximum of 4 sockets and 16 GB of memory. Growth Edition is only available on UNIX and Linux platforms.
This edition will replace the Workgroup edition

Ultimate Edition: Most of the charge feature features are now included. This edition includes all Informix features on all supported platforms for development, testing, and deployment with unlimited scalability. It includes full cluster and replication capabilities. Storage compression is available as an optional feature. This edition is available on all platforms.
This edition will replace the Enterprise edition

For more information on what features are included in each edition and other valuable information go to: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/

For your licenses to IBM Informix products affected by the announcements above and which are current with IBM Software Subscription and Support, we are pleased to inform you that your current entitlements will automatically be migrated to the new replacement editions as of May 25, 2010. The table below summarizes the withdrawn and replacement Informix editions and features.

The Adria Informix User's Group annual conference took place last week. There were about 40 Informix users that gathered to hear presentations by Gayathri Mage, John Miller, Scot Picket, Joe B. and yours truly. I learned that Informix is known and taught at the university since the 80's. It warms the heart to see the enthusiasm of this wonderful group. And of course there was the warm hospitality and welcome. The day after the conference we all sailed to the lovely Island of Brijuni for the ALFATEC partner meeting. Once again we presented before 40 Informix partners. Once again it was a successful meeting. Special thanks to Hrvoje, and his team for setting these two great events. - Gary Ben-Israel

New! Informix courses

Meet the technology demands of today with the right skills for innovation. Enroll in our five new Informix courses today!

• Developing Applications Using IBM Informix ESQL/C
• IBM Informix Stored Procedures and TriggerS
• Informix Structured Query Language
• Implementing Web Services using Informix 4GL - Instructor-Led Online
• Informix Dynamic Server 11 Performance Tuning - Instructor-Led Online

Learn more!

http://www.iiug.org/url/global_training.html

Take Home IBM Software Skills and a Complimentary Lenovo netbook too!

Taking IBM Training for software is not only good for your career, it's also good for your organization; you'll bring the skills needed to help lead your team in success. And, for a limited time, you'll get a complimentary Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook to use as you please. IBM Training offers hands-on learning from expert instructors. By sharing these new skills with your team, you can lead the success of your organization to accelerate solution development, speed deployment time, enhance user adoption and improve system performance. In addition, by attending an eligible software class between May 5 and October 29, 2010, you'll get a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook at no cost. See http://www.iiug.org/url/lenovo_netbook.html.

WHAT TRAINING IS ELIGIBLE?

Choose from more than 100 instructor-led classroom and online course titles across the IBM Cognos software, Data Management, Enterprise Content Management and IBM InfoSphere curricula. Many classes are guaranteed to run (see http://www.iiug.org/url/gtd_to_run.html), so you can schedule your training with confidence.

GETTING YOUR COMPLIMENTARY NETBOOK IS AS EASY AS 1 - 2 - 3

1. Complete a short form to request your netbook priority code and list of eligible courses
2. Choose the eligible courses that interest you
3. Register for your class using the course priority code

Learn more and request your Priority code Now!

http://www.ibm.com/training/us/swgnetbook6

Wednesday June 16
8:30 AM Pacific
10:30 AM Central
11:30 AM Eastern
4:30 PM London
5:30 PM Paris

Best Practices for using Auto-update stats

Presenter: John Miller (IBM)

Don't miss this opportunity to get better understanding so can effectively utilize Auto Update Statistics to eliminate redundant work for the DBA. Understanding what Auto Update Statistics does and how it can find performance bottlenecks for the DBA and correct them without waking up the DBA.

Learn about the different modes and ways of tuning Auto Update Statistics to operate the best way for your environment.

Jerry Keesee, director of Informix worldwide will introduce the call and John Miller, STSM and IBM Informix support Architect will be our technical speaker.

Presentation material will be available at http://www.ibm.com/informix/labchats prior to the event.

Questions, comments: ahujam@us.ibm.com

To register for this event, use the following link:

https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=cd22e3b2e2&l=en-US

For webinar-specific questions, contact the moderator. For technical support, contact UnyteSupport@us.ibm.com.

