Informix Machine Notes

                      =================================
                            MACHINE SPECIFIC NOTES
                                    FOR
                 IBM Informix Dynamic Server 11.50.FC8 PRODUCT RELEASE
                       ON SUN SOLARIS AMD/Opteron 64bit
                               DATE: 08 Nov 2010
                      =================================

OS Information : Built on Solaris 10 on AMD/Opteron

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

1.  This product was built and tested on Solaris 10 AMD/Opteron using the 
    following compilers from Sun Studio 11:

       Sun C 5.8 Patch 121016-02 2006/03/31
       Sun C++ 5.8 Patch 121018-02 2006/04/26

    with the following patches:

       120759-12 Sun Studio 11_x86: Sun Compiler Common patch for x86 backend
       121018-02 Sun Studio 11_x86: Patch for Sun C++ 5.8 compiler
       121016-02 Sun Studio 11_x86: Patch for Sun C_x86 5.8 Compiler
       121616-01 Sun Studio 11_x86: Patch for Sun dbx 7.5_x86 Debugger
       118677-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: patch for Solaris make and sccs utilities
       121208-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: ld & libc.so.1 Patch
       119961-02 SunOS 5.10_x86, x64, Patch for assembler
       119964-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: Shared library patch for C++_x86
       120754-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: Microtasking libraries (libmtsk) patch
       121621-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: Patch for mediaLib in Solaris

    The product was built with the following compiler option:

       "-xtarget=generic64 -xarch=amd64"

    This compiler option is expanded to:

       "-xarch=amd64 -xcache=64/64/2:1024/64/16 -xchip=opteron"

2.  Solaris patch information for the IBM Informix Dynamic Server

    a. Install the recommended patch cluster for your OS version.
       The cluster is available at http://sunsolve.Sun.COM/.
       For example, if you are running Solaris 10, download and install
       10_x86_Recommended.zip.

    b. System specific patch for VP notify problem

       Some Solaris OS and system patch combinations can be one of the
       many possible causes of the VP countdown problem, where the
       instance appears to hang and the following messages appearing in
       the online log:

           12:00:13  VP Notify mechanism incomplete after 5 minutes.
                     This can be due to slow network file access. Will
                     try 12 more times.

       This issue can occur in the following releases:

           Solaris 10 without patch 118855-15

       Resolution:

            Solaris 10 with patch 118855-15 or later

       For more information visit:
       http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102281-1

 
    c. Sun Solaris 10 patch alert

       Installation of certain Sun Solaris patches can cause a listener thread 
       within the Informix Dynamic Server to fail with an operating system 
       error of 13, preventing new network connections to the database server.
 
       Sun Microsystems, Inc. has issued a Sun Alert Notification (Sun Alert 
       ID 102576) for this problem:

       On Solaris 10 libnsl(3LIB) or TLI/XTI API routines May Cause Listener 
       Programs for Databases or Other Network Aware Applications to Stop 
       Responding.
       
       This issue can occur in the following releases:

           Solaris 10 with patch 118855-03 through 118855-19 and without patch 
           118855-20

       Resolution:

           Solaris 10 with patch 118855-20 or later

       For more information visit:
       http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102576-1

    d. Sun Solaris 10 Maintenance Update 4

       Some IBM Informix Dynamic Server utilities stop unexpectedly on 
       systems running Solaris 10 Update 4, especially if the systems have 
       Intel processors. 

       Resolution: Solaris 10 Update 5 or later.

3.  IBM Informix Dynamic Server is supported to work with and without Zones
    on Solaris 10. Read the following document for more information, this 
    would be also applicable to Solaris AMD/Opteron system:

    ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/IDS-SunSPARC-reqs.pdf

4.  The UNIX graphical tools provided with this release require 64-bit 
    X Windows System X11R6 and Motif 2.1 or later runtime libraries.

    If these tools cannot find the location of the X and Motif shared
    libraries, set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include 
    these locations: /usr/openwin/lib/amd64 and /usr/dt/lib/amd64.

5.  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.

6.  IBM Informix Dynamic 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 the GSKit was previously
          installed, but is older than version 7.0.4.27, IDS will upgrade the
          GSKit on your machine to version 7.0.4.27. If GSKit is not
          installed, IDS will install GSKit in /opt/ibm/gsk7_64
          directory on your machine.

       b. The GSKit installation directory must have 40 MB of free disk space.

Check the following web site for the latest Solaris AMD/Opteron system 
requirements for IBM Informix Dynamic Server:

http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/requirements/solaris-x86.html


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

1.  System V IPC Parameters

    On Solaris 10, all System V IPC facilities are either automatically 
    configured or can be controlled by resource controls. 

    Check project.max-shm-memory on your system, IBM recommend the value 
    of 4398046511104 for the IBM Informix Dynamic Server. 

    Refer to rctladm(1m) man page for more information about available 
    resource controls.

    Examples:

       a. To display the current value of project.max-shm-memory set to the 
          project and system wide, where IDS is running under the default 
          project, run this command:

          # prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -i project default

       b. To display the values of all the resource controls for a specific 
          IDS process, run this command: 
         
          # prctl <oninit pid>  

       c. To set the value of project.max-shm-memory for the project default 
          to 4 TB without restarting the system, run this command:

          # prctl -n project.max-shm-memory -r -v 4tb -i project default

       d. To perform the same action as in example c, but instead use 
          the projmod command to modify the attribute value for 
          project.max-shm-memory in /etc/project the local source of
          project information file, run this command:

          # projmod -a -K 'project.max-shm-memory=(priv,4TB,deny)' default

2.  Location of Shared Memory

    The ONCONFIG variable SHMBASE should be set to the following:

        SHMBASE 0x10A000000L

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 Dynamic Server to perform recursive
    database tasks (for example, cascading deletes).

