Re: Informix DB on CD-ROM?

} From: spitz@GANS2X.ana.med.uni-muenchen.de (Richard Spitz) } Subject: Informix DB on CD-ROM? } Date: 11 Apr 1995 09:32:30 GMT } Reply-To: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de } Organization: Dept.of Anaesthesiology, University of Munich } } Dear Informixers, } } we are facing the problem of having to replace a large archive database } on a mainframe which is going out of business. } } We don't know exactly yet how big the database would be after conversion } to Informix format, but we assume it will be in the 400 MB range. } } There will just be read-only access to the database, so to conserve } precious harddisk space, we thought about creating the database and then } writing it on a CD-ROM which we could then mount when needed. } } Is this possible? We could either use Online or SE, query performance is } not a big issue since interactive queries will be the exception. } } I believe that using Online might cause problems, but SE should be possible. } My current plan is to create the database using SE and then copy the } .dbs directory onto a CD-ROM. Can anybody share any experience with this } approach with me? } } Regards, Richard I just did a decidedly NON-definitive test, but it shows that your objective is possible, at least with *OLD* versions (2.10) of Informix SE. I have an SE database that no one else is using at the moment. So I chmod-ed several of the datafiles to be read-only. I was able to select from the tables just fine using ISQL. Thus SE is able to select from read-only files; it does not, for example, use "book marks" written to the file to tell how far the query has progressed. (I would not expect it to, for speed and efficiency reasons, but it is at least conceiveable that it might.) I did not try marking the system tables as read only. Obviously you would want to do an update statistics before writing your database to CD-ROM. Regards, Alan +---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | R. Alan Popiel | Internet: alan@den.mmc.com | | Lockheed Martin, SLS | Voice: 303-977-9998 | | P.O. Box 179, M/S 3810 | Standard disclaimers apply. Cutesy ones, too. | | Denver, CO 80201-0179 USA | Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. | +---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+