By now, if you played with IDS 11.50.xC6 version, you have already noticed that a new executable file onrestorept under $INFORMIXDIR/bin directory (or windows equivalent).

The onrestorept utility has introduced as part of enhancement to the fix pack migration. Previously it was mandatory to take a complete archive prior to migrating to a newer version of IDS product in order to protect the database server from an unexpected failure during migration. This was often a challenging factor for IDS users to perform fix pack migration within a small downtime window.

The new onrestorept utility provides a mechanism to restore the IDS database server to a pre-migration consistent point. Earlier, in case of any migration failure IDS users need to restore the database server using level-0 archive, which usually took long time. Using onrestorept utility IDS users can quickly undo all changes made during migration process and re-direct database server to the pre-migration consistent point. In simple word, the new migration process create a consistent point (restore point), which similar to perform an archive backup except, once the consistency point established, only the changed pages are tracked.

Two new configuration parameters CONVERSION_GUARD and RESTORE_POINT_DIR also introduced as part of the onrestorept utility. Both parameters must set properly prior to start the migrate process. In case of any migration failure simply run the onrestorept command to undo all changes made during migration process and re-direct database server to the pre-migration consistent point.

Please check the IBM Informix Migration Guide and IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administrator's Reference for detail information on onrestorept utility.

Sanjit Chakraborty
Advanced Technical Support Engineer

Compare the Informix Version 11 editions
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/index.html
Get an introduction to the various editions of IBM Informix, and compare features, benefits, and licensing considerations in a side-by-side table. Regardless of which edition you choose, Informix brings you legendary ease-of-use, reliability, stability, and access to extensibility features.

25 May 2010

Informix DBA: Building Fast Data Warehouse Schemas
http://www.iiug.org/url/dw_schemas.html
Why should you be concerned with the data model or schema design for your data warehouse? Lester Knutsen shows why it's important to consider speed when building data warehouse schemas, and how dimensional models or star schemas can speed up query times.

30 Apr 2010

IIUG User View: Here Comes Informix
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/dmmag/DMMag_2010_Issue2/iiug/index.html
Stuart Litel discusses IBM's plan for Informix--including hints about the change in strategy that will focus more attention on the product--and his own fondness for the platform in this installment of the IIUG User View column.

30 Apr 2010

For more information go to DeveloperWorks - Informix:

http://www.iiug.org/url/devworks.html

Monday, June 21, 2010
IBM - IEG
1301 K Street, NW
West Tower, 4th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

http://www.ibm.com/discoverinformix

IT managers have more worries today than ever: energy use, server consolidation, virtualization, information explosion, data integration, cost containment... your IT project list keeps growing.

But your data management doesn't have to be one more hassle. In fact, data management can be hassle-free for businesses of all sizes including OEMs and ISVs.

Take the opportunity to discover the new face of IBM Informix, the data management platform voted #1 vendor at VendorRate for two years in a row. At this exclusive event, you'll meet with your industry peers, Business Partners and Informix experts to learn how IBM Informix can be instrumental in reducing your data center hassles and costs. How it can help you to reduce query processing time up to 20%. Reduce storage costs up to 75%. And much more.

By attending this session, you can:

• Learn how to achieve faster time to value for data analysis and reporting with Informix Warehouse
• Find out how Informix is the ideal platform for applications that require embedded data management
• Get an up-close look at the capabilities that set Informix apart, including exceptional performance, high availability, easy administration and the ability to scale on demand to meet your changing business needs
• Hear our product strategy and roadmap
• Meet your industry peers, Business Partners and Informix experts
• Take the opportunity to have your questions answered
• Network with other forward-thinking IT leaders

We hope you'll join us at the Discover Informix Roadshow, and discover the new face of Informix.

http://www.iiug.org/url/discover_informix.html

Introduction

In May 2008 IDS 11.5 - codename "Cheetah 2" - has seen the light of the day. One of the highlights of this version was the write access to all database nodes in a MACH11-Cluster (Multinode Active Cluster for High Availability).

