IIUG Insider (Issue #123) September 2010 Other Issues

Highlights: IBM Informix Database Server a Forrester Total Economic Impact Study

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
  • IBM Informix Database Server a Forrester Total Economic Impact Study
• Conference corner
  • IBM Information On Demand Global Conference 2010
  • IBM Informix at IOD 2010
  • 2011 IIUG Informix Conference - Fourth Year and Stronger Than Ever - Save the Dates
• Education
  • Advanced DataTools
  • IBM
• Developer corner
  • New in DeveloperWorks
• Informix corner
  • Announcing Server Studio & Sentinel maintenance Release 7.5
  • Advanced DataTools Informix Remote DBA/Support Offering
• Informix Events
  • Informix at the Game Developers Conference in Austin, Texas
  • South East Informix Users Group
  • Washington Area Informix User Group - Informix Tech Day
• Support corner
  • Release Note Gems
  • Create a custom plug-in with OAT
• Informix resources
  • Informix Blogs and things
  • A Quick Reference Tool for Informix Business Partners
• Calendar of events
• Useful links
• Closing and credits

I was in my office working on the IDS 11.7 Beta when I heard a loud knock on my door. "Come in", I said, and into the room entered Gibi, and with him a one-eyed, skinny dude with a fat head and a large Kiwi hat. "Trev!", I said in surprise. "What brings you to this side of the equator?"

"Gibi told me the IIUG board is going to do the Haka dance at the IOD conference and I reckoned you will need some training."

"He did? I had no idea you two know each other."

"We do as well as you know David." replied Trev.

"Well", I said, "we were toying with the idea but the IIUG board does not have the physique of the All Blacks."

"Nor are you competing with the Aussies." said Trev. "So are you coming to the IOD?" I asked. "No. We are loyal to the IIUG conference." Gibi and Trev replied in one voice. "Which conference do you prefer?" asked Gibi. "Well," I said, "these are two different events and I like them both. The IIUG conference is an Informix technical event. Techies like you and Trev like it because this is all you are interested in except for hanging in the bar with your Informix buddies. However, the IOD offers much more than Informix. So if you are interested in the present and future of IBM Data Management in general, the IBM Information On Demand conference in Las Vegas is the place to be. This year there will be a bunch of sessions on the new Informix release features. So I would recommend it even for techies like you".

"Sounds interesting, we will consider it." they both replied.

My recommendation stands for all of you. You can find out more reading the Conference corner in this issue of the Insider. If you register for the conference don't forget to use the special promotion code for IIUG members and receive $100 off the registration price: G10IIUG.

BTW. If you wonder what the Haka dance is, you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y. And if you meet Gibi and Trev say a big hello. The best chance to meet them and other Informix fans will be at the Informix Celebration on Monday night.

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

Letter from the IIUG President

It has been a long time since I have written a President's Message, as in the past many months I have let Gary, our wonderful editor, do all the speaking through his editorials. I wanted to write something for the first time about a new project we are undertaking at the IIUG. I will admit that I am very slow personally to adopt new social media. As I tell all my friends, I only turn on my computer for business, sports, news and money. But recently we are creating an official Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com) group for fellow Informix technical people around the world to connect. I recently took over the IIUG group from its founder, Herb Overstreet.

Speaking of Herb, over the past few months I have had some great emails back and forth with Herb. He is like the rest of the Informix community; He is a long time Informix user and enthusiast. Herb started this group on Linked In and I want to thank him for that, but now my goal is to TRIPLE the size of the group in the next 30 days. I have never done this for anyone before, but I think I do owe it to Herb. In my conversations with Herb I leaned that he was let go from his Informix position, so if you know of anyone who is looking for a long time Informix professional, please get in contact with him at herbnet@gmail.com or visit his profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/herboturbo/.

So, I encourage you to join the IIUG group on Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1671197 and let's see if we can triple the size of it in the next 30 days! And, once again Thank You to Herb Overstreet, and hopefully we can all help Herb find a job!

Now for my annual push... May 15 - 18, 2011 for the IIUG conference. Details will be forthcoming at http://www.iiug.org/conf but we had to move the date forward a few weeks from the usual last week of April due to some holiday conflicts. We are currently in the process of receiving submissions for sessions.

