Informix Machine Notes

                      =================================
                            MACHINE SPECIFIC NOTES
                                    FOR
               IBM Informix Database Server 11.70.FC1 PRODUCT RELEASE
                               On Linux x86_64
                               DATE: 30 Sep 2010
                      =================================

OS Information : Built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 5.3 (Tikanga)
                 Certified on SUSE SLES 11, Ubuntu Server Edition
                 8.04 LTS, and Debian 5.0.

System Requirements
===================

1.  This product was built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 5.3
    (Kernel: 2.6.18, Glibc: 2.5.34) for x86_64 compatible processors.
    The following compilers were used:

        gcc and c++ compiler 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)

    The following package have to be installed on your Linux system:

        libaio-0.3.106
        libgcc-4.1.2
        libstdc++-4.1.2
        ncurses-5.5
        pam-0.99

    This product has been certified on:

        - SUSE SLES 11 (Kernel: 2.6.27, Glibc: 2.9). The following packages
          have to be installed:

          libaio-0.3.104
          libgcc43-4.3.3
          libstdc++43-4.3.3
          ncurses-utils-5.6
          pam-1.0.2

        - Ubuntu Server Edition 8.04.1 LTS (Kernel: 2.6.24, Glibc: 2.7.10).
          The following packages have to be installed:

          libgcc      4.2.4
          libstdc++6  4.2.4
          libncurses5 5.6
          libpam      0.99

    Installing the product on Ubuntu or Debian requires RPM to be installed
    and initialized. After RPM installed, use the following commands to
    initialize RPM:

        mkdir -p /var/lib/rpm
        rpm --initdb

    The bc utility is required by the product installer, and needs to be
    installed on Ubuntu.

2.  The UNIX graphical tools ipload, onperf and xtree only require
    OpenMotif runtime libraries version 2.3.x. The minimum version is
    2.3.1, i.e. openmotif-2.3.1 or openmotif-libs-2.3.1.

3.  If a suitable library libaio.so.1 is found, IBM Informix Database Server
    enables Kernel Asynchronous I/O (KAIO) automatically. Otherwise KAIO is
    disabled.

4.  The High Performance Loader utilities, onpload and ipload, require a
    minimum of 35 MB of memory and 70 MB of swap space in order to run.

5.  IBM Informix Database Server uses the libraries and utilities provided by
    the IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) for data encryption and Secure Sockets
    Layer (SSL) communication. The GSKit is bundled with the server and will
    be installed on your machine as part of the server installation process.

    Here are more details on the GSKit:

       a. The GSKit is also bundled with other IBM products and might
          already be present on your machine. If GSKit is not
          installed, IBM Informix Database Server will install GSKit in
          /usr/local/ibm/gsk8_64 directory on your machine.

       b. The GSKit installation directory must have 25 MB of free disk space.

       c. One of the following packages must be installed on your system:
          RHEL 5 - compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61 or later

       d. The RPM Package Manager is required to be installed on the system.

Check the following web site for the latest Linux system requirements for IBM
Informix Database Server:

    http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=630&uid=swg27013343


System Configuration
====================

1.  Kernel Parameters

    The values of the kernel parameters that were used for testing this
    product are given below. These values might need to be tuned depending
    on the application and availability of system resources. They
    can either be dynamically changed in the /proc file system or are defined
    in the kernel sources and can be changed by rebuilding the kernel.

    SHMMAX:   4398046511104
    SHMMNI:   4096
    SHMALL:   4194304
    SEMMNI:   4096
    SEMMSL:   250
    SEMMNS:   32000
    SEMOPM:   32

    - The value of the kernel parameter "SEMMSL" should be set to at least
      100. This is the maximum number of semaphores per set.

2.  Location of Shared Memory

    The ONCONFIG variable SHMBASE is set to the following:

        SHMBASE 0x44000000L

3.  Environment Variables

    It is recommended that the environment variable INFORMIXSTACKSIZE be
    set to 128 (the default is 64) if the application involves operations
    which would require the IBM Informix Database Server to perform recursive
    database tasks (for example, cascading deletes).

