• Date: Wednesday, August the 12th
• Time: 1 hour -- 8:30 AM PST, 10:30 AM Central, 11:30 AM Eeastern, 4:30 PM London, 5:30 PM Paris, 5:30 PM Berlin
• Title: Cognos and Informix
• Speaker: Joseph Pusztai

You can register for the webcast here...

This month's chat will be on Cognos Express, an exciting new 

It seems that Twitter is getting more and more popular. During the last weeks I discovered some interesting Informix Tweets and follow these. Sometimes there is really useful information/links posted in those Tweets. So I decided to add them to the The Informix Zone.

You will now find my Twitter Friend's Timeline on the right side of The Informix Zone.

Have fun !

Just saw an interesting URL on the IBM_Informix Tweet and thought it would be worth sharing it with you:

• Recommended Fixes and Future Release Dates for IDS

I added it to the Informix URL Compilation under the Support Section.

IBM has just released IDS Version 11.50.xC5. This version contains the following new features:

• High Availability
• Configuring RS Secondary Server Latency for Disaster Recovery
• Administration
• Forcing the Database Server to Shut Down
• Enhanced Support for Multibyte Character Strings
• New default for the INFORMIXTERM environment variable for terminal set up on UNIX
• onconfig Portal: Configuration Parameters Listed by Functional Categories

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Neue Ausgabe des IBM/Informix Newsletters

Im Newsletter-Archiv befindet sich die neueste Ausgabe (07/2009) des INFORMIX-Newsletters.

Inhaltsverzeichnis der Ausgabe Juli 2009:

• Aktuelles
• TechTipp: Synonyme
• TechTipp: Private/Public Synonyme
• TechTipp: SETSESSIONAUTH
• TechTipp: DBSECADM
• Hinweis: RedBook "Migration von Oracle zu INFORMIX"
• Hinweis: Informix Tech Workshops in Deutschland

The version 2.26 of the Open Admin Tool has just been released.

I was very surprised to see that Informix Online is still listed on the IBM website as a current product. As near as I can tell, there have been no new releases of Informix Online since version 5.2 in May 2004. I assume that IBM keeps this around to have a low-cost option for budget-minded folks.

What is your opinion on sticking with Online vs. upgrading to IDS Express or Workgroup edition at this time? We have a client who currently uses Online, but is moving to newer hardware. So they'll need to install one flavor or another of Informix from scratch.

Good news for all Informix newcomers:

You can now become an IBM Certified Database Associate. IBM has released a new certification test (Exam 555 - IBM IDS 11.50 Fundamentals) that is more directed to people new to Informix or people who are not working every day as an Informix DBA. The new certification is also a good preparation for people planning to take the already existing advanced certification called IBM Certified Database Administrator IDS 11 (Exam 918).

This is an urgent Wake-Up Call for the IBM Press/Marketing Department:

In case you haven't noticed it, Informix - a product of IBM - has once again being among the top rated "vendors" in Q2/2009 in the popular performance ratings offered by VendorRate:

Excerpt.

“Microsoft was cruising along with satisfactory scores in earlier reports but it 
simply fell off a cliff in this quarter,” said Rick Schaefer, CEO of VendorRate. 

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Wenn eine Transaktion soviel Prozent des gesamten Logical Logspaces benötigt, wie durch den onconfig-Parameter Long-Transaction High-Watermark (LTXHWM) definiert ist, wird diese Transaktion zurückgerollt. Überschreitet sie dabei die durch die Long-Transaction Exclusive High-Watermark (LTXEHWM) definierte Menge an Logical Logspace, werden nahezu alle anderen Datenbankaktionen zugunsten des Rollbacks eingefroren. Wie kann man sich davor schützen?

The release of the new Informix Warehouse Feature was the first step to further extend the capabilities of IDS to serve as a datawarehouse engine. Traditionally this area was the domain of XPS (eXtended Parallel Server) and Red Brick.

In his new letter to the Informix community, Ambuj Goyal, General Manager IBM Information Management, says:

IDS is well known for it's unmatched reliability. Reliability is an important factor for many businesses. But it is even more important if people's health is to be at risk. One example of such a critical system is the US 911 emergency network that is powered by IDS for many years know. But there is more:

Hi,

We are trying to run backup using Onbar with a thirdparty storage manager.

We are resulting in a crash

Platfroms where IDS is installed:

64 bit linux Redhat 4 , Redhat 5 .

Compiler version with which we compiled our storage manager libraries:

g++ (GCC) 3.3.6

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 3 (Taroon Update 2)

Stdc++ version being used to link:

libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x0000002a9737e000)

libstdc++.so.5 => ./libstdc++.so.5 (0x0000002a97481000)

libc.so.6 => /lib64/tls/libc.so.6 (0x0000002a97807000)

Migrating from Oracle to IBM Informix Dynamic Server on LUW

IBM just published an interesting new Redbook about migrating from Oracle to Informix Dynamic Server.

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Informix aus der Cloud

In der aktuellen Ausgabe der Zeitschrift DatabasePro, die ab 07.07 offiziell am Kiosk erhaeltlich sein wird, ist ein Artikel zum Thema INFORMIX zu finden.

Dr. Jakob Jung beschreibt die neuen Funktionalitaeten und Angebote der IBM zu den Themen Datawarehousing und Virtualisierung/Cloud Computing mit Informix Dynamic Server.