Now people continue to ask me, why are we going to Overland Park again? The answer is simple and two-fold: 1) We can keep the price down. I mean, where else do you get to a conference for a price of only about $550 for those that register early and are IIUG members, and 2) we have the most access to the most IBM/Informix developers and support personnel anywhere in the world with the main Informix development and support center a few miles down the road. As far as submitting a session, it is very easy as all you need to submit now is an idea and few sentences to outline that idea. If you are selected to speak, you will get a free conference pass!! We are not looking for ideas on the latest and greatest, but those that are of the most help and interest to fellow users such as yourself, so please let's break last year's record-setting submissions count and go to the conference page and submit your session!

See you all at IOD in Las Vegas the end of October. Read on down below for more details on IOD!!

Stuart Litel
President
email: http://www.iiug.org/president

This just in:

I think the world needs to know our secret as Informix users. For years when asked why I use Informix, I always give two reasons:

1) Simply because it always works!

2) I sleep well at night knowing that because I am using Informix I will not get any support calls.

Of course we all we all need to tell the world...so here is your chance. Check out Noel Yuhanna's blog. Who is Noel? He is an analyst from Forrester Research on databases. So if you are not busy submitting your session for the 2011 IIUG conference, please go here and please spend TWO MINUTES and respond: http://www.iiug.org/url/noel.html.

Few companies have a meaningful way to measure the value of IT and IT projects before making an investment. Technology providers frequently talk about features and functions but sometimes forget to help potential clients understand benefits.

Recently, IBM commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) that organizations may realize by deploying IBM Informix database software. The study uses a comprehensive methodology to bring third-party, objective ROI analysis to organizations considering the use of Informix.

The conclusion? IBM Informix delivers high performance and cost efficiency, including administration efficiency, reduced downtime, improved server utilization, and reduced support costs. But don't take our word for it. Read the report for yourself.

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

Please join us at Information On Demand 2010, October 24 - 28 in Las Vegas to discover the latest on IBM Informix products and receive the very best technical and business education. You'll want to be among the more than 9,000 expected attendees learning new and innovative strategies to accelerate information initiatives and gain the practical know-how to maximize the value of your information and analytics solutions.

Informix has a strong presence at Information On Demand 2010, including celebrating our Informix Panther Launch!

• Join us for our special launch events including "Informix: The Next 10 Years Launch Celebration" on Monday, October 25th and the Informix "Meet and Eat" Breakfasts on Tuesday, October 26th and Wednesday, October 27th.
• You won't want to miss the Data Management keynote session on Tuesday, October 26th.
• Make sure to attend the 3 Informix client and Business Partner-led sessions in the Business Leadership track. Hear first-hand "How IBM Helps Cisco Deliver Smarter Communications Across Corporate Boundaries; Companies and Continents"; "How Hildebrand and IBM Bring Smart Metering to Homes Across Britain"; and "How Informix is Used for Running a Steel Plant", which will be delivered by HKM- Huettenwerke Krupp Mannesmann.
• Don't miss the 25 IBM Informix technical sessions; including informative sessions delivered by MSYSTEMS, Intrado and Advanced DataTools,.
• 6 instructor-led Informix Hands-on Labs will provide in-depth Informix training and allow clients to 'touch' the technology.
• Participate in the 2 Informix Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) discussions.
• An expanded EXPO with more to discover than ever before, including exciting new Informix demos!
• Expand your skills by taking three free Information Management certification tests and receive a 50% discount on all other SWG certifications

Register today with a special promotion code for IIUG members and receive $100 off the registration price: G10IIUG.

Visit the web site today to view sessions and register:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/2010-conference

See you in Las Vegas!

Welcome to the 2010 IBM Information On Demand Conference which is very informative and exciting for Informix clients and partners. The sessions listed with asterisks (*) indicate that you'll hear about Informix 11.7. In addition to the activities listed here, remember to check out the Informix demo booth during EXPO Center hours - Booth #806-17: "Discover the Newest Features of IBM Informix".

And whatever you do, don't miss the Informix Celebration on Monday night!