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

1.  High Performance Loader

    User-defined conversion routines for the High Performance Loader must be
    provided in a dynamic, shared library called ipldd11a.so. This shared
    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 the file pointed to by PLCONFIG environment variable. For more details 
    see the "High-Performance Loader User's Guide".

    To create a 64-bit shared library, the flags "-xarch=amd64" can be used
    to convey to the compiler that a 64-bit object is to be generated.

    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.  ISMP - InstallShield Multi-Platform

    A JRE is embedded in the installation program. If you have problems with the
    embedded JRE, you can use your own. The minimum recommended JRE version
    is 1.4.2.

4.  J/Foundation (Java in the Server)

    J/Foundation supports the JRE 5.0 release from Sun Microsystems/IBM, which
    uses the Solaris native threads based Java Virtual Machine.

    The JRE 5.0 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://java.sun.com/javase/index.jsp
        http://www.ibm.com

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

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 536870912.

        - 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 (2^40)/2 MB. 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 536870912. 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.

    Please 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
    IDS and queues managed by Websphere MQ.

    MQ DataBlade requires minimum version 6.0 of Websphere MQ to be installed.

7.  Network Protocols

    The following protocol(s)/interface(s) are supported on this platform:
 
      TLI using TCP/IP
      SOCKETS using TCP/IP
      IPC using stream pipe

      To use TLI with TCP/IP:
          a. NETTYPE in the ONCONFIG file and the nettype field in the
             sqlhosts file entry must contain "ontlitcp".
 
          b. To enable an IBM Data Server Client to connect to Informix 
             Dynamic Server, NETTYPE in the ONCONFIG file and the value data 
             of protocol in the sqlhosts file entry must contain "drtlitcp"

      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 
             Dynamic 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 IDS via DRDA while supporting 
      SQLI connections you could add a DBSERVERALIASES entry to ONCONFIG which 
      corresponds to the sqlhosts file.

      When using either TLI or SOCKETS, set the "connections" field in
      the ONCONFIG NETTYPE parameter and the kernel driver ndd parameter
      "tcp_conn_req_max_q" to the maximum number of expected concurrent
      connections.

      If the "tcp_conn_req_max_q" is set too low, you will see a client
      error with sqlcode = -908 and isamcode = 13. If the NETTYPE
      "connections" field is set too low, you will see a server
      listener-thread error with err = -25571.

      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 all 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 applications and tools (example: ESQL/C, 4GL, ISQL) can
    only connect to the IBM Informix Dynamic Server using the TCP/IP
    protocol.

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

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

8.  OnLine Backup and Restore (ON-Bar)

    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 these
    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 5.3.4.

9.  Optical

    The name of the IBM Informix shared library for Optical on Solaris 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.

10.  Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)

    PAM functionality is supported on Solaris (64bit) 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 IDS will use the traditional authentication mechanism in 
    order to avoid wide spread 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.

11. Secure Sockets Layer

    IBM Informix Dynamic Server uses the libraries and utilities provided by
    the IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
    communication. The GSKit provides iKeyman utility (gsk7cmd_64, gsk7ikm_64)
    and a non-java utility (gsk7capicmd_64) for managing digital certificates
    necessary for SSL communication.

       a. Product prerequisite for iKeyman utility:
          The iKeyman utility requires the IBM Java Runtime Environment
          (JRE) or IBM Java Development Kit (JDK) version 1.5 or
          higher with the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) security package.

       b. Environment for iKeyman utility:
          - JAVA_HOME must be set to the JRE/JDK installation directory
          - PATH must include <JRE/JDK installation>/jre/bin
          - CLASSPATH must include <GSKit installation>/classes/cfwk.zip,
            <GSKit installation>/classes/gsk7cls.jar and
            <JRE/JDK installation>/jre/lib/ext/ibmpkcs11.jar

       c. Before uninstalling GSKit, verify that it is not needed on your
          system. It is possible that software other than Informix Dynamic
          Server requires GSKit.  Uninstalling entails removing the GSKit
          packages with the pkgrm command-line tool

          As root user run the pkgrm command to remove each package as 
          needed. For example, the following command removes a GSKit 
          version 7 package:
          pkgrm gsk7bas

       d. 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.

12. Simple Password Communications Support Module

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


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

1. OnSNMP

2. Shared Disk Secondary Servers

3. Web Feature Service DataBlade Module

4. XML Publishing


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

1.  To migrate to this 64-bit version from previous versions of the server
    (64-bit as well as 32-bit), refer to the migration process described in
    the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version 11.50.

    To revert from this 64-bit version to all versions other than a 32-bit
    server, refer to the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version 11.50.

2.  To revert from 64-bit 11.50 (this server) to a 7.31 32-bit server by
    following the steps described in the IBM Informix Migration Guide, Version 
    11.50, in the section "Reverting from Dynamic Server 11.50".

    To revert from 64-bit 11.50 (this server) to 32-bit 9.2x:
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    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 9.2x 32-bit by following the steps described in the IBM 
       Informix Migration Guide, Version 11.50, in the section, "Reverting 
       from Dynamic Server 11.50".


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

Refer to section I in doc/ids_defects_11.50.txt for the information 
regarding known issues.


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

Refer to section II in doc/ids_defects_11.50.txt for the information 
regarding defects fixed in this release.


Defects Fixed in Previous Releases
==================================

Refer to sections III to VIII in doc/ids_defects_11.50.txt for the information
regarding defects fixed in previous release.


(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2006, 2010