Using IDS on VMware

Hi. Has anyone experience on using IDS on VMware? If so, what is your experience interms of speed, stability and ease of installation. Also, are there any "how to" documents on the subject of Informix on VMware? Many thanks David

I've been using IDS on VMWare for a couple of weeks. It depends on which version of Linux you use for the guest O/S. I'm using RedHat AS 4. You'll want to use bridged connections when you configure the virtual machine. You may need disable the NIC to prevent network timeout errors if you don't have an active network connection. ------------------------------------------------- Carlton Doe Flower Mound, TX Quoting DAVID FRASER <davidf@logis.co.nz>: > Hi. Has anyone experience on using IDS on VMware? If so, what is your > experience interms of speed, stability and ease of installation. Also, are > there any "how to" documents on the subject of Informix on VMware? > > Many thanks > > David > > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > >

Hi David, I'm using VMware since a long time with IDS 7.31, IDS 9.40 and, now, with IDS 10.0 and i have no problem (i'm use Mandrake and RHEL vmware partitions). The problems who can reach is depending of the operating system installed into your vmware partition, not depending of vmware. With a vmware partition, you could have problem with sound card, video card (you couldn't use high resolution) but nothing in relationship with IDS kernel. VMware is a good product :-) Philippe "DAVID FRASER" <davidf@logis.co. nz> To Sent by: ids@iiug.org ids-bounces@iiug. cc org Subject Using IDS on VMware [8368] 07/02/2007 03:28 Please respond to ids@iiug.org Hi. Has anyone experience on using IDS on VMware? If so, what is your experience interms of speed, stability and ease of installation. Also, are there any "how to" documents on the subject of Informix on VMware? Many thanks David ******************************************************************************* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.

I have been having mixed success with this setup - I have IDS 9.4 running ok on Mandrake 10 as guest in vmware, but I cannot get 9.4 or 10.0 to initialize using either RHEL4 or Centos 4.4 (host OS tried = RH core 4, Ubuntu 6.06 and Win 2003) My VM guests are configured with 256MB of RAM and I've tried with both host-only and bridged networking and ipcstr and soctcp (either/or or both). In all cases on RHEL and Centos, "oninit -i" returns immediately showing no error, and online.log ends with "Loading Module <BUILTINNULL>, IBM Informix Dynamic Server started. Trying the "oninit -i" again throws up "shmget: [EEXIST][17] key 52574801" shared memory already exists" (onstat sIDS is no longer running). I'm using a default install of IDS 10.0 for linux, with cooked device for rootdbs, and default settings for onconfig - I've tried fiddling with SHMBASE and reducing buffers and locks, but still the same problem. If someone has this working I'd be grateful if you could mail me your config, or post it here.

Hi, It seems to be that shared memory is already allocated, either by an instance which has died previously or by a second instance, which has the same SERVERNUM identifier. Exec ipcs and you will see if there are any informix segments. These can be killed with ipcrm (for the first case). In case these come from a second instance, you should modify the SERVERNUM parameter to be unique on this machine. If this does not solve your issue, for RHEL, you should set SHMBASE to 0x10000000L. Maybe this is the problem. Marcus -----Original Message----- From: STERRY PHILIP [mailto:psterry@wananchi.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 7:55 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: SHMEM problems with IDS on VMware [8535] I have been having mixed success with this setup - I have IDS 9.4 running ok on Mandrake 10 as guest in vmware, but I cannot get 9.4 or 10.0 to initialize using either RHEL4 or Centos 4.4 (host OS tried = RH core 4, Ubuntu 6.06 and Win 2003) My VM guests are configured with 256MB of RAM and I've tried with both host-only and bridged networking and ipcstr and soctcp (either/or or both). In all cases on RHEL and Centos, "oninit -i" returns immediately showing no error, and online.log ends with "Loading Module <BUILTINNULL>, IBM Informix Dynamic Server started. Trying the "oninit -i" again throws up "shmget: [EEXIST][17] key 52574801" shared memory already exists" (onstat sIDS is no longer running). I'm using a default install of IDS 10.0 for linux, with cooked device for rootdbs, and default settings for onconfig - I've tried fiddling with SHMBASE and reducing buffers and locks, but still the same problem. If someone has this working I'd be grateful if you could mail me your config, or post it here. ************************************************************************ ******* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.