Overland Park, KS, September 23, 2010 - IIUG (International Informix Users Group, http://www.iiug.org) is an organization of volunteers dedicated to the Informix community. The interest in Informix and its users has not wavered since our first conference in 2008. The IIUG CPC committee is proud and committed to continue providing a quality conference containing cutting edge Informix sessions and showcasing quality Informix vendors.

The conference will be held at the recently renovated Overland Park Marriott, May 15-18, 2011. Sunday's kickoff will feature several informative tutorials and the Conference's three-day agenda will feature over 80 technical sessions. Based on the response of the hands on labs (HOL) at last year's conference they will be offered again in 2011. All sessions will be conducted by leading Informix users, as well as IBM Informix experts from around the world.

The conference is unquestionably a global affair and the single largest gathering of Informix users. Last year's attendance was comprised of Informix users from as far away as South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and the Asia Pacific rim.

Conference registration opens in November with a special early-bird price for IIUG members of $525. Sponsorship opportunities are also available, and those interested are encouraged to sign up early. The committee expects a complete and early sell out of both attendee and sponsor spaces once again.

Details about the conference and registration information can be found at http://www.iiug.org/conf. "This event is a can't miss for anybody using Informix today. No other event in the world offers this much Informix content, access to Informix experts, and demos on the latest developments and innovations with Informix technology," Stuart Litel, IIUG President said. "I look forward to improving the event and strengthening our Informix community for years to come."

You can be a part of the 2011 Conference by becoming a presenter. Presenters are provided with a complimentary pass providing access to conference sessions, meals and conference related networking events. Use http://www.iiug.org/conf/speakers to register your proposal. The deadline for submitting 2011 IIUG Conference proposals is November 1, 2010. For your convenience, speaker logins have been retained for those who submitted a 2010 IIUG Conference proposal. Don't delay - submit your proposal and biography today for consideration.

See you at the 2011 IIUG Conference!
May 15 - 18, 2011
Overland Park, KS

IIUG Conference Planning Committee

November 15-18, 2010 - Advanced Informix Performance Tuning.

This course is for database administrators and application developers who will be responsible for managing, optimizing, and tuning an IDS database server. The focus is on skills, procedures, and scripts to improve the performance of your database server. The course will provide a toolkit of scripts and utilities to start monitoring and optimizing your IDS database server. (Cost $2,000 USD)

Class times are 9am to 5pm; dress is casual. See http://www.advancedatatools.com/OurCompany/DirectionsMapsHotels.pdf for directions and hotels near Advanced DataTools' Office.

For information and to register see http://www.advancedatatools.com/Training/InformixTraining.html or call 703-256-0267 x101.

Events

Find out what's going on at IOD! View the Services and Education video!

New! Discover how to use analytics to achieve a global competitive advantage

The typical enterprise recognizes the immense potential of business intelligence (BI) and its impact upon many facets within the organization-but it's not easy to transform BI's potential into real business value. In The New Era of Enterprise Business Intelligence, top BI expert Mike Biere presents a complete blueprint for creating winning BI strategies and infrastructure, and systematically maximizing the value of information throughout the enterprise.

This product-independent guide brings together start-to-finish guidance and practical checklists for every senior IT executive, planner, strategist, implementer, and the actual business users themselves. Drawing on thousands of hours working with enterprise customers, Biere helps decision-makers choose from today's unprecedented spectrum of options, including the latest BI platform suites and appliances. He offers practical, "in-the-trenches"insights on a wide spectrum of planning and implementation issues, from segmenting and supporting users to working with unstructured data.

New Information Management Bookstore Web site

Check out new Books Website for Information Management. The site has undergone a complete refresh and features some of the latest books, valuable links and offers to save you money and help you obtain the skills you need through some of the most informative books on the market. Browse the site now and be sure to read our IM Books blog while you visit!

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/bookstore?ca=septnl

Education

Train without Travel with our Instructor Led Online Courses

When you take an online course, do you miss the benefits of being in a classroom: live instruction, hands-on labs and group interaction? Now you don't have to. IBM offers our most popular courses in a format we call instructor-led online (ILO). You get the benefits of being in a classroom, with the convenience and cost savings of online training.

