Tech Topic: Best Practices

Informix Benchmarks on Cloud Systems – Updated! by Lester Knutsen

Informix Tech Talks Replay: Informix Benchmarks on Cloud Systems - Updated! by Lester Knutsen This is a replay of the Informix Tech Talk on December 9, 2021. Description: This is an update to the presentation at the Informix 2021 Virtual Conference. - What is the Cloud? - Other Benchmarks, and Tools I Used - Case Study – Supporting Informix customers on the Cloud - Observations About Informix in the Cloud - Updated Benchmark Results - Updated Cost Benefit Review and Learnings - Updated Performance Tuning Recommendations on the Cloud
Informix Tutorial – Connecting Users and Tools to Informix Servers

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.

Informix Tutorial – Informix Backup, Recovery and High Availability

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.

Informix Webcast 2019 – Informix Update Statistics – Best Practices for Informix DBAs

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)?

Informix SQL Explain – Using the SQL Optimizer Query Explain Plan

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.

Informix Webcast 2019 – Database Indexes – Best Practices for Informix DBAs

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.

Informix Webcast 2019 – Installing and Upgrading to the New Informix version 14 and an introduction Informix HQ

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.

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.
Informix Best Practice – Getting Started with Enterprise Replication

This session will cover Getting Started with Enterprise Replication.

Informix Best Practice – Schema Design Tips

This session will cover comparing similar data types. A review of normalization. Implementing difficult relationships.

Informix Best Practice – Informix Query Performance Tuning Basics

This session will cover some of the basics of Informix Tuning, with a focus on monitoring and tuning of queries. Some of the areas that will be covered include: Identifying long running queries, Explain plans, Optimizer directives, Monitoring the buffer pool usage, Checking statistics, and Finding busy tables

Informix Best Practices – Using the Sysmaster database to perform an Informix Server Heath Check

This is the latest Webcast replay of Lester’s talk on Exploring the Sysmaster database. He presented cripts to monitor and tune your Informix Server and perform a system health check. Examples include how to tell what is the most expensive query running on your server now, what page size is best for your tables, what indexes are used and not used, how is memory used on your server, and much more…. These scripts will help you identify the performance bottlenecks on your Informix Server.

Informix Best Practices – Running Informix in a Virtual Machine

Virtual Machines have many advantages and disadvantages. This Webcast will explore the best practices for running Informix in a Virtual Machine. We will look at small and large databases in virtual machines. A monster virtual machine is a VM with lots of memory, CPUs and disks. I have had the opportunity to performance tune many Informix database servers running in a virtual environment and will share some of the problems and solutions for Informix to work well in VM. We will talk about everything from a VM on my laptop to a VM with more than 256 GB of memory and more than 96 Virtual CPUs.

Informix Best Practices Webcast on Informix Auditing

Mike discusses how to setup and use Informix auditing to monitor the usage of your database servers.

Informix Best Practices Webcast on Informix Connection Manager

Tom discusses how to setup and use the connection manger to provide fail-over and capability to your database servers.

Informix Best Practices Webcast on Informix Configuration, ONCONFIG part 2

This is a continuation of an earlier Webcast on Informix Configuration, ONCONFIG, CPUs, and Memory.

Running Informix in a Monster Virtual Machine
Running Informix in a Monster Virtual Machine Lester Knutsen presented at the IIUG Informix Conference April 23-27, 2018 in Raleigh, NC. A monster virtual machine is a VM with lots of memory, CPUs and disks. I have been dealing with many Informix database servers running in a virtual environment and will share some of the problems and solutions for Informix to work well in VM. We will talk about everything from a VM on my laptop to a VM with more than 256 GB of memory and more than 96 Virtual CPUs.
Informix Best Practices Webcast on Backup, Recovery, and High Availability Disaster Recovery (HDR)

This webcast will focus on best practices for Informix DBAs on Backup, Recovery, and High Availability Disaster Recovery (HDR).

Informix Best Practices – Disks and Database Space Layout

This webcast will focus on best practices for Informix DBAs including why Not to use RAID5.

Informix Best Practices for Configuring CPU, Memory and ONCONFIG settings

This webcast will focus on best practices for Informix DBAs including:
* CPU Recommendations and Best Practices
* Memory Recommendations and Best Practices
* ONCONFIG Recommendations and Best Practices

Best Practices for Getting Started with Informix

This webcast will focus on best practices for Informix DBAs including:
* Informix Products Overview
* Informix Architecture – Memory, CPU, Disk Requirements
* Planning an Informix Install
* Installing Informix
* Software Directory Structure
* Using Informix SQL
* Informix Documentation
* Informix Resources on the Web

Best Practices for Informix Developers

Art Kagel, is an Independent consultant and IIUG Board Member, presented on programming, concurrency, and tuning applications against Informix. This is an update to the presentation Art did at our last Washington Area Informix User Group Meeting. (Note: there are a few problems with the sound, I tried to fix it as best as I could)

Informix 4GL Programming Tips
First published in the Washington Area Informix User Group Newsletter Volume 4, No. 3 - July 1994 1. Only select columns that you really need When you select data, it goes from disk to memory.  Ten un-needed bytes of data from 10,00 rows translates into reading 100,000 bytes unnecessarily.  Avoid "SELECT *" statements and only […]