Re: question about database layout

Matthew, Paul wrote: > > I am a new boy to this group and fairly new to dba work as a whole. > Basically, I have been given dba responsibility for 4 large databases. > I am trying to get to grips with the main duties of a dba but to start with > I thought it might be useful to understand how the database is designed, in > terms of dbspaces, databases within each dbspace, how the databases relate > to chunks, what tables exist in each database and from that what tables are > in a chunk. > I plan to draw up an entity relationship diagram defining how all the > various tables are linked, in terms of columns existing in one table and > also in another. Also I wanted to see the dependencies that exist so that I > could know that by dropping a table whether it would affect a series of > other tables. Is there a known way I should go about finding out this > information, ie. particular tools or sql statements that I should be using? The information you are looking for in found in the Informix Adminitstrator's Guide. The detail is pretty good, though older manuals provided more data than the newer ones in some areas. Art S. Kagel