How ILO training works: Courses are taught by a live instructor on a specific day and time. Most courses are exactly the same as their classroom equivalent, including the course duration, content and student materials. Here is what you need to know:

• You receive the course materials in advance
• To participate on the day of the class, all you need is a broadband Internet connection. This allows you to connect to a virtual classroom where you can interact directly with the instructor and your peers.

Browse the Information Management ILO Course Portfolio.

US ONLY

The clock is ticking, don't miss out on your chance to obtain a complimentary netbook just by taking an eligible IBM Training Class! Simply enroll in an eligible Information Management class between now and October 29, 2010 and complete the class by December 17, 2010 and you can receive a complimentary Lenovo S10-3 netbook. Note this is a U.S. only promotion cannot be combined with other IBM discounts. Request your promotion code today!

Learn more: http://www.ibm.com/training/us/swgnetbook5

Build skills with Pre-Conference Training at the Information On Demand Global Conference

Get an early start to building your skills at the Information On Demand Global Conference by attending one of our full day education classes. These classes will be offered on Sunday only, October 24th, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Take advantage of special pricing of US $499.00 and get a full day of education, delivered by professional IBM instructors at a discounted rate.

Learn more: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/2010-conference/pre-classes.html?ca=septnlext

Consult the Information Management Training Paths to help you attain your skills goals

The Information Management Training team has developed a series of training paths to help you map your path to skills development efficiently and effectively. Following these paths can help you attain the skills needed to productively work in your environment while minimizing your training time.

Learn more: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/roadmaps.html?ca=septnl

New Course: Informix Database Administration: Managing and Optimizing Data (2X221)

This new course is a self-paced virtual course (SPVC) and includes hands-on remote labs.The course will teach the student the basic concepts of data management within IDS. It discusses how to determine correct data types; how to create, manage and maintain tables and indexes; how the IDS optimizer works; how to manage data; and how to utilize the SET EXPLAIN feature to determine query effectiveness. The average amount of time to complete this course is 32 hours. Once students receive their access information, they will have 60 days to complete this course and its labs.

The course is updated for version 11.50 of Informix, but is suitable for those still running previous versions of IDS. This course is the Self Paced Virtual version of classroom-delivered course Informix Database Administration: Managing and Optimizing Data (IX221) and Instructor Led Online course Informix Database Administration: Managing and Optimizing Data - ILO (3X221).

Read the course description and order:

http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?pageType=course_description&courseCode=2X221

Accelerate Hibernate and iBATIS applications using pureQuery, Part 2: Using the IBM Integration Module for iBATIS and pureQuery
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-1009hibernateibatispurequery2/index.html
When extended with the downloadable IBM Integration Module, the IBM Optim pureQuery Runtime simplifies the process of generating DB2 static SQL for Hibernate and iBATIS applications. It does this without requiring you to make changes to your application code or to gather SQL from production workloads. The Optim pureQuery Runtime also enables Hibernate and iBATIS applications that access DB2 or Informix to benefit from the heterogeneous batching feature in pureQuery. With the heterogeneous batching feature, you can batch multiple INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE requests before sending them across the network, even when the requests reference multiple tables. This article is part two of a two-part series. It describes using the IBM Integration Module with iBATIS applications. This article includes a downloadable sample application that illustrates how you can easily enable static SQL and heterogeneous batch functions with iBATIS applications. Part one of the series focuses on Hibernate applications.

16 Sep 2010

Event-driven fine-grained auditing with Informix
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0410roy/
Learn how to use triggers to implement fine-grained auditing. This article covers the use of the datablade API to generate auditing events from transactions. It also introduces a feature called trigger introspection that allows you to create a generic auditing function that can be applied to any table. The article comes with example code that implements the solutions discussed.

16 Sep 2010

For more information go to DeveloperWorks - Informix: http://www.iiug.org/url/devworks.html

Do you want to take your productivity to new levels?
The new maintenance Release 7.5 is here
Server Studio & Sentinel the premiere suite of integrated system management tools for IBM Informix. data servers has been updated! The new maintenance Release 7.5 of this industry-leading multi-platform graphical development and management environment provides DBAs and developers with an even richer collection of easy-to-use, proven tools to manage with unprecedented ease complexities of the Informix data servers' infrastructure from initial design and development, all the way through to production deployment and successful operational service.