In the meantime two years have passed. Has IBM granted Informix developers a creative pause? Not at all. Presumably in the third quarter of this year the next major IDS release will arrive, Codename "Panther", the beta program is already running. Currently I'm not allowed to publish any details. Databasepro will present you the new functionality as soon as the vendor allows.

The spoilt for choice: DB2 or IDS?

IBM offers with DB2 LUW and IDS two fully-fledged high end databases. Often the question arises which one of them is the right or the better one.

Based on my experience, a well-founded conclusion is only possible in conjunction with the desired operation area for the database. In conjunction with SAP, DB2 LUW is seeded and optimized for this environment. Also for XML focused areas, DB2 LUW offers greater flexibility than IDS. In the area of data warehouses, IDS has increased its capabilities and presents itself as a serious alternative. IDS shows its strengths by the construction of highly available, scalable database clusters based on standard hardware components. With the MACH11 technology IDS allows the creation of extremely flexible "scale out" configurations based on cost efficient blade server systems. Often the operating systems Linux builds the foundation of an IDS cluster. With "pureScale", DB2 LUW offers a cluster model as well. But this offering is limited to the native AIX operating systems and demands in contrast to IDS by far more hardware investments. Based on my experience IDS is also, due to its superior and flexible replication functionalities, the more suitable choice for distributed database environments. As an embedded database IDS scores with low disk space and resource consumption, a granular choice of desired functionalities and the possibility to run without dba with the utilization of the SQL administration interface in the application. In any case it pays off for the software house or the customer to define and priorities their own database requirements. Based on this, the offered functionalities of the two IBM databases should be evaluated and finally a decision should be made for one or the other. Then only with a database that optimally covers the own requirement could a company achieve an ideal basic position in a competitive market.

Conclusion

IBM continually enhances the skills of the Informix database. Extensive and helpful new functionality is not only delivered with a major release but also on the basis of regular fix packs. They reduce the wait time to the next major release. Nevertheless we all can be curious about the next IDS version that will arrive in the third quarter. As a participant of the currently running beta program, I can only tell you at the moment that we could expect a new IDS version with exciting new functionality. More on this in the fall this year.

Greetings from Germany,

Eric

IBM and Advanced DataTools Invite you to a Data Management Briefing and Luncheon in Denver.

Leverage your Data for Better Business outcomes: Do more with your operational data to drive smarter business decisions

Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House
8100 East Orchard Road
Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Events/Den2010/ADTC_IBM_Invite.html

IBM Informix Survey for Continuous Availability White Paper — Complete the Survey to win an Apple iPad!

IBM Informix is the database software voted #1 in customer satisfaction. Clients choose Informix because it is reliable, low cost, and hassle free. Solution providers choose Informix for its best-of-breed embeddability. Yet, there are some people that still don't "get" Informix, or realize the many benefits of deploying it. Help us gather data to support this claim.

• Informix is exceptionally hardware efficient, which means that (in the REAL world) you need to spend MUCH less on hardware to get the same performance as other products.
• Informix is exceptionally reliable, which means that (in the REAL world) you don't need to pay lots of people to make sure it stays up.
• Informix is exceptionally scalable, which means that (in the REAL world) it can be idling one moment and then processing thousands of transactions the next with no apparent stress.

Advanced DataTools is working with Oninit, to gather data about what happens in the REAL world to support these assertions with empirical evidencein the REAL world. The data collected will be used to compile a report that will be made available to every CTO, IT Director and IT Manager. Along with this, they will receive a list of all the major application vendors that are now porting their applications to Informix V11.5 and a document outlining the key reasons to choose Informix.

Every response matters. - Start Survey here!

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Informix/Survey.html

One randomly selected participant in the data collection phase of this research will win an Apple iPad, provided by Advanced DataTools Corporation, an Advanced IBM Informix Business Partner. Note: Public Sector Employees are not eligible to win but may complete the survey.

