Informix Machine Notes
Here you find actual Machine Notes to Informix Products that we prepared for you.
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MACHINE SPECIFIC NOTES
FOR
IBM Informix Database Server 14.10.FC7 PRODUCT RELEASE
On Linux x86_64
DATE: 23 Oct 2021
=================================
OS Information : Built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 7.4 (Maipo).
System Requirements
===================
1. This product was built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 7.4
(Kernel: 3.10.0-693, Glibc: 2.17) for x86_64 compatible processors.
The following compilers were used:
gcc and c++ compiler 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-16) for GLS and ICU
gcc and c++ compiler 7.3.1 20180303 (Red Hat Devtoolset-7) for the server
The following packages have to be installed on your Linux system:
libaio-0.3.109
libgcc-4.8.5
libstdc++-4.8.5
ncurses-5.9
pam-1.1.8
elfutils-libelf-0.168
Please note that this version of Informix Dynamic Server does not
support Linux environments with a kernel version lower than 3.10.0-693.
For Informix Blade development the GNU linker may need to be
updated to GNU ld version 2.28-11.el7 or newer.
Update is not needed for the installation and operation of
Informix Dynamic Server.
This product has been certified on:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 8.0 (Kernel: 4.18.0-80,
Glibc: 2.28-42). The following packages have to be installed:
libaio-0.3.110
libgcc_s1-8.2.1
libstdc++6-8.2.1
ncurses-utils-6.1-7
pam-1.3.1-4
elfutils-libelf-0.174-6
- SUSE SLES 12.3 (Kernel: 4.4.73-51, Glibc: 2.22-61). The following
packages have to be installed:
libaio-0.3.109
libgcc_s1-6.2.1
libstdc++6-6.2.1
ncurses-utils-5.9-40
pam-1.1.8-23
libelf1-0.158-6
- SUSE SLES 15 (Kernel: 4.12.14-25, Glibc: 2.26-13). The following
packages have to be installed:
libaio-0.3.109
libgcc_s1-8.2.1
libstdc++6-8.2.1
ncurses-utils-6.1.3
pam-1.3.0-6.3.1
libelf1-0.168-2
- Ubuntu Server Edition 16.04 LTS (Kernel: 4.4.0-142, Glibc: 2.23).
The following packages have to be installed:
libgcc 5.4.0
libstdc++6 5.4.0
libncurses5 6.0
libpam 1.1.8
libelf1-0.165-3
- Ubuntu Server Edition 17.10 (Kernel: 4.13.0-21, Glibc: 2.26).
The following packages have to be installed:
libgcc 7.2.0
libstdc++6 7.2.0
libncurses5 6.0
libpam 1.1.8
libelf1-0.170-0
- Ubuntu Server Edition 18.04 LTS (Kernel: 4.15, Glibc: 2.27).
The following packages have to be installed:
libgcc 7.5.0
libstdc++6 7.5.0
libncurses5 6.1
libpam 1.1.8
libelf1-0.170-0
- Ubuntu Server Edition 20.04 LTS (Kernel: 5.4.0, Glibc: 2.31).
The following packages have to be installed:
libgcc 10.2.0
libstdc++6 10.2.0
libncurses5 6.2
libpam 1.3.1
libelf1-0.176-1
On Ubuntu 20.04 LTS the kernel setting 'fs.protected_regular' defaults
to '2'. This could cause initialization errors on instances configured
with a SHM listener. To support SHM connections this parameter needs
to be set to '0' (e.g., 'sudo sysctl fs.protected_regular=0')
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
Motif runtime libraries version 2.3.x. The minimum version is
2.3.4, i.e. motif-devel-2.3.4-14.el7_5.x86_64
3. If a suitable library libaio.so.1 is found, Informix Dynamic Server
enables Kernel Asynchronous I/O (KAIO) automatically. Otherwise KAIO is
disabled.
4. The Informix product installer may fail to start correctly.
When it aborts the following two messages are displayed:
Installer User Interface Mode Not Supported
Unable to load and to prepare the installer in console or silent mode.
This can happen due to a known problem in the Java Virtual Machine that
is internal to the installer. This problem is known as
"JDK-8188030 : AWT java apps fail to start when some minimal fonts
are present".
It may appear when only minimal fonts of the CFF format are installed on
the machine.
On a Linux system with Intel x86 64-bit architecture, this problem can be
worked around by installing an additional font with a format different than
CFF. For example fonts from the font package "gnu-free-mono-fonts" are
known to allow the Informix product installer to start and operate
correctly. This font package can be installed on RedHat distributions by
executing the following command as user root:
yum install gnu-free-mono-fonts
(On different Linux distributions it may be necessary to use a different
installation utility instead of "yum".)
5. The Korn shell is required for the Informix server alarmprogram
scripts. Install it as /bin/ksh. On Ubuntu Server Edition, pdksh needs
to be installed.
6. 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 GSKit is not installed,
the script $INFORMIXDIR/gskit/installgskit 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. The RPM or Debian Package Manager is required to be installed on the
system.
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 configuration parameter 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 Informix Dynamic Server to perform recursive
database tasks (for example, cascading deletes).
Feature Notes
=============
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
The Informix Dynamic Server supports Internet Protocol Version 6 (128 Bit
Internet Addresses) as well as IPv4 (32 Bit Addresses).