All the vital Informix tools you need are in one place
This suite of highly intuitive tools provides wide-ranging functionality that enables database professionals improve efficiency of performing common database tasks such as: SQL development and debugging; schema management; configuration auditing and change management; data storage management and reorganization; security administration; rapid identification and remediation of performance bottlenecks and resources contention issues; server optimization and tuning; and whole lot more.

What's new and noteworthy in this maintenance release
Here are just a few of the new features and capabilities in this maintenance Release 7.5 of Server Studio & Sentinel that will take the drudgery out of your work and make you more productive:

• Terminate multiple user sessions in a single operation
• Table reorganization tasks can now be scheduled for deferred execution
• Ability to actively monitor for and respond to the number of rows in table has been added
• Enhanced update statistics functionality with ability to schedule deferred execution
• Automation facilities have been significantly enhanced with the addition of the ability to dynamically pass monitors' parameters values to autonomic tasks
• Proactive data stores dynamic resource management capabilities have been added
• Configuration change management facilities have gained the ability to automate the auditing process by the addition of the system snapshot scheduling

Download Release 7.5 of Server Studio & Sentinel today and see for yourself what we've been busy working on for you. You'll be glad you did!

http://www.serverstudio.com/downloads/

Sincerely,

AGS Informix Tools Team

Remote Technical and DBA support from Advanced DataTools helps small, medium and enterprise installations maximize their IBM Informix database performance and uptime while minimizing costs and overhead. We can help resolve and/or prevent the worst technical problems you could imagine!

Advanced DataTools' staff of highly experienced, certified IBM Informix consultants are well trained in all levels of database performance and optimization. This allows us to offer our customers IBM maintenance and support contracts on most versions of Informix Dynamic Server, on any platform/operating system.

Top experts in the field, Art Kagel and Lester Knutsen, manage and support our team of certified IBM Informix consultants. Art and Lester each have over 28 years of Informix DBA experience and both have received the IIUG Directors Award, and the Inaugural Data Champion award by IBM.

Our Team can help save you time and money by assisting with:

• Emergency/Down Systems
• Trouble Shooting
• Vacation Coverage
• System Maintenance
• Short and/or Long Term Planning
• Upgrades/Migrations
• Passive System Monitoring
• Active System Monitoring
• One time health check
• Disaster Recovery
• Support is provided for every feature of IDS including:
• High availability data replication
• Enterprise data replication
• Performance and SQL tuning
• Instance and Operating system tuning
• What is available with a standard or extended Informix support agreement?
• Support for all the customer's Informix database software and operating systems
• Initial performance review and database health check of all Informix servers
• Review of daily, weekly and monthly diagnostics and performance statistics
• 800 number telephone support with four-hour response time to resolve problems
• Three points of contact (telephone, page and email) to our Senior DBA consultants

For more information go to the Advanced DataTools website: http://www.advancedatatools.com.

The gaming industry is a key growth market for Informix, as outlined in the new Informix strategy earlier this year. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is a premier conference in this industry that focuses on connected games including casual, MMOs, virtual worlds, and social networking games. More than 120 sessions will address the most pressing development challenges for connected games with tracks related to: Business and Marketing, Design, Production, Programming and going Live.

The GDC attracts more than 3,000 attendees worldwide and provides game development professionals educational, networking, and business opportunities that help drive the $16 billion video-game industry. It is a forum where programmers, designers, producers, writers and others involved in the development of interactive games, gather to exchange ideas, and ultimately shape the future of a thriving industry.

The IBM Informix team will be there in full force this year. IBM will have an exhibitor booth as well as a speaking session entitled "Optimizing infrastructure - decisions that impact hardware, software and management cost" in which Informix will be a big part of the discussion. IBM also has other sponsorship opportunities at the conference that we will use to network with game developers, evangelize the Informix message, and grow the Informix community.

To learn more about the conference visit http://www.gdconline.com/

On Tuesday September 14, the South East Informix Users Group (SEIUG) had another successful local user group (LUG) meeting. The meeting was hosted by The Home Depot (THD) at their Store Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The Home Depot has hosted many meetings for the SEIUG over the past 10 years. The registration table was run by the THD Informix Database Engineers.