Advanced Informix Training by Lester Knutsen and Art Kagel

September 27-30, 2010 — Annandale, VA
November 15-18, 2010 — Annandale, VA

New — Virtual Informix Training over the Internet. Do you want to learn how to be the FASTEST Informix DBA? This is the course our Fastest Informix DBA contest was developed from and will increase your database performance tuning skills. This 4-day course focuses on techniques for optimizing an Informix Database. Labs will demonstrate more than 100% performance improvement. Each student will have a 4-core Linux server with IDS 11 and a large dataset for benchmark exercises and labs. Attend the class in person or online via our Web Training Center. Both Art Kagel and Lester Knutsen will be teaching the Advanced Classes together.

More Information:

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/InformixTraining.html

Free Informix Performance Tuning Webcasts Series by Art Kagel

Art Kagel will be presenting a series of one hour performance tuning Webcasts, starting May 25th at 2:00pm EST. For more Information and free registration visit:

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Informix/Webcasts.html

Fastest Informix DBA Contest III Winners

Advanced DataTools is pleased to announce the results of our third Fastest Informix DBA contest held at the 2010 IIUG Informix Conference, April 25-28 in Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you to everyone who participated!

This time the contest was an OLTP benchmark using the BenchmarkSQL Java program to generate 100 sessions doing inserts, updates, and deletes against a database. BenchmarkSQL is an easy to use JDBC benchmark that closely resembles the TPC-C standard for OLTP. Databases supported include EnterpriseDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, SQLSvr, MySQL, HsqlDB, Derby/JavaDB & FireBird. See Source Forge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/benchmarksql/ for more information. The Java code was converted to run with Informix by AGS, the folks that created ServerStudio. The challenge was to get the most transactions per minute during a 10-minute benchmark run.

The winners are listed at:

http://www.advancedatatools.com/Informix/index.html

Informix Dynamic Server 10.0 will enter End of Support status on September 30, 2010. Upgrade to IDS 11 today to avoid gaps in Support and take advantage of valuable Informix features such as on-demand scaling, continuous availability, ease of administration, and a low total cost of ownership.

Upgrade to IDS 11!

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/upgrade/

Silicon India - IBM's smart metering system allows wise use of energy
http://www.iiug.org/url/silicon_india.html

CNET - IBM to help people monitor energy use
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20005626-54.html

eWeek Europe - IBM Supplies Database Tech For EU Smart Grid
http://www.iiug.org/url/eWeek.html

ZDNet - IBM software in your home? Pact enables five-city smart meter pilot in Europe
http://www.iiug.org/url/zdnet.html

The New Blog Times — Misurare il consumo energetico: DEHEMS è pronto
http://www.iiug.org/url/NewBlogTimes.html

Smart Grid - IBM Teams With Hildebrand To Bring Smart Metering To Homes Across...
http://www.iiug.org/url/hildebrand.html

Smart Grid - IBM, Hildebrand Team Up on UK Home Energy Management
http://www.iiug.org/url/hildebrand2.html

IBM teams with Hildebrand to prove household power monitoring...
http://www.thewarmist.com/

• The IIUG forums at http://www.iiug.org/forums/technical.php **** these are very good****
• Bruce Weed's blog http://bruceweed.wordpress.com/ **** New ****
• Blogs, Videos, News and more at http://planetids.com
• IDS Experts at http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/idsteam
• Guy Bowerman at http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/gbowerman
• Madison Pruet at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/roundrep
• Jacques Roy at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/jacquesroy
• Cathy Elliott at https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InformixVoices
• Informix blogs at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com/blog/main/archives/informix/index.html
• Kate Dawson at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/katedawson
• Fernando Nunes at http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/
• Virtual Worlds, MMOGs, Serious data - Informix Technology for Persistent Worlds http://informix4virtual.wordpress.com/
• IBM DATABASE MAGAZINE at http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com
• The Informix Zone at http://www.informix-zone.com
• The Informix mag at http://www.informixmag.com/
• IIUG Developers Desktop http://www.iiug.org/devnews/Vol_1_Iss_4/Home.html
• There is 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. To join, simply go to: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/25049/5E4B2048E558

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.