Re: Please Help with dbspace adjustment

Well, this is a bit of a problem. Let me start with trying to understand what is going on. The rootdbs is typically Informix' logical storage space for its instance-wide data dictionary. This space normally records the existance of things like other dbspaces, databases, etc... The space is physically represented by one or more structures on disk called chunks. A chunk is nothing more than a contiguous space on disk which the db admin defines. A dbspace may have many such chuncks and these may be either files in a file system or space used on a 'raw' disk. What I thinki yo have based on your description is a dbspace named rootdbs with 5 chunks, each of which is 10k in size. Another possible explanation is that you have 5 dbspaces, each 10k in size. If the first is corrent, it is not possible to make the chunks bigger. Each chunk is defined at creation time and is limited to the original size. If the second is true, new chunks can always be added (via the onspaces utility) to increase the available size in the dbspace. I think you need to look at these numbers again however. The db block size for most Informix databases is 2k (the block is the smallest single space entity in Informix. Multiple rows can be in a block but no space smaller than a block such as chunks can be defined). It seems unlikely that you have chunks that are only 5 blocks in size. Perhaps the sizes are actually in meg? In any case, look up the onspaces utility in the Informix On-Line Server Administration Manual. Also, look up the ontape utility in the Backup and Archive manual. Assuming you have five dbspaces you want bigger (and not five chunks in the root dbspace), you should follow the rough procedure below: 1) log in as user informix 2) get everyone out of the database and bring it to quiescent mode (onmode -u) 3) do a level 0 backup of the entire database. Be sure to check the tapedev and ltapedev parameter actually point to either a file system with enough free space to hold the entire database or point to a backup device (such as a tape device) and that you have enough media to hold the entire database. This backup will completely back up the existing database. 4) create an empty file which will be the new chunk. Depending on whether or not you are using raw devices vs. 'cooked' devices (the latter is a file in a file system whereas the former is Informix writing directly to a disk without a file system), the file may either be a device file in /dev for the disk slice to use or simply an empty file on a file system. This file MUST be owned by informix and belong to group informix. 5) Use the onspaces utility to intialze the chunk and add it to the dbspaces. I do not have the exact syntax handy so please look it up in the Administration Manual. 6) cycle the database 7) do another level 0 backup. That should do it. Shauna Freireich wrote in message <34ba1f84.4909739@news.zippo.com>... >I am working as a consultant for a company who are using Informix 7.12 >on a SunSparc running Solaris 2.5. >I do not know anything about the Informix database system or even how >to log into it. This is what I must do: > >There are five important databases setup as rootdbs and have 10K >dbspace allocated to each. I have to increase the dbspace to around >50K for each. > >I have tried to check the manuals for the UNIX commands but the only >manual available is strictly for Windows. The only person who knew >anything about this setup and Informix itself is no longer working >there. > >Can I adjust the dbspace without corrupting the database information? >If so, how do I do this? >What commands do I use to log into the database to amke the required >changes? >Everyhting in the /bin directory under Informix either gives me a core >dump or a not found type error. Is there something I should be doing >about this? > >This project must be completed by the end of this week and I have no >idea how to do it. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. >Thank you. > >Shauna Freireich >sfreireich@terradir.com