The meeting was kicked off by Kate Tomchik, introducing the Senior Manager of Platform Database Engineering, John Gardiner. John has worked for The Home Depot for ten years, and prior to that worked at Walmart. He has been an active member of the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) the entire time. John took the opportunity to tell the crowd about activities his Informix DBA team, including listing all their awards and presentations associated with the Informix community. In addition to the seven Informix team members, John is also the senior manager over DB2 LUW, DB2 z/OS, MS Sql Server, Oracle and MySql DBAs.

After John finished his introductions, the President of the SEIUG, Walt Hultgren took the stage. He introduced himself, and then encouraged everyone to submit a presentation for the 2011 IIUG Informix Conference. This Conference will again be held in Overland Park, Kansas; where it is convenient to the IBM Support Labs. Speakers get a free conference pass which this year will cost attendees $525 each.

The first presenter was Nita Dembla, who talked about IBM Informix Dynamic Server new features available to the Engine version 11.50.UC7. A great deal of that presentation was concerning the new free Informix offerings. This was followed by a discussion of version 11.50.UC6. She discussed the Enhanced 24x7 attach/detach fragmentation experience; Administration Enhancements; Update and Delete Joins; and External Tables. There were a large number of examples that helped explain external table usage.

After the first presentation, there was a break for snacks and sodas, sponsored by Atlanta IBM. It was a great chance to network with the 44 attendees to the meeting. During the break, some special requests were given to Nita about how to use the new merge functions added to UC7. Nita found some slides on that subject, and went back up on stage for a quick discussion about it for the audience.

The second presenter was Venkatesh Gopal. Venkatesh had to fill in at the last minute when the original speaker was forced to cancel. Venkatesh was very impressive. His topic was Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - Extending your 4GL Investment. He discussed the topic well, and then gave some excellent demonstrations.

The meeting included attendees from Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C. and all over the southern states. All attendees left with a copy of Jacques Roy's Informix Dynamic Server Application Development: Getting Started and a Black Panther stress reliever, thanks to Cindy Lictenauer of the IIUG Board of Directors. The meeting over all was quite a success. Copies of the presentations are now available at http://www.iiug.org/seiug. If you would like to set up an Informix meeting in your area, contact Cindy, the local user group coordinator, at cindy@iiug.org.

Kate Tomchik

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Location: Crowne Plaza National Airport
1480 Crystal Drive
Arlington, VA 22202
(Near the Crystal City Metro)

More information will be coming soon - http://www.iiug.org/waiug

Release Note Gems: .cdr check paging' and .onstat -g config {parameter} long'

Every so often, a new feature will slip into IDS that most people will miss because they show up in the Release Notes. For instance, if you happened to read the highly acclaimed and often quoted: Release Notes for IBM Informix Dynamic Server Enterprise and Workgroup Edition for UNIX and Linux, 11.10.xC3W2, June 2009. You may have noticed a new feature to reclaim space from the ER Smart Blob paging dbspace. This feature was added due to defect in the following versions: between 10.00.xC9W2 and 10.00.xC10W1, and between 11.10.xC3 and 11.10.xC3W1. This defect left objects within the ER Sbspace(s), resulting in .orphaned' objects which consumed space within the Sbspace(s). The defect was fixed back in 11.10.xC3W2, but the feature remains and may be useful in your environment. If you use ER and run (or have run) these versions, you may have outdated grouper paging smart large objects which can be reclaimed. To run this command, simply do the following:

1 - Check the space with .cdr check paging', which produces output like this:

Paging smart large object checking has been scheduled. It might take some time
for this to complete. Check the message log file for the results of sbspclean
thread processing.

