Upgrade Dynamic Server 7.13 - 7.24

I need to upgrade Informix Dynamic Server version 7.13 to version 7.24. Can anyone advise of any problems they may have had whilst doing this?

I've had two: 1) This is probably an HP-UX-specific problem, but v7.24 will hang if you don't set RESIDENT=1 (I think your site already has this setting). 2) Since upgrading last weekend we've suffered a significant dip in performance by comparison with v7.13. Another user reported the same - don't know what platform she was using. Again, this could be an HP-UX problem, or might not be an Informix problem at all - we upgraded our application at the same time. The upgrade itself is simple; basically you just start your database server with the v7.24 binaries and it converts a few system tables and is all over in a couple of minutes. Neil Truby aracnet Limited Weybridge, UK ANTONIA.DIX@chase.com wrote in message <77v6u4$t52$1@news.xmission.com>... > > > >I need to upgrade Informix Dynamic Server version 7.13 to version 7.24. Can >anyone advise of any problems they may have had whilst doing this? > >

Neil Truby wrote: > I've had two: > > 1) This is probably an HP-UX-specific problem, but v7.24 will hang if you > don't set RESIDENT=1 (I think your site already has this setting). > > 2) Since upgrading last weekend we've suffered a significant dip in > performance by comparison with v7.13. Another user reported the same - don't > know what platform she was using. Again, this could be an HP-UX problem, or > might not be an Informix problem at all - we upgraded our application at the > same time. > > The upgrade itself is simple; basically you just start your database server > with the v7.24 binaries and it converts a few system tables and is all over > in a couple of minutes. > > Neil Truby > aracnet Limited > Weybridge, UK > > ANTONIA.DIX@chase.com wrote in message <77v6u4$t52$1@news.xmission.com>... > > > > > > > >I need to upgrade Informix Dynamic Server version 7.13 to version 7.24. Can > >anyone advise of any problems they may have had whilst doing this? > > > > Hi, We upgraded our Informix 7.1x to 7.24 recently. Actually we experienced an increase in performance - the platform is Sun Ultra, so I suspect your performance issue is hardware/OS related. Regards, Dragan Jurkovic MRRM (Canada) Inc.

ANTONIA.DIX@chase.com wrote: > > I need to upgrade Informix Dynamic Server version 7.13 to version 7.24. Can > anyone advise of any problems they may have had whilst doing this? Should just be a simple shutdown 7.13, startup 7.24 wait a few and voila! Versions 7.2x changed a few things for new tables and indexes created under those versions but the server is backward compatible with the 7.1x conventions and will not try to convert any data or indexes. The changes include: Ver 7.13 used 2bit bitmap pages for tables with not variable length columns and 4bit bitmaps for those with variable columns (varchar, BYTE, TEXT). Ver 7.2x uses 4bit bitmaps exclusively. Older tables with 2bit bitmaps are supported but new tables and altered tables will have 4bit bitmaps and therefore will have twice as many bitmap pages as under 7.1x. Ver 7.2x creates ALL indexes on fragmented tables as if they are detached. Index pages are no longer interleaved with data pages, except to the extent that data page extents will be interleaved with index page extents. New attached indexes on fragmented tables now have their own extents (see sysmaster:sysfragments). This tends to improve index page readahead but that fragmented table in dedicated dbspaces that you thought could not become fragmented will become fragmented. Also if you drop and recreate attached indexes the pages the index used to use will remain as part of the table's data extents and new extents will be allocated to the new index so you have to have enough unallocated disk or you have to compress the table after dropping the index to release the space. Also sysmaster has grown a bit and the sysutils database was not a part of 7.13 so you need to make sure you have some space (~5 MB) available in rootdbs. Art S. Kagel

Dragan Jurkovic wrote in message <36A33948.94C764FC@ican.net>... > We upgraded our Informix 7.1x to 7.24 recently. Actually we experienced an >increase in performance - the platform is Sun Ultra, so I suspect your >performance issue is hardware/OS related. Are you using kaio? Since I posted my reply to Toni I've had an bug alert from Tech Support concerning a kaio bug in 7.2x, fixed in v724 UC8, whereby kaio is rendered very slow, muxh slower than Informix async I/O. Again, could be just for HP-UX. Neil

Neil, A word of warning, if you are considering rebuilding the Lawson tables. Lawson's tables are created with clustered indices. It will take ages to reload the tables if you leave this. My experience is that you don't gain a great deal of performance gain with the Lawson application (correct me if I am wrong, please do), so I'd suggest that you either unload the tables pre-sorted (according to the clustered indices), or remove the 'clustered' keyword before you rebuild the table. This could save you a good weekend's work, with luck. In case you are worried about screwing up the Lawson setup, remember that clustering applies only to existing records, and that _most_ accesses of the Lawson database will be on the most recent information. "Art S. Kagel" wrote: > ANTONIA.DIX@chase.com wrote: > > > > I need to upgrade Informix Dynamic Server version 7.13 to version 7.24. Can > > anyone advise of any problems they may have had whilst doing this? > > Should just be a simple shutdown 7.13, startup 7.24 wait a few and > voila! Versions 7.2x changed a few things for new tables and indexes > created under those versions but the server is backward compatible with > the 7.1x conventions and will not try to convert any data or indexes. > The changes include: > > Ver 7.13 used 2bit bitmap pages for tables with not variable length > columns and 4bit bitmaps for those with variable columns (varchar, BYTE, > TEXT). Ver 7.2x uses 4bit bitmaps exclusively. Older tables with 2bit > bitmaps are supported but new tables and altered tables will have 4bit > bitmaps and therefore will have twice as many bitmap pages as under > 7.1x. > > Ver 7.2x creates ALL indexes on fragmented tables as if they are > detached. Index pages are no longer interleaved with data pages, > except to the extent that data page extents will be interleaved with > index page extents. New attached indexes on fragmented tables now have > their own extents (see sysmaster:sysfragments). This tends to improve > index page readahead but that fragmented table in dedicated dbspaces > that you thought could not become fragmented will become fragmented. > Also if you drop and recreate attached indexes the pages the index used > to use will remain as part of the table's data extents and new extents > will be allocated to the new index so you have to have enough > unallocated disk or you have to compress the table after dropping the > index to release the space. > > Also sysmaster has grown a bit and the sysutils database was not a part > of 7.13 so you need to make sure you have some space (~5 MB) available > in rootdbs. > > Art S. Kagel