Informix Machine Notes
Here you find actual Machine Notes to Informix Products that we prepared for you.
=================================
MACHINE SPECIFIC NOTES
FOR
IBM Informix Dynamic Server 11.50.FC8 PRODUCT RELEASE
ON SUN SOLARIS 64bit
DATE: 09 Nov 2010
=================================
OS Information : Built on Solaris 9, Certified on Solaris 10
System Requirements
===================
1. This product was built on Solaris 9 using the following compilers
from Sun Studio 11:
Sun C 5.8 Patch 121015-02 2006/03/29
Sun C++ 5.8 Patch 121017-02 2006/04/19
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 9, download and install
9_Recommended.zip
b. The product is built and tested with the following patches.
120760-06 Sun Studio 11: Compiler Common patch for Sun C C++ F77 F95
121017-02 Sun Studio 11: Patch for Sun C++ 5.8 compiler
121015-02 Sun Studio 11: Patch for Sun C 5.8 compiler
111712-15 SunOS 5.9 64-bit shared library patch for C++
112963-25 Linker Patch (32-bit)
111722-04 SunOS 5.9 Math Library libm patch
112785-52 X11 Xsun
On Solaris 10:
119963-07 Shared library patch for C++
c. 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 9 with patch 116527-01 and without patch 116527-02
Solaris 10 without patch 118833-18
Resolution:
Solaris 9 with patch 116527-02 or later
For Solaris 10, patch 118833-24 or later is recommended
For more information visit:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102281-1
d. 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 118833-04 through 118833-23 and without
patch 118833-24
Resolution:
Solaris 10 with patch 118833-24 or later
For more information visit:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102576-1
3. IBM Informix Dynamic Server is supported to work with and without Zones
on Solaris 10. Read the following document for more information:
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/sparcv9 and /usr/dt/lib/sparcv9.
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 35 MB of free disk space.
c. The following packages must be installed on your system:
111712-08 or later
Check the following web site for the latest Solaris system requirements
for IBM Informix Dynamic Server:
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/requirements/sparc.html
System Configuration
====================
1. Kernel Parameters
a) The values of the kernel parameters that were used for testing this
product on Solaris 9 systems are given below. These values might need
to be tuned depending on the application and availability of system
resources. These entries are in /etc/system.
set semsys:seminfo_semmap=64
set semsys:seminfo_semmni=4096
set semsys:seminfo_semmns=4096
set semsys:seminfo_semmnu=4096
set semsys:seminfo_semume=64
set semsys:seminfo_semmsl=500
set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax=4398046511104
set shmsys:shminfo_shmmin=100
set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni=500
set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg=100
The value of the kernel parameter "semmsl" should be set to at least
100. This is the maximum number of semaphores per set.
b) On Solaris 10, all System V IPC facilities are either automatically
configured or can be controlled by resource controls.
The following kernel parameters are either removed from or commented
out in the /etc/system file:
semsys:seminfo_semmap
semsys:seminfo_semmns
semsys:seminfo_semmnu
semsys:seminfo_semume
shmsys:shminfo_shmmin
shmsys:shminfo_shmseg
The following IPC tunables are obsolete and are replaced by new resource
controls:
semsys:seminfo_semmsl
semsys:seminfo_semmni
shmsys:shminfo_shmmax
shmsys:shminfo_shmmni
The resource controls that replaced the obsolete IPC tunables listed
above have the following default values on Solaris 10:
process.max-sem-nsems 512
project.max-sem-ids 128
project.max-shm-memory 1/4 of physical memory
project.max-shm-ids 128
Note that the project.max-shm-memory resource control limits the
total amount of shared memory of one project, whereas previously,
the shmsys:shminfo_shmmax parameter limited the size of a single
shared memory segment.
On systems that have zones enabled, zone-wide resource controls are
specified in the zone configuration.
Refer to the rctladm(1m) man page for more information about
available resource controls.
Examples:
1. 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
2. To display the values of all the resource controls for a specific
IDS process, run this command:
# prctl <oninit pid>
3. 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
4. To perform the same action as in example 3, 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
c) IDS Failure with a Large Intimate Shared Memory Page Size
On certain hardware configurations, Solaris 10 can use very large
memory pages for Solaris Intimate Shared Memory (ISM): 32 MB or
256 MB instead of the previous limit of 4 MB. IDS uses Solaris ISM
for shared memory segments that are forced to be memory-resident by
the RESIDENT configuration parameter, however IDS might experience
problems if 32 MB or 256 MB pages are used by Solaris (APAR
36804462).
If you receive a message that contiguous shared memory segment
allocation failed and the value of the SHMBASE configuration
parameter is the same as its value in onconfig.std, then IDS might
fail unexpectedly. To prevent this problem, set the Solaris 10
operating system mmu_ism_pagesize configuration parameter to limit
the memory pages to 4 MB for ISM. To set this parameter, edit the
/etc/system file and add the following line:
set mmu_ism_pagesize = 4194304
Then restart the Solaris computer.
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=v9" 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, 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
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.
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 module requires minimum version 6.0 of Websphere MQ
package to be installed.
Note: MQ DataBlade module 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 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".
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.
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).
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 5.3.2.
9. OnSNMP
The SNMP agent for OnSNMP is based on SNMP Research (SNMPR).
10. 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.
11. Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)
PAM functionality is supported on Solaris 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 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. 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 1.3.1, 1.4.1 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.
13. 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
======================
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 32-bit
9.2x, 9.30, 9.40, 10.00, and 11.10 refer to the IBM Informix Migration
Guide, Version 11.50.
To revert from 64-bit 11.50 (this server) to 32-bit 11.50:
---------------------------------------------------------
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 -d
c. Shutdown the 64-bit server.
d. Start up the 32-bit 11.50 server by setting your INFORMIXDIR
environment variable to point to the 32-bit distribution.
To revert from 64-bit 11.50 (this server) to 32-bit 11.10, 10.00, 9.40,
9.30 or 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, 9.30, 9.40, 10.00 or 11.10 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".
2. All UDRs and DataBlade 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_11.50.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. 2002, 2010