In order for the machine name that is specified in the SQLHOSTS file to
resolve to the correct IP address, the name services files on the operating
system must be configured correctly. If the machine has an IPv6 address
configured, and the listener thread is bound to an IPv6 address, then the
name service switch files /etc/nsswitch.conf must be configured to fetch
an IPv6 address. Also any local machine settings must be set correctly in
the /etc/hosts file.
For compatibility with earlier versions of Informix client and server
products, assign each host name 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 the IPv4 address, then an explicit IPv4 address needs to be put in the
host name field of SQLHOSTS file. Client applications should also use the
same setting.
3. J/Foundation (Java in the Server):
The IBM Runtime Environment, Java Technology Edition, Version 8.0
release is installed in $INFORMIXDIR/extend/krakatoa/jre and should be
used with the J/Foundation component.
A Java user-defined routine (UDR) runs in a Java virtual processor. Use
the VPCLASS configuration parameter to specify the number of virtual
processors for the server. You configure Java virtual processors in
the "Java configuration parameters" section of the onconfig configuration
file. The default onconfig.std file is in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory.
To develop Java UDRs for the server on this platform, use the 64-bit
IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition, Version 8 or an earlier version
according to Java compatibility guidelines. Java SDK 8 contains the
latest virtual machine technology from IBM and can be downloaded from
http://www.ibm.com/java/jdk/.
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
starts the server.
When using KAIO, it is recommended to run poll threads on separate VPs by
specifying NET as VP class in the NETTYPE configuration 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, Informix Dynamic 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. Locking large pages in memory
The Informix Dynamic Server can use large pages in memory when queries
require more memory. (On Linux operating systems, large pages are called
huge pages.) However, after you initialize Informix Dynamic Server on Linux
operating systems, the database server is unable to lock large pages in
memory when queries require more memory. If you want to take advantage
of the large-page support, you must use the onmode utility to add memory
segments, and then run the queries.
6. Network Protocols
The following protocols and interfaces are supported on this platform:
SOCKETS using TCP/IP
IPC using stream pipe (implemented using UNIX Domain Sockets)
To use SOCKETS with TCP/IP:
a. The NETTYPE entry in the configuration file and the nettype
field in the sqlhosts file entry must contain "onsoctcp".
b. To enable an IBM Data Server Client to connect to the database
Server, the NETTYPE entry in the configuration file and the
protocol value in the sqlhosts file entry must contain "drsoctcp".
If a CLI or JCC client wants to connect to the database server
through DRDA while supporting SQLI connections, you must add a
DBSERVERALIASES entry to the configuration file that corresponds to
the sqlhosts file entry.
To use IPC (interprocess communication) with stream pipe:
a. The NETTYPE entry in the configuration file and the nettype
field in the sqlhosts file entry must contain "onipcstr".
Fast poll is supported with TCP/IP and stream pipe interfaces. To disable
fast poll, set the FASTPOLL parameter to 0 in the configuration file.
By default 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 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 sockets or the IPC stream pipe protocols.
7. 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, set the BAR_BSALIB_PATH parameter in
the configuration file to the full pathname of the library.
This shared library must be compiled in 64-bit mode.
Using $INFORMIXDIR/lib/ibsad001.so as a symbolic link to the library is
deprecated and shall be discontinued.
Informix Interface for Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is supported on this
platform. The interface is built with TSM API version 5.3.2.
8. Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)
PAM functionality is supported on Linux operating systems. PAM requires
the libpam.so library that is supplied by the Operating System vendor.
Use of PAM can be enabled or disabled by the system administrator. By
default, the Informix Dynamic Server will use the traditional
authentication mechanism to avoid changes for the users.
The PAM modules are usually located in /lib64/security. The PAM services
are defined in /etc/pam.d.
9. Processor Affinity
The processor affinity feature, which allows the pinning of a CPU
virtual processor to a physical processor in a multi-CPU configuration,
is supported on this platform.
10. Raw Character Devices
Some Linux distributions support binding a raw character device to a
block device. Any block device may be used. Informix Dynamic Server
supports using raw character devices.
11. OnSNMP
The SNMP agent for OnSNMP is based on SNMP Research (SNMPR).
12. Secure Sockets Layer
Informix Dynamic 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 Dynamic 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 gskssl64-8.0.55.25 gskcrypt64-8.0.55.25
Run dpkg command with the -l option to obtain a list of installed
GSKit Debian packages with their exact names.
For example:
dpkg -l | grep gsk
As root user run the dpkg command to remove each package as needed.
For example:
dpkg -r gskssl64 gskcrypt64
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.
13. 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. Rolling upgrades to IDS version 14.10.xC2 and 14.10.xC6 are not supported.
Rolling upgrades are not supported in IDS version 14.10.xC2 and 14.10.xC6.
Migration to these versions from a previous version require changes to
disk structures, and the conversion process is incompatible with a rolling
upgrade. When upgrading HDR and RSS secondary servers to version 14.10.xC2
or 14.10.xC6, you must follow the steps listed in the on-line documentation
under "Migrating an offline cluster to a new major version."
Defects Fixed in this release
=============================
For information about defects fixed in this release, see:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10870226
(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2017
(c) Copyright HCL Technologies Ltd. 2017, 2021. All Rights Reserved.
