IDS install
A new user installed IDS 11.7 on AIX 6.1 with the default instance and asked how to rename the instance, how to start an instance created without a root chunk, and how to move rootdbs. Answers: rename by changing INFORMIXSERVER, the sqlhosts entry, and DBSERVERNAME in the ONCONFIG; for a fresh instance, set those plus the rootdbs path in ONCONFIG and run 'oninit -i', then add other dbspaces. To move rootdbs, the supported route is backup/restore with ontape's -rename option, but if chunks use symbolic links you can shut down the engine, dd the device to a same-sized new volume, repoint the symlink and restart. It was also noted that the installer's 'custom' mode lets you set instance details up front. The poster said things were clearer.
Auto-generated by DrWatson from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
So I managed to install IDS 11.7 into a test box that was provided. I installed with the default instance created. The OS is AIX 6.1. Now I have a few questions. 1. Can I rename the instance name? I do not recall it asking for an instance name during the install which is why I ended up with the default name. In Windows, I remember it asking for an instance name. On a side note, if I installed without creating an instance, how do I get that instance started if a root chunk was not created? 2. How do I move rootdbs? I tried to search but my 'search fu' wasn't able to help me. Do I create the dbspace first, change onconfig and restart the instance?
On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Jeremiah <yogensha.sql@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I managed to install IDS 11.7 into a test box that was provided. I
> installed with the default instance created. The OS is AIX 6.1.
>
> Now I have a few questions.
>
> 1. Can I rename the instance name? I do not recall it asking for an
> instance name during the install which is why I ended up with the
> default name. In Windows, I remember it asking for an instance name.
>
Yes. You must change it in a few places:
INFORMIXSERVER environment variable
$INFORMIXSQLHOSTS file (or $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts if the variable
$INFORMIXSQLHOSTS is not defined in the environment)
DBSERVERNAME entry in the $ONCONFIG file ( $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
> On a side note, if I installed without creating an instance, how do I
> get that instance started if a root chunk was not created?
>
For a fresh instance creation you need to setup the INFORMIXSERVER, the
INFORMIXSQLHOSTS and configure it in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG where
among other things you define the rootdbs. After everything properly setup
you run "oninit -i". "-i" means initialization and it will open the rootdbs
pointed to in the $ONCONFIG file and will initialize it.
If everything is well you'll end up with a small and simple instance with
just one root dbspace. After that you should create other dbspaces
(temporary, one for logical logs, another for physical logs and yet another
- or more - for your data.)
>
> 2. How do I move rootdbs? I tried to search but my 'search fu' wasn't
> able to help me. Do I create the dbspace first, change onconfig and
> restart the instance?
>
The supported way would be a backup and restore with -rename option...
Regards.
--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
Fernando, you only gave Jeremiah the legitimate, supported way to rename
the rootdbs. If he is using symbolic links (as he ought to be) this
will not help him actually move the physical data. Read on..
On 1/8/2011 10:45 AM, Fernando Nunes wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Jeremiah <yogensha.sql@gmail.com
> <mailto:yogensha.sql@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> So I managed to install IDS 11.7 into a test box that was provided. I
> installed with the default instance created. The OS is AIX 6.1.
>
> Now I have a few questions.
>
> 1. Can I rename the instance name? I do not recall it asking for an
> instance name during the install which is why I ended up with the
> default name. In Windows, I remember it asking for an instance name.
>
>
> Yes. You must change it in a few places:
>
> INFORMIXSERVER environment variable
> $INFORMIXSQLHOSTS file (or $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts if the variable
> $INFORMIXSQLHOSTS is not defined in the environment)
>
> DBSERVERNAME entry in the $ONCONFIG file ( $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
>
>
>
> On a side note, if I installed without creating an instance, how do I
> get that instance started if a root chunk was not created?
>
>
> For a fresh instance creation you need to setup the INFORMIXSERVER, the
> INFORMIXSQLHOSTS and configure it in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
> where among other things you define the rootdbs. After everything
> properly setup you run "oninit -i". "-i" means initialization and it
> will open the rootdbs pointed to in the $ONCONFIG file and will
> initialize it.
>
> If everything is well you'll end up with a small and simple instance
> with just one root dbspace. After that you should create other dbspaces
> (temporary, one for logical logs, another for physical logs and yet
> another - or more - for your data.)
>
>
> 2. How do I move rootdbs? I tried to search but my 'search fu' wasn't
> able to help me. Do I create the dbspace first, change onconfig and
> restart the instance?
>
>
> The supported way would be a backup and restore with -rename option...
>
> Regards.
>
> --
> Fernando Nunes
> Portugal
>
> http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
> My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
Jeremaih,
Fernando's answer is, of course, quite correct and you can get better
information about this option from the -rename option. In the 11.5
Backup and Restore manual, it's on page 16.5. However, I suspect your
issue is not renaming it so much as moving it to another location.
Here's a subset of what I did to move a complete server to a new set of
volumes on a new disk farm. (System admins get so touchy when you call
the device by that name! ;-)
0a. BACK UP THE SERVER. Of course!
0b. Save the current symbolic link to the device file hosting the
rootdbs. (You *are* using symbolic kinks, riiiight? ;-)
1. Create the target volume of the exact same size as the original.
2. Shut down the server, of course.
3. dd if=(original volume) if=(target volume) bs=4k
(I specified 4K because I recall IDS is configured for 4K page size
on AIX. Things may have changed since the last time I diddled AIX.)
4. Drop the current symbolic link to the original device file and
recreate it as a symlink to the new device file that just received
the copy.
