Hi,

I have been asked to research some details on Informix about which I
know very little. Please can somebody advise me or point me in the
right direction to where I can find out further information. My
questions are:-

1) What is the best way to implement disaster recovery with Informix -
is it transaction log file shipping, or storage replication?

2) Is Informix cluster aware, i.e. can it run in active node/active
node mode or must it run active node/standby node ?

3) Is it possible to run Infomrix on HP-UX on Integirty servers at the
production site, and HP-UX on HP9000 servers at the DR site?

Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks
Andrew

<andrewr (AT) cornasys (DOT) com> wrote

Really, this is a question that belies very little IT knowledge on the part
of whomsoever has asked you to reseach it. It depends entirely upon your
recovery objectives, your infrastrucure, your budget, your appetite for
complexity and a million other factors. It's a "How long is a piece of
string?" question. You would really need to explain the context before
anyone could begin to give you a cogent answer.

Informix can be configured for either, but I take it to mean if you use it
with a traditional cluster project like Sun or RedHat Cluster, in which case
the latter (usually) applies.

Does Integrity use the Itanic chipset? In which case, no, you can't in a
supported fashion mix chipsets between live and DR (using a traditional DR
methodology), and it probably wouldn't work either.

Hi Neil and Andrew,

Actually, and I'm sure Madison will correct me if I'm wrong,

but
I'm pretty sure that if both boxes are HP-UX 11.23, The primary can be
an Itanium box and the Secondary can be a PA-RISC box.

IDS and HP worked on this.

Of course if you use ER, or the newer11.10 Replication, this is possible as well.

Now the caveat will be that in HDR the engine versions must be identical.

----- Original Message ----
From: Neil Truby <neil.truby (AT) ardenta (DOT) com>
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:15:42 AM
Subject: Re: Questions on
Informix

<andrewr (AT) cornasys (DOT) com> wrote


Does Integrity use the Itanic chipset? In which case, no, you can't in a
supported fashion mix chipsets between live and DR (using a traditional DR
methodology), and it probably wouldn't work either.

Re: Item 3.

We do just the opposite -- We have a PA-RISC HP9000 at our production
site and an Itanium/Integrity at our HDR/Remote site.

It took a while last year to get a definitive response (Not supported /
supported). The final ruling from IBM was 'Yes, this is supported'.
Works like a charm. I presume your case will work just as well.

Schuyler L. Southwell
Software Engineer, Consulting
Maricopa County Attorney's Office
tel: 602 506 8107
southwel (AT) mcao (DOT) maricopa.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org] On Behalf Of
andrewr (AT) cornasys (DOT) com
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 8:07 AM
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Subject: Questions on Informix

Hi,

I have been asked to research some details on Informix about which I
know very little. Please can somebody advise me or point me in the
right direction to where I can find out further information. My
questions are:-

1) What is the best way to implement disaster recovery with Informix -
is it transaction log file shipping, or storage replication?

2) Is Informix cluster aware, i.e. can it run in active node/active
node mode or must it run active node/standby node ?

3) Is it possible to run Infomrix on HP-UX on Integirty servers at the
production site, and HP-UX on HP9000 servers at the DR site?

Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks
Andrew

_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

At least in the reverse scenario, the versions don't have to be that
close: In our case...



PRODUCTION (PA-RISC): HP-UX host1 B.11.11 U 9000/800 .....

IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 10.00.FC5X8 -- On-Line (Prim) --
Up 15 days 20:41:57 -- ...



SECONDARY(Itanium/Integrity) : HP-UX host2 B.11.23 U ia64 .....

IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 10.00.FC5X8 -- Read-Only (Sec) --
Up 12 days 17:48:23 -- ...





(ignore the up-time, we've had this scenario running for months -
network outage forced a reset ....)



Sky

________________________________

From: informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org] On Behalf Of Mark Jamison
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 8:38 AM
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Subject: Re: Questions on Informix



Hi Neil and Andrew,

Actually, and I'm sure Madison will correct me if I'm wrong,

but I'm pretty sure that if both boxes are HP-UX 11.23, The primary can
be an Itanium box and the Secondary can be a PA-RISC box.