If there are no outdated grouper paging smart large objects, you will see this:

07:45:23  Advisory:no leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:7
07:45:26  Advisory:no leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:9

If these spaces contain outdated objects, you may see this:

08:24:48  Advisory:found 2 leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:7
		total bytes:102400
08:24:54  Advisory:found 2 leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:9
		total bytes:102400

2 - If any sbspaces contain objects that can be reclaimed, run the following to reclaim the space:

cdr check paging -R

The following messages will appear in the message log when the space has been reclaimed:

08:29:37  Advisory:deleted 2 leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:7
		total bytes:102400
08:29:43  Advisory:deleted 2 leaked ER smart large objects in sbspace:9
		total bytes:102400

Another new feature was originally added to onstat back in version 11.10, and has been expanded in later versions. In what some would consider .The Longest Onstat Command Ever!' the .onstat -g cdr config {parameter} long', will provide details about some of the internal thresholds which are derived from ER onconfig parameters. In this sample output, you see details about the CDR_QUEUEMEM and CDR_EVALTHREADS parameters:

> onstat -g cdr config CDR_QUEUEMEM long

CDR_QUEUEMEM configuration setting:       4096

CDR_QUEUEMEM derived values for GROUPER:
    Grouper Paging Threshold:     838656

CDR_QUEUEMEM derived values for QUEUER:
    Queuer Data HWM:    3686400
    Queuer Elem HWM:    3686400

CDR_QUEUEMEM derived values for RQM:
    Queue trg_send:
        Data HWM Base         :    3686400
        Data HWM Resync       :          0
        Data LWM              :    2580480
        Header HWM            :    3686400
        Header LWM            :    2580480
        Change request id     :          0
        Change target value   : 2147483647
        Change active spoolers:          0

In the above output, a transaction would qualify as a large transaction when its size exceeds 838656 bytes (including both the before and after image of the row). Also, the send queue would start to spool to disk when the in memory queue data size exceeds 3686400 byes.

> onstat -g cdr config CDR_EVALTHREADS long

CDR_EVALTHREADS configuration setting:          1, 2
CDR_EVALTHREADS requested number of evaluator threads...:          3
CDR_EVALTHREADS transitional number of evaluator threads:          3
CDR_EVALTHREADS active number of evaluator threads......:          3
CDR_EVALTHREADS number of evaluator threads to reclaim..:          0
CDR_EVALTHREADS ring buffer size........................:         48

The Grouper evaluates logical logs records to determine which rows to replicate. Normally the .requested', .transitional', and .active' values will all match. The exception is when evaluator threads are changed using .cdr change config' command.

This output may be more helpful for Technical Support to interpret, but you may be able to use them to help you understand your ER environment.

Have you read your Release Notes today?

Ron Privett
Advanced Technical Support Engineer

It is a while that Informix introduced Open Admin Tool (OAT). The OAT is a PHP based GUI administrative tool for IDS, which getting better with every release. OAT for IDS provides the ability to administer multiple database server instances from a single location. It makes IDS administration extremely easy by allowing you to drill down on resource usage and events, view performance statistics, remotely perform administrative actions, and much more.

A common question always asks by OAT user "OAT is a great administrative tool but can we add a custom plug-ins to it"?

The answer is, "the OAT Plug-in Manager feature provides a platform on which Informix developers and users can build, expand a custom modules and plug it to OAT". You can use the Plug-in Manager to dynamically add your own database administration operations and application functionality to OAT. OAT functionality is divided into a set of modules, with each module residing in its own PHP file. Modules are invoked by OAT's main bootstrap file, index.php, whenever OAT is executed in a user's Web browser. The main bootstrap file determines which module to execute based on parameters passed as part of the URL.

Current OAT package includes the Enterprise Replication plug-in and the Schema Manager plug-in. These plug-ins are installed automatically with OAT and can be enabled during installation. There are two steps to introduce your custom plug-in with OAT.

1. Create your own plug-ins program/application. The plug-ins can be written in any language in which Rich Internet Applications (RIA) can be utilized.
2. Write a small PHP module to load your plug-in.

The Plug-in Manager (select Admin > Plug-in Manager from the left navigation pane) allows you to add, enable and disable plug-ins in OAT.

Please check the IBM DeveloperWorks article Build plug-ins for IBM's OpenAdmin Tool for Informix Dynamic Server for step-by-step guide to create your own plug-in modules with OAT.

Sanjit Chakraborty

• The IIUG forums at http://www.iiug.org/forums/technical.php **** these are very good****
• Andrew Ford's blog http://www.informix-dba.blogspot.com/ **** New *****
• Blogs, Videos, News and more at http://planetids.com
• IDS Experts at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/idsteam
• Mark Jamison at http://www.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

This month's recommendation: The September 2010 issue of the Informix Business Partner Newsletter

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

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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.