5. Restart the engine.
As long as the link name is the same as IDS remembers it, there is no
need to use the -rename option.
(If you are not using symbolic links, then you have no choice but to use
the -rename option. For one chunk, it's OK to specify it on the ontape
command line. For more, you will want to set up a file of
substitutions. And, once you finish the restore, you might consider
setting up symbolic links to every blessed chunk in your server and
doing the restore with the -rename option.)
-- Jacob, the concise (not!)
Yes. My answer was a bit simplistic...
We should always use symbolic links and that's what the engine keeps... As
long as this is not changed, we can move the underlying files using whatever
we want (dd, storage tools, replication, mirror etc.). Just make sure the
engine is stopped while moving the data.
Regards.
On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 7:20 AM, Beau Nanaz <spamntrapf@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Fernando, you only gave Jeremiah the legitimate, supported way to rename
> the rootdbs. If he is using symbolic links (as he ought to be) this
> will not help him actually move the physical data. Read on..
>
> On 1/8/2011 10:45 AM, Fernando Nunes wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Jeremiah <yogensha.sql@gmail.com
> > <mailto:yogensha.sql@gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> > So I managed to install IDS 11.7 into a test box that was provided. I
> > installed with the default instance created. The OS is AIX 6.1.
> >
> > Now I have a few questions.
> >
> > 1. Can I rename the instance name? I do not recall it asking for an
> > instance name during the install which is why I ended up with the
> > default name. In Windows, I remember it asking for an instance name.
> >
> >
> > Yes. You must change it in a few places:
> >
> > INFORMIXSERVER environment variable
> > $INFORMIXSQLHOSTS file (or $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts if the variable
> > $INFORMIXSQLHOSTS is not defined in the environment)
> >
> > DBSERVERNAME entry in the $ONCONFIG file ( $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
> >
> >
> >
> > On a side note, if I installed without creating an instance, how do I
> > get that instance started if a root chunk was not created?
> >
> >
> > For a fresh instance creation you need to setup the INFORMIXSERVER, the
> > INFORMIXSQLHOSTS and configure it in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG
> > where among other things you define the rootdbs. After everything
> > properly setup you run "oninit -i". "-i" means initialization and it
> > will open the rootdbs pointed to in the $ONCONFIG file and will
> > initialize it.
> >
> > If everything is well you'll end up with a small and simple instance
> > with just one root dbspace. After that you should create other dbspaces
> > (temporary, one for logical logs, another for physical logs and yet
> > another - or more - for your data.)
> >
> >
> > 2. How do I move rootdbs? I tried to search but my 'search fu' wasn't
> > able to help me. Do I create the dbspace first, change onconfig and
> > restart the instance?
> >
> >
> > The supported way would be a backup and restore with -rename option...
> >
> > Regards.
> >
> > --
> > Fernando Nunes
> > Portugal
> >
> > http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
> > My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
>
> Jeremaih,
>
> Fernando's answer is, of course, quite correct and you can get better
> information about this option from the -rename option. In the 11.5
> Backup and Restore manual, it's on page 16.5. However, I suspect your
> issue is not renaming it so much as moving it to another location.
> Here's a subset of what I did to move a complete server to a new set of
> volumes on a new disk farm. (System admins get so touchy when you call
> the device by that name! ;-)
>
> 0a. BACK UP THE SERVER. Of course!
> 0b. Save the current symbolic link to the device file hosting the
> rootdbs. (You *are* using symbolic kinks, riiiight? ;-)
> 1. Create the target volume of the exact same size as the original.
> 2. Shut down the server, of course.
> 3. dd if=(original volume) if=(target volume) bs=4k
> (I specified 4K because I recall IDS is configured for 4K page size
> on AIX. Things may have changed since the last time I diddled AIX.)
> 4. Drop the current symbolic link to the original device file and
> recreate it as a symlink to the new device file that just received
> the copy.
> 5. Restart the engine.
>
> As long as the link name is the same as IDS remembers it, there is no
> need to use the -rename option.
>
> (If you are not using symbolic links, then you have no choice but to use
> the -rename option. For one chunk, it's OK to specify it on the ontape
> command line. For more, you will want to set up a file of
> substitutions. And, once you finish the restore, you might consider
> setting up symbolic links to every blessed chunk in your server and
> doing the restore with the -rename option.)
>
> -- Jacob, the concise (not!)
> _______________________________________________
> Informix-list mailing list
> Informix-list@iiug.org
> http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
>
--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
Thanks for all the help. Things are starting to get clearer now.
During installation, if you choose "custom" mode, you have the ability to customize instance information. Hope it helps. Sundar From: Jeremiah <yogensha.sql@gmail.com> To: informix-list@iiug.org Date: 01/08/2011 09:20 AM Subject: IDS install Sent by: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org So I managed to install IDS 11.7 into a test box that was provided. I installed with the default instance created. The OS is AIX 6.1. Now I have a few questions. 1. Can I rename the instance name? I do not recall it asking for an instance name during the install which is why I ended up with the default name. In Windows, I remember it asking for an instance name. On a side note, if I installed without creating an instance, how do I get that instance started if a root chunk was not created? 2. How do I move rootdbs? I tried to search but my 'search fu' wasn't able to help me. Do I create the dbspace first, change onconfig and restart the instance? _______________________________________________ Informix-list mailing list Informix-list@iiug.org http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
Thanks, this is good to know. On Jan 9, 5:09 pm, Sundar Shunmugam <sund...@us.ibm.com> wrote: > During installation, if you choose "custom" mode, you have the ability to > customize instance information. > > Hope it helps. > > Sundar >