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Similar to Sybase, Oracle & Ingres, Informix was founded in the eighties and later acquired by IBM in 2001. To anyone’s surprise Informix is still being used by many fortune 500 companies, mostly in their Point-of-sale software systems. Currently, IBM outsources Informix software management to HCL.
The latest version of Informix, both from IBM and HCL, is Informix 14.10. Here is the link to the document on the ongoing support arrangement between IBM and HCL here.
According to IBM the new release is “Stronger, faster and flexible”.
The version 14.10 introduced several key features that enhance its capabilities:
Performance:
Administration:
Security:
Latest fix pack release:
IBM Informix version 14.10.xC10W1.
Informix server 14.10xC10W1 supports Windows 2022 and the subsequent releases of Informix server 14.10 will support Windows 2022.
Limitations of version14.10:
This document covers step by step instructions to upgrade your Informix instance from version 12.10 or lower to latest version 14.10
There are two methods to upgrade your Informix version,
Method 1: In-place upgrade (upgrading to Informix version v14.10 in the same host server)
step 1: Download Informix version 14.10 software from IBM site.
step 2: Untar Informix 14.10 software bundle in a separate directory.
step 3: Run the ids_install binaries and install Informix 14.10 in that directory.
step 4: Configure the Informix configuration file onconfig and connectivity file sqlhosts of version 14.10.
step 5: Shutdown the currently running Informix instance.
step 6: Create a link file named “Informix” to Informix 14.10 installed directory.
step 7: Export the Informix variables for Informix 14.10 version.
step 8: Make sure the INFORMIXDIR variable shows the Informix 14.10 installed directory name.
Use Informix command “oninit -V” verify it is showing Informix 14.10 version.
step 9: Now the start the Informix instance.
step 10: Once the instance is up and verify it’s up and running in Informix 14.10 and verify the error log for any errors.
Method 2: Installing Informix 14.10 in new host server and migrating the database.
step 1: Download Informix version 14.10 software from IBM site.
step 2: Untar Informix 14.10 software bundle in a separate directory.
step 3: Run the ids_install binaries and install Informix 14.10 in new directory.
step 4: Export the data for the databases from the running instance of lower version.
step 5: Configure the Informix configuration file onconfig and connectivity file sqlhosts of version 14.10.
step 6: Create a link file named “Informix” to Informix 14.10 installed directory.
step 7: Export the Informix variables for Informix 14.10 version.
step 8: Initialize the Informix instance.
step 9: Create the chunk files for the dbspaces.
step 10: Create the separate dbspaces for logical log,physical log, temporary tables and for data.
step 11: Import the data into databases in Informix 14.10 instance.
Post Migration Steps:
About Us
RalanTech is a one stop IT consulting and managed IT services organization. We have completed hundreds of successful Informix database upgrades. We have a large team of database administrators helping customers with everything from consulting to managed database services supporting various RDBMS technologies including Sybase, Oracle, SQL Server, Postgresql, MongoDB, MySQL, and Informix.
Our team here at RalanTech have performed numerous database upgrades successfully with minimal downtime to the production systems. Reach out to us info@ralantech.com if you have any questions.
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