4.  JRE Shared Libraries

    In order to ensure the JRE shared libraries are loaded properly, the
    following steps are necessary:

       a. Add the following lines at the end of /etc/ld.so.conf
          <$INFORMIXDIR>/extend/krakatoa/jre/bin
          <$INFORMIXDIR>/extend/krakatoa/jre/bin/j9vm

          This assumes the bundled JRE in $INFORMIXDIR/extend/krakatoa/jre
          is used. Substitute <$INFORMIXDIR> by the value of your
          INFORMIXDIR environment variable.

       b. Run ldconfig as root
          # ldconfig


Feature Notes  (alphabetized by feature)
=============

1.  High Performance Loader

    User-defined conversion routines must be provided in a dynamic, shared
    64-bit library called ipldd11a.so. This library is installed in the
    $INFORMIXDIR/lib directory. You can set the location of this file with
    the HPL_DYNAMIC_LIB_PATH configuration parameter in file pointed to by
    PLCONFIG environment variable. For more details, refer the manual
    "High-Performance Loader User's Guide".

    The following two environment variables are required to be set as:

        PLOAD_SHMBASE=0x000004000000000
        IFX_XFER_SHMBASE=0x000005000000000

    Onpload will use shared memory during its execution. It will allocate
    memory beyond the address for the server, leaving room for server shared
    memory expansion.

2.  IPv6 Support

    IBM Informix Server supports Internet Protocol Version 6 (128 Bit Internet
    Addresses) as well as IPv4 (32 Bit Addresses).

    In order for the machine name specified in the SQLHOSTS file to resolve to
    the correct IP address, the name services files on the operating system
    should be correctly configured. If the machine has IPv6 address configured
    and the listener thread is bound to an IPv6 address, then the name
    resolution files /etc/nsswitch.conf should be configured to fetch IPv6
    addresss. Also use the appropriate /etc/hosts setting if local machine
    settings are used.

    For compatibility with older IBM Informix client and server products,
    assign the same hostname with both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address.
    If the listener needs to be bound to an IPv4 address and the name services
    resolve the name in the order of the IPv6 address followed by IPv4 address,
    then an explicit IPv4 address needs to be put in nodename field of SQLHOSTS
    file.  Client applications should also use the same setting.

3.  J/Foundation (Java in the Server):

    J/Foundation supports the JRE 6.0 release from IBM Corporation, which uses
    the Linux native threads based Java Virtual Machine.

    JRE 6.0 is available under $INFORMIXDIR/extend/krakatoa/jre and should
    be used with J/Foundation.

    To use this JRE, set the value of the ONCONFIG variable JVPJAVAHOME as
    follows:

    JVPJAVAHOME  <jvphome>/jre
         where <jvphome> is $INFORMIXDIR/extend/krakatoa

    For developing Java UDRs used with J/Foundation, use the JDK 5.0, which
    can be downloaded from:

         http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux/download.html

    For IBM Informix Database Server ONCONFIG settings for J/Foundation,
    refer to "onconfig.std" in $INFORMIXDIR/etc.

4.  Kernel Asynchronous I/O (KAIO)

    KAIO is enabled by default on this platform. It can be disabled by setting
    the environment variable KAIOOFF=1 in the environment of the process that
    starting the server.

    When using KAIO, it is recommended to run poll threads on separate VPs by
    specifying NET as VP class in the NETTYPE onconfig parameter, e.g.
    NETTYPE ipcshm,...,...,NET or
    NETTYPE soctcp,...,...,NET

    On Linux, there is a system wide limit of the maximum number of parallel
    KAIO requests. The file /proc/sys/fs/aio-max-nr is containing this value.
    It can be increased by the Linux system administrator, e.g. by

    # echo new_value > /proc/sys/fs/aio-max-nr

    The current number of allocated requests of all OS processes is visible
    in /proc/sys/fs/aio-nr.

    By default, IBM Informix Database server is allocating half of the maximum
    number of requests, and assigns them equally to the number of configured
    CPU VPs. The number of requests allocated per CPU VP can be controlled by
    the environment variable KAIOON, by setting it to the required value before
    starting the server. The minimum value for KAIOON is 100. If Linux is
    about to run out of KAIO resources, e.g. when dynamically adding many CPU
    VPs, warnings will be printed to the online.log file. In this case, the
    Linux system administrator should add KAIO resources as described above.

5.  Large Memory Addressability (LMA)

    IBM Informix LMA provides the ability to support system configurations
    with greater than 4GB of RAM. Most UNIX systems are limited to 4GB of
    RAM based on the memory addressing limitations of 32-bit architectures.

