Informix Tech Notes article on Exploring the ONSTAT Utility

Published on January 1, 1999 by Lester Knutsen

First published in the Informix Tech Notes Magazine in 1999

Provided with Informix Dynamic Server is a set of powerful command- line utilities that enable the monitoring, tuning, and configuring of the database server. This article focuses on one of these utilities, ONSTAT, and presents ways to use this utility for server performance optimization.

ONSTAT is the command-line utility which is most widely used. ONSTAT reads OnLine’s shared memory structures and provides much useful information about the state of a server. The utility does not place locks on the shared memory structure and uses very little overhead, so it can be used at any time. It is important to keep in mind that the information is current at the time the command is issued, and that data can change after issuing the command.