Informix TechTalk: Informix Sysmaster Database Queries for monitoring and performance tuning by Lester Knutsen

Informix TechTalk Replay: Introduction to Informix Performance Tuning by Lester Knutsen Tech Talk on Thursday, March 10, 2022 Description: Lester Knutsen will present his top 10 Informix Database Servers performance tuning tips. The Webcast is a free introduction to Informix performance from the first lecture of his Advanced Informix Performance Tuning Course. Lester Knutsen is IBM Informix Lifetime Champion, with over 40 years of Informix experience.

Migrating and Upgrading to Informix 14 in-house or in the cloud. The easy and the hard way. by Lester Knutsen. There are several easy procedures to upgrade and migrate Informix. We will look at the easy way (in-place upgrades, dbexport, cdr migrate, backup/restore), but sometimes they may not work for you, and you need to create a custom process. We will go over a set of procedures and scripts using HPL, external tables, and parallel unloads/loads that I have used over the last few years to migrate from small systems up through terabyte-sized databases to VMs, new hardware, and the cloud.

Informix by default uses the Operating System (OS) to manage users. In this video, Lester Knutsen will demonstrate how to create a Non-OS Informix User that can access Informix databases without having an OS login. This is the first in a series of videos on Informix TechTalks by the IIUG. For more information on the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) please visit https://www.iiug.org

How do you use the command-line utilities to manage and monitor an Informix Server? We will discuss onstat, oncheck, and the new InformixHQ to manage your server.

How do you build databases and tables in Informix? We will discuss best practices for creating and managing databases and tables, partitioning, and database security. We will demonstrate object-oriented data types, using SQL to generate SQL Scripts and creating a Non-OS user for Informix database security.

How do you connect users and tools to an Informix Server from Windows, Unix, and the Web? We will discuss connections using Microsoft ODBC, Informix SDK, Java, PHP, DRDA, and other options. This is a Webcast reply from June 25, 2020.

How do you backup and restore an Informix Server? High Availability is crucial to a successful database. We will cover and demonstrate database backups, restores, and setting up High Availability Data Replication (HDR). This replay includes additional material on HDR setup and switching between Primary and Secondary Servers that is not covered in the original webcast.

Disk IO is often the performance bottleneck for databases, every transaction needs to get written safely to disk fast. How do you set up and configure the disk space for an Informix Server? What disk and RAID configurations provide the best performance and reliability?

Informix has Automated Update Statistics built into the server. Update Statistics collects metrics to enable the server to run your SQL faster. How do you monitor what tables and indexes need to have the statistics updated and manage Automated Update Statistics (AUS)?

How does the Informix SQL Optimizer choose which index or table or access method to use when running your SQL? This presentation will focus on how to view and understand the SQL Explain plan to see how your SQL is executed. The SQL Explain plan will provide times for each step in your process.

This presentation will focus on Best Practices for Informix database indexes. Every table should have at least one index, and managing indexes is an integral part of a DBA's task and time. Indexing is one method to optimize the performance of a database by reducing the number of disk reads when a query is executed. An index is a structure which is used to locate and access a row in a database table quickly. Indexes are used to enforce uniqueness, primary, and foreign keys and constraints. Indexes can also be a source of problems in a database and may slow performance down when misused.

IBM just announced the exciting new Informix 14 version in March. Advanced DataTools taught our first course for Informix DBAs on release 14 in April. We have been part of the beta programs and would like to share our findings including how to use the new installer, how to upgrade a database, and an introduction to the new Informix HQ server management.

This is a replay of our Webcast on October 15, 2013 to announce the results and winners of the Fastest Informix DBA Contest. Informix DBA's from around the world participated in the challenge to be the Fastest in a combination of OLTP and batch benchmark. The winner is the DBA who had the most transactions per minute in an OLTP benchmark and at the same time run a batch billing job and generate the most bills in a 10 minute run.

This is a replay of our Fastest Informix DBA Contest 2013 status update Webcast on August 20, 2013. This year the Fastest Informix DBA Contest will be held over the web so anyone, anywhere in the world can participate from July 9 to 31, 2013. The challenge will be a combination of OLTP and batch. The winner will be the DBA who can get the most transactions per minute in an OLTP benchmark and at the same time run a batch billing job and generate the most bills in a 10 minute run. For more information on the Fastest Informix DBA Contest click here!

This year the Fastest Informix DBA Contest will be held over the web so anyone, anywhere in the world can participate from July 9 to 31, 2013. The challenge will be a combination of OLTP and batch. The winner will be the DBA who can get the most transactions per minute in an OLTP benchmark and at the same time run a batch billing job and generate the most bills in a 10 minute run.

On Jun 19, 2012, we held a webcast with the Fastest Informix DBA Winner Andrew Ford, hosted by Lester Knutsen and Art Kagel, to share with other Informix users how the winners achieved their results. Learn about the tips and tricks the real Fastest Informix DBAs used to achieve their remarkable performance.