    The values for the following ONCONFIG parameters are increased from
    32-bit to 64-bit platform by LMA support:

        - The maximum number of buffers in BUFFERPOOL is 2147483647.

        - The maximum of LRU queues for lrus field in BUFFERPOOL is 512.

        - The DS_TOTAL_MEMORY, which is the total memory available for
          decision support memory, is only limited by the amount of virtual
          memory available. The sort memory comes out of the DS_TOTAL_MEMORY
          memory and hence there is no explicit limit on the amount of sort
          memory.

        - The read ahead parameter RA_PAGES is only limited by the number of
          buffers and therefore can be any value less than 2147483647. The
          "chunk" write algorithm is not dependent on the amount of buffers
          or shared memory and can write as many pages in a single I/O as
          possible.

        - The maximum size of any shared memory segment is 4398046511104 bytes.

        - The value for SHMADD is 4294967296 kilobytes.

    Refer to IBM Informix Administrator's Reference manual for the
    information about the related configuration parameters setting.

6.  MQ DataBlade Module

    The MQ DataBlade module provides mechanism for data exchange between
    IBM Informix Database Server and queues managed by Websphere MQ.

    Note : MQ DataBlade expects Websphere MQ libraries installed in the
           default location /opt/mqm. Otherwise create symbolic links
           from /opt/mqm/lib64 to the 64-bit Websphere MQ libraries.

7.  Network Protocols

    The following protocols or interfaces are supported on this platform:

        Berkeley sockets using TCP/IP
        IPC using stream pipe (implemented using Unix Domain Sockets)

        To use sockets with TCP/IP:

            a. NETTYPE in the ONCONFIG file and the nettype field in the
               sqlhosts file entry must contain "onsoctcp".

            b. To enable an IBM Data Server Client to connect to Informix
               Database Server, NETTYPE in the ONCONFIG file and the value data
               of protocol in the sqlhosts file entry must contain "drsoctcp"

               If a CLI or JCC client wants to connect to IBM Informix Database                Server via DRDA while supporting SQLI connections you could add
               a DBSERVERALIASES entry to ONCONFIG which corresponds to the
               sqlhosts file.

        To use IPC (interprocess communication) with stream pipe:

            a. NETTYPE in the ONCONFIG file and the nettype field in the
                sqlhosts file entry must contain "onipcstr".

    Fast poll is supported with TCP/IP and stream pipe interfaces.
    FASTPOLL in the ONCONFIG file can be set to 0 to disable the fast poll.
    By default the fast poll is enabled (value is 1).

    Remote 32-bit or 64-bit applications and tools (example: ESQL/C, 4GL, ISQL)
    can only connect to the IBM Informix Database Server using the TCP/IP
    protocol.

    Local 32-bit applications and tools can connect to the 64-bit server
    using either the TCP/IP sockets or the IPC stream pipe protocols.

    The protocol used for supporting MaxConnect on this platform is "onsocimc".

8.  Online Backup and Restore (ON-Bar)

    ON-Bar uses the XBSA interface. Some of the functions invoked by ON-Bar
    are in a shared library supplied by third party storage management vendors.
    For ON-Bar to access the functions, the library must be installed in one
    of the three ways noted below:

        a. Rename the library to $INFORMIXDIR/lib/ibsad001.so

        b. Create $INFORMIXDIR/lib/ibsad001.so as a symbolic link to the
           library.

        c. Set the BAR_BSALIB_PATH parameter in $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
           to the full pathname of the library.

    This shared library must be compiled in 64-bit mode.

    Informix Interface for Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is supported on this
    platform. The interface is built with TSM API version 5.3.2.

9.  OnSNMP

    The SNMP agent for OnSNMP is based on SNMP Research (SNMPR).

10. Optical

    The Optical feature has not been tested with the Optical Simulator.
    The name of IBM Informix shared library for Optical on Linux is
    iosm11a.so". This library must be located in $INFORMIXDIR/lib (or
    must have a link provided in $INFORMIXDIR/lib). Refer to the
    "Optical Subsystem Guide" for more information about enabling optical
    functionality.

11. Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)

    PAM functionality is supported on Linux operating system. The PAM is
    dependent on the libpam.so library supplied by the Operating System
    vendor.

