Informix technical information

Performancesteigerung durch myexport / myimport
eine Alternative zu dbimport / dbexport

Zieht man eine Datenbank von einer Platform auf eine andere um, so sind die Informix-Tools dbimport und dbexport meistens die 1. Wahl. Ein Problem ist, das dbexport / dbimport deutlich länger braucht eine Datenbank umzuziehen als ein Backup/Restore über ontape oder onbar.

Es gibt aber Tools, die auch einen Plattform- und Versionsübergreifenden Umzug deutlich schneller erledigen können.

How to morph a Raspberry Pi into
a powerful Sensor Data Cache and IoT Gateway

Alexander Koerner (IBM Analytics Architect)
IIUG 2016 Session - 49 Pages

Alexander Koerner gives a short introduction in Raspberry Pi and sensor data communication and answers why is Informix is the perfect sensor data store for edge gateways based on the Raspberry Pi.

Introduction / Why a Raspberry Pi?

How to build a sensor data cache with a Raspberry Pi

• Choice of communication protocol(s)
• Sensor-to-Pi communication / Pi-to-Network communication
• Sensor HW considerations
• Operating System(s) / Additional Software requirements
• Sensor Data Cache (Informix)
• Flow / Streams Processing

 Sensor data analytics in motion and at rest

• In-Motion Sensor Data Analytics / Node-RED / Quarks / Spark Streaming (not covered)
• At-Rest Sensor Data Analytics / Informix 12.10

Informix 12.10 on Raspberry Pi

• Informix is the perfect sensor data store for edge gateways based on the Raspberry Pi
• Informix on the Raspberry Pi - How To
• Install and configure Informix on the Raspberry Pi

The cloud connection

• IoT Architecture Annotated with IBM Products
• The Watson IoT Platform – IBM's next generation IoT platform
• How to connect the Raspberry Pi to the IBM Cloud

Sensor data visualization

• JavaScript / Grafana

Summary / Contact information

Informix on ARM Architecture

Globally ARM is the most widely used instruction set architecture in terms of quantity produced. The low power consumption of ARM processors has made them very popular: over 50 billion ARM processors have been produced as of 2014, of which 10 billion were produced in 2013 and "ARM-based chips are found in nearly 60 percent of the world’s mobile devices". The ARM architecture (32-bit) is the most widely used architecture in mobile devices, and most popular 32-bit one in embedded systems. (Wikipedia)

What does it mean to Informix and the upcoming Internet of Things?

View the Advanced DataTools webcast replay. This webcast will explore some of the ARM-based computers that are available, and describe why ARM is such a good fit for an IoT solution. Tom Beebe will show how simple it is to install a full version of the IBM Informix database server on a low-power, affordable ARM-based Linux computer, and why the power and simplicity of Informix makes it ideal for an embedded IoT gateway.

Autonomic Tuning Informix 12

Scott Pickett
WW Informix Technical Sales

Overview & Problem Statement:

• We want the Informix database server to be as invisible as possible.
• After the initial install of IDS and uptime, we need the server to be able to adapt to any workload that comes its way.
• Prior to 12.10xC2, several key server resources were not dynamic. This could and did lead to artificial performance ceilings, and an increase in downtime to fix, or degradation in performance until the issue was detected by human interface.
• Not everyone knows how to detect ……. and if they do, getting the downtime from management is an issue …. always.
• The improvements are in several different categories….

Automate small footprint,
embedded Informix Server deployments

Sreeni Paidi
Advisory Software Engineer IBM

Overview:

This tutorial shows you how to automate IBM® Informix® Dynamic Server (IDS) small footprint deployments by using the IDS deployment utility and the IDS embeddability toolkit. An important requirement of an embedded database system is that it be invisible to end users and administrators.

IDS is a perfect database system for application environments that require an embedded database because you can install, deploy, and administer the database silently. It is transparent to users that there is a robust and reliable database system catering to the database requirements of the application.

