Hi Informixers,

we are presently installing a new database server to replace our old machine
running IDS 7.31 (BTW: without any major problems since 2001). In the process,
we were planning to upgrade to IDS 10.

However, since IDS 11 ("Cheetah") is already in public beta, could it be worth
while to wait until it becomes GA? Any info around here when that will be?

We've been quite happy with IDS 7.31, the only additional features in 10 that
are attractive for us are table level restore and the possibility to use
datablades. So far, I've not seen any "killer features" in Cheetah that we
need in our rather low-end environment.

Are there any reasons to wait for IDS 11, other than going with the newest
available version rather than upgrading to an already "outdated" product?

Regards, Richard

IDS 11 will be released soon, however, I do not know when it'll be available
in Europe, so it is more about how it fits in your planning.

Richard Spitz wrote:
I believe it's this week as this is what I was told last week. I think
the electronic media will be available first, CDs later.

Main advantages can be summarised as:

- Less administration.
- Automatic engine performance tuning for some parameters.
- Some performance bottlenecks removed.
- SQL enhancements.
- More options for replication such as RSS and SDS secondary servers
which can be used in combination with each other.
- New web-based admin tool replacing ISA.
- SQL and query plan tracing much improved.
- Ability to run onmode commands using SQL.
- New sensors for system health checks.
- Built-in task scheduler.
- Better installer with (documented) silent option.
- More built-in datablades such as spatial, time series etc.
- Lots of smaller enhancements.

The task scheduler, sensors and SQL interface to onmode commands is
rather nice as you can do thinks like check whether you might be running
out of space and add a chunk, for example.

Regards, Ben.

On 11/06/07, Richard Spitz <Richard.Spitz (AT) med (DOT) uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

If you don't mind being leading edge and living in the fast lane then
wait for IDS11. Personnally I value my sanity and employment and would
suggest IDS10 now (latest xC release) and leave 11 for 6-9 months to
allow it to settle down and get a couple of patch releases out. IDS10
will give you a significant performance improvement over IDS7, but you
MUST keep statistics reasonably, it is very unforgiving of inaccurate
row counts.

Keith

"Ben Thompson" <ben (AT) nomonitorsoftspam (DOT) com> wrote

This week is the marketing launch. That has little or no connection with
the actually availability of the product, which is some months off I think.


That's an advantage? ;-)

From a selfish point of view I'd like to see lots of people pile in and try
out the new version. Thus when I come to dip my toe in the water, at about
FC4, lots of the bugs will have been ironed out! There were a lot of nasty
bugs in early releases of 10. Maybe QA ain't what it used to be, I don't
know ...

There is a developerworks article that goes over each new Cheetah feature at
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db...saraswatipura/

I checked the link a few seconds ago and it is currently offline with the
following message:

This article is being updated with current information. Check back soon
for the updated version.


A couple of features that come to mind are the new non blocking checkpoint
mechanism, auto lru and aio vp tuning based on load and the features added
via the new sysadmin database.

You can use this feature list to determine if waiting for 11.1 is the right
choice for you. Although, since it is so darned easy to upgrade IDS going
with 10.0 now and upgrading to 11.1 around UC3 sounds like a good option
too.

Andrew

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Spitz" <Richard.Spitz (AT) med (DOT) uni-muenchen.de>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
To: <informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org>
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 2:53 AM
Subject: Should I wait for IDS 11?

I'd strongly recommend going with IDS 10. You'll be in pre-
production for a while working on tuning and testing. I would not go
into production with an initial release of any product, so if you
delay for 11, you will be waiting quite a while to upgrade if you
wait for FixPack 2.

Christine
On Jun 11, 2007, at 2:53 AM, Richard Spitz wrote:

On 11 Jun, 16:02, "Captain Pedantic" <theharlequi... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>
wrote:
Yep, depsite what the UK Informix Support Manager says I don't touch
releases below xC4!

Currently looking at a nasty 10.00.FC6 bug where onunload via TCP
connections consistently crashes the instance, won't be using that
then!

Also I'm having ISM issues and have been told ISM will be going away
soon, nice to know that the only way ot backup informix servers in
parallel
will soon be a chargable item whereas DB2 has the ability to do
parallel backups included in the product.

Anyone from IBM want to comment on yet another way DB2 is being
treated better than Informix?

david (AT) smooth1 (DOT) co.uk wrote:
As for QA... I recall several versions as nasty... 7.31.UD1, 7.30... I have an
IDS 10.00FC1 working with not a single problem... My point is: every version
has problems... And we can hit them or not...

As I say above, it really depends... Recently there were some people with
issues in FC5 (the memory problem). Some of the issues have very simple
workarounds. Others are real show stoppers.

If this makes anybody feel any better, one of the strategic directions I've
seen pointed to the support structure is that we should avoid problems and not
only solve them. This can turn out to be just "propaganda", but I really
appreciate to see this kind of concern in the support teams...

The example above of the memory problem can be used to illustrate this:
1- It's one of the bugs that shouldn't happen, because it's caused by bad
programming practices
2- Since it appeared, and it has such a simple workaround, there is no reason
why customer with support shouldn't be alerted


Don't know about you, but I prefer a stable version with one or two fixes than
to keep constantly jumping from version to version. Unless of course there are
new features that you want to use.


I don't have authority to comment on this from your point of view, but if you
allow me a bit of fun, I'd say this is a measure to compete against O****.
AFAIK there is no storage manager include in it also

On the more serious side, if someone told you that ISM will go away, than you
should ask why and when... Maybe it's good news and not bad...

Finally, for the original poster:
- Migration from IDS 10 to 11.10 should be just a question of testing in your
environment/stop instance/start instance
- For IDS 11.10 you'll probably have to wait a few months. The final date
should be announce in a few days
- You have to consider your feelings for new releases...
- You should consider how much work have you done in preparation for 10...


Regards


--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal

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

Andrew Ford wrote:

--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal

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