IDS and HP worked on this.

Of course if you use ER, or the newer 11.10 Replication, this is
possible as well.

Now the caveat will be that in HDR the engine versions must be
identical.

----- Original Message ----
From: Neil Truby <neil.truby (AT) ardenta (DOT) com>
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:15:42 AM
Subject: Re: Questions on Informix

<andrewr (AT) cornasys (DOT) com> wrote


Does Integrity use the Itanic chipset? In which case, no, you can't in
a
supported fashion mix chipsets between live and DR (using a traditional
DR
methodology), and it probably wouldn't work either.

"Southwell Schuyler" <southwel (AT) mcao (DOT) maricopa.gov> wrote

Re: Item 3.


Works like a charm. I presume your case will work just as well.

I stand corrected then. I'm a little surprised that it works. I'm *amazed*
that it's supported ;-)

I'm even more amazed that you got a definite answer out of IBM on anything.
Was this approved by IBM's legal department?

I've been trying to get a definitive statement from the extended IBM support
family as to whether or not onbar and various storage managers are supported
for some time. Nobody will give me a "definite" answer. It's supported but
nor certified. What on earth does that mean? It's got no entries in the
excel spreadsheet that seems to be the preferred method of providing
database information but that doesn't mean it's not supported.
And as to questions regarding the support of IBM ckustered processing on AIX
and Informix .....

What can I say that I haven't said many times before about Informix support
of their customers.....

Malcolm

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org [mailto:informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org]
On Behalf Of Neil Truby
Sent: 16 August 2007 18:39
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Subject: Re: Questions on Informix

"Southwell Schuyler" <southwel (AT) mcao (DOT) maricopa.gov> wrote

Re: Item 3.


Works like a charm. I presume your case will work just as well.

I stand corrected then. I'm a little surprised that it works. I'm *amazed*

that it's supported ;-)


_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

Imagine how I felt ... A couple of hundred thousand dollars invested in
a new server, etc.

And of course, HP is 'forcing' the transition to Integrity, so it's not
like I was going to get a PA-RISC machine and continue down THAT road.
Thankfully, IBM and HP did whatever was necessary to 'certify' this
arrangement.

Unfortunately, we had to temporarily drop our use of the MQ Datablade
for the same PA-RISC/Itanium reason. My understanding is that until the
next point-release of Cheetah / 11.x, the MQ Datablade is unavailable on
Integrity/Itanium machines.

We could have provided a business case and possibly had it placed into a
10.x Integrity release, but time constraints being what they were at the
time......

Schuyler L. Southwell
Software Engineer, Consulting
Maricopa County Attorney's Office

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces (AT) iiug (DOT) org] On Behalf Of Neil Truby
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:39 AM
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Subject: Re: Questions on Informix

"Southwell Schuyler" <southwel (AT) mcao (DOT) maricopa.gov> wrote

Re: Item 3.


supported). The final ruling from IBM was 'Yes, this is supported'.
Works like a charm. I presume your case will work just as well.

I stand corrected then. I'm a little surprised that it works. I'm
*amazed*
that it's supported ;-)


_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list

The OP is in South Africa. Cape Town by the looks of it.

I would caution that they keep things simple in their setup because they are
really, really far away from technical support.

Just because something is possible, doesn't mean you want to do it.

With respect to Informix, it has the best HDR of any database on the market.
With IDS 11, there are a couple of ways to crack his nut.

If he wants good support, he'll have to bribe someone in kilos of biltonge
?sp?. ;-)


__________________________________________________ _______________
Booking a flight? Know when to buy with airfare predictions on MSN Travel.
http://travel.msn.com/Articles/about...001MSN25A07001

Mark Jamison wrote:
This is surely one area that should be improved, although the technical issues
are very real. I imagine the biggest one is the the default page size of the
platform. Otherwise, it wouldn't be the first time a byte would travel the
cyberspace into a completely different world

This would make wonders for certain migrations... This also applies to
backup/restore...

Regards.

--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal

http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...