IBM RedBook 
Embedding IBM Informix

Abstract:

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we discuss and describe the capabilities for embedding Informix® into applications and software. We introduce the technological architecture and describe several of the functions and features that support Informix as a robust and powerful embeddable DBMS. Many of these features are unique in the industry today, enabling clients to create a business advantage.

The Informix database server can support the requirements of an embeddable DBMS, and is doing so for many companies today. The low administration requirements of the Informix database server enable clients to deploy thousands of Informix instances, embedded in applications in locations where there are no technical resources to support the database. The real requirement is for applications with embedded databases that require little or no administration, take minimum storage resources, have excellent performance, and are highly reliable.

Cisco and IBM Informix Database Software
Enhancing Collaboration

Cisco chose to embed IBM Informix® database
software in their solutions because of the robust
embeddability, high reliability, and extreme
performance of Informix.

This white paper addresses a number of the features and techniques Cisco uses to embed Informix in its solutions, and why.
It also highlights some of Informix’s newer features. The white paper is divided into six sections, each corresponding to the different tasks involved in the embedding process.

Build an app to read sensor data and predict failure using Informix TimeSeries service

Michael Chris Golledge - Advisory Software Engineer IBM 

developerWorks article - 10 July 2014

 

IBM Bluemix provides an easy-to-use platform for developing a solution involving sensors, database storage (in the TimeSeriesDatabase), server-side analytics, and a monitoring application to warn the customer if trouble appears to be imminent. This demonstration is a simple simulation of a refrigerator, cloud-based storage and analytics, and monitoring software to alert the user if the device is approaching unsafe temperature limits. Use the tools described here to build a similar solution to solve a real problem you're facing.

Visit developerWorks and view article online ...

 IBM-developerWorks-Golledge-Informix-TimeSeries-Service-App-(2014-07) 

What's new in IBM Informix version 12.10.xC4

Welche Änderungen bringt eine neue Informix Version mit sich?

Die Antworten – quasi aus erster Hand –  bietet das Informix Documentation Team in einem Blog auf der developerWorks Seite. Die kurzen und übersichtlichen Zusammenfassungen fanden wir so hilfreich, dass wir hier gezielt darauf hinweisen.

Der Blog wurde im April 2010 gestartet und bietet natürlich auch viele nützliche Informationen zu den vorherigen Informix Versionen 11.50 und 11.70. Ein Auszug zu den Änderungen der Version 12.10.xC4 finden Sie weiter unten.

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Wer es noch genauer und umfassender wissen will, kann direkt auf die im IBM Knowledge Center eingestellte Dokumentation gehen. Für Informix Administratoren sind diese Seiten auf jeden Fall ein Lesezeichen wert.

 

 

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Drastic Reduction of Possible Rows in a Table with TEXT and BYTE in the Tablespace

(Article written by CURSOR employee Andreas Seifert)

Usually, the table limits in an Informix instance are high enough to ensure a smooth operation of the instance. However, when using the old simple large objects TEXT and BYTE in Informix, this is not the case. Unlike the new smart large objects, these blobs cannot be stored in a smart blobspace and still have to be stored in the old blobspace.

The problem is that blobs (data types TEXT and BYTE) stored in old blobspaces are not logged in the logical log. This is a great disadvantage if you want to use a high-availability solution such as HDR, RSS or SDS. Since all of these solutions work by exchanging logical log information, objects that do not appear in the logical log will not be replicated.

The only way to log simple large objects in the logical log is to forego blobspaces and to store the blobs in the tablespace.

This is where the Informix table limits come into play. Informix allows rows up to 32KB wide. In our case, this limit is not problematic since rows including simple-large-object data only contain a 56-byte simple-large-object descriptor. What is problematic in our case is the limit that the maximum number of data pages per fragment is 16,777,215. The question now is whether the blob pages needed for a simple large object count towards this number.

The Informix documentation says nothing about this. In order to find out whether blob pages count as data pages, we have created a 100GB-sized chunk. As platform, we used Windows with a 4k page size. In the table with two text fields, we have inserted 300KB rows in a loop. The question was – how many rows can we insert?