    Use of PAM can be enabled or disabled by the system administrator. By
    default, IBM Informix Database Server will use the traditional
    authentication mechanism in order to avoid widespread changes required by
    the users.

    The PAM service identifies the PAM module. This PAM module typically
    resides in /usr/lib/security and its parameters are listed in
    /etc/pam.conf.

12. Processor Affinity

    The processor affinity feature, that allows the pinning of a CPU VP
    processor to a physical processor in a multi-cpu configuration, is
    supported on this platform.

13. Raw Character Devices

    Some Linux distributions support binding a raw character device to a
    block device. Any block device may be used. IBM Informix Database Server
    supports using raw character devices.

14. Secure Sockets Layer

    IBM Informix Database Server uses the libraries and utilities provided by
    the IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
    communication.

       a. Before uninstalling GSKit, verify that it is not needed on your
          system. It is possible that software other than Informix Database
          Server requires GSKit. Uninstall by identifying and removing GSKit
          packages using the command-line interface:

          Run rpm command with the -qa option to obtain a list of installed
          GSKit packages with their exact names.
          For example:
          rpm -qa | grep gsk

          As root user run the rpm command to remove each package as needed.
          For example:
          rpm -ev gskssl64-8.0-13.3 gskcrypt64-8.0-13.3

       b. If you want to restore Secure Sockets Layer capability after you
          have uninstalled GSKit, see the readme file in $INFORMIXDIR/gskit
          for how to install GSKit.

15. Simple Password Communications Support Module

    The name of the IBM Informix shared library for Simple Password CSM on
    Linux is libixspw.so.


Features not supported
======================

1.  DataBlade module registration using the blademgr utility with a Secure
    Sockets Layer (SSL) connection. Use the built-in SQL SYSBldPrepare( )
    function to register the DataBlade module instead.


Migrating to this 64-bit Version
================================

1.  To migrate to this 64-bit version server from previous versions of the
    server (for Linux x86-64 as well as Linux x86 32bit), refer to the
    migration process described in the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version
    11.70.

    To revert from this 64-bit version to all previous 64-bit versions
    refer to the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version 11.70.

    To revert from 64-bit 11.70 (this server) to 32-bit 11.70:
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    a. Disconnect all users from this server. The 64-bit engine should
       be in online mode.

    b. Run the following command as user informix or DBA:
            $INFORMIXDIR/etc/conv/update.sh -32 -d

    c. Shutdown the 64-bit server.

    d. Bring up the 32-bit 11.70 server by setting your INFORMIXDIR
       environment variable to point to the 32-bit distribution.

    To revert from 64-bit 11.70 (this server) to 32-bit 11.50, 11.10, 10.00:
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    a. Disconnect all users from this server. The 64-bit server should be
       in online mode.

    b. Run the following command as user informix or DBA:
            $INFORMIXDIR/etc/conv/update.sh -32

    c. Revert to 11.50, 11.10 or 10.00 32-bit by following the steps described
       in the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version 11.70, in the section
       "Reverting from Database Server 11.70".

    d. When reverting back to 11.50.UC4 32-bit server, you may see an
       extra message "Conversion Completed Successfully" in the online.log
       file after the server comes up, and the sysmaster database is built.

    e. A known problem in reverting from 64-bit server to 32-bit 11.50UC6,
       it gives "Assertion Failure".

       This problem happens only in upgrading the 32-bit 11.50.UC6 server to
       the 64-bit 11.70 server, and then reverting it back to 11.50UC6.

       This problem is fixed in 11.50.xC7 release. Server conversion or
       reversion between 32-bit 11.50.UC7 and 64-bit 11.70 works as expected.

2.  All UDRs and DataBlades modules that are built in 32-bit mode must be
    re-compiled in 64-bit mode to work with the 64-bit server. If you have
    any UDRs that were developed on 32-bit, make sure that the proper size
    and alignment of the data structures are used for the UDRs to work
    correctly on 64-bit after re-compilation in 64-bit mode.


Known Defects
=============

Refer to section I in doc/ids_defects_11.70.txt for the information
regarding known issues.


Defects Fixed in current Release
================================

Refer to section II in doc/ids_defects_11.70.txt for the information
regarding defects fixed in this release.


(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2010