Hi, the second instance was just me running 'oninit -i' again to try force any kind of message to appear (as in "scream you bitch, scream"). i have repeated the initialization a few times, each time rebooting the vm and changing the SHMBASE - I have tried 0x0, 0x10000000L, 0x22000000L and a few other numbers. Each time, the oninit terminates almost instantly with no error messages. Short of trying every number between 0x00000000L and 0xFFFFFFFL, is there any way of calculating an acceptable value of shmbase ? (on a few other machines in the office, the default value of 0x44... works just fine with non-vm redhat 4 and fedora) The RHEL4 vm is the one downloaded from redhat via the vmware site, so it has all kinds of extra stuff included - but, I have tried the same on a virgin server-install of Centos 4.4 with the same results.

Try adding the -v option to the oninit for more informational trace Art S. Kagel ----- Original Message ----- From: Sterry Philip <ids@iiug.org> At: 2/28 12:45:01 Hi, the second instance was just me running 'oninit -i' again to try force any kind of message to appear (as in "scream you bitch, scream"). i have repeated the initialization a few times, each time rebooting the vm and changing the SHMBASE - I have tried 0x0, 0x10000000L, 0x22000000L and a few other numbers. Each time, the oninit terminates almost instantly with no error messages. Short of trying every number between 0x00000000L and 0xFFFFFFFL, is there any way of calculating an acceptable value of shmbase ? (on a few other machines in the office, the default value of 0x44... works just fine with non-vm redhat 4 and fedora) The RHEL4 vm is the one downloaded from redhat via the vmware site, so it has all kinds of extra stuff included - but, I have tried the same on a virgin server-install of Centos 4.4 with the same results. ******************************************************************************* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.

Thanks Carlton and Philippe for your responses. We are going to build an instance of ver 10 over linux. Will keep you posted. 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a VMware environment. In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate geographic locations, one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary instance of IDS. 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented any VMware server replication technology such that a second server 'mirrors' a primary server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness alternative to implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. 4th question. If yes to the 3rd question, have you used successfully replicated IDS is such an environment? Thanks David

For question 3: You can buy HDR as an add-on to IDS WE. You don't have to buy enterprise. --EEM -----Original Message----- From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of DAVID FRASER Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 3:17 PM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Using IDS on VMware [8646] Thanks Carlton and Philippe for your responses. We are going to build an instance of ver 10 over linux. Will keep you posted. 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a VMware environment. In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate geographic locations, one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary instance of IDS. 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented any VMware server replication technology such that a second server 'mirrors' a primary server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness alternative to implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. 4th question. If yes to the 3rd question, have you used successfully replicated IDS is such an environment? Thanks David ************************************************************************ ******* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.

On Mon, 12 Mar 2007, DAVID FRASER wrote: > 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a VMware environment. > In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate geographic locations, > one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary instance of IDS. > This is very easily done. I would recommend you use the "bridged" network setup on the images but it's up to you. Question though -- why two VMWare images? You can demo HDR (and ER) in one image. Use relative path names as opposed to absolute. I've got 6 HDR instances talking to each other in one VMWare image right now. Cheetah is great stuff!!! > 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented any VMware > server replication technology such that a second server 'mirrors' a primary > server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness alternative to > implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. I have not tried this at all. > > 4th question. If yes to the 3rd question, have you used successfully > replicated IDS is such an environment? > Unknown. > Thanks > > David > > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > Carlton ______________________________________________________________________ Carlton Doe Flower Mound, TX dbaresrc at xmission dot com http://www.xmission.com/~dbaresrc http://www.iiug.org

Thanks. I guess that once I do that then I have about the same cost structure as buying enterprise in the first place. :-) What I am looking st is using VMware server (or third party product) to maintain two identical server environments. This has some significant advantages. The main one is that all the 4gl scripts, linux scripts, user profiles and files stored outside of IDS are also replicated. This then makes re-establishing a production environment very simple. It also allows me to create a test environment that truely matches our production environment. Thanks for you help though. :-) David For question 3: You can buy HDR as an add-on to IDS WE. You don't have to buy enterprise. --EEM -----Original Message----- From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of DAVID FRASER Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 3:17 PM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Using IDS on VMware [8646] Thanks Carlton and Philippe for your responses. We are going to build an instance of ver 10 over linux. Will keep you posted. 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a VMware environment. In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate geographic locations, one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary instance of IDS. 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented any VMware server replication technology such that a second server 'mirrors' a primary server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness alternative to implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. 4th question. If yes to the 3rd question, have you used successfully replicated IDS is such an environment? Thanks David

DAVID FRASER said: > For question 3: You can buy HDR as an add-on to IDS WE. You don't have > to buy enterprise. Have you considered Linux DRDB? http://www.drbd.org/ -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean.

Thanks Carlton. The two images comment relates to two physical servers linked by WAN. The main thrust of my questions is to see if there is a way to simulate a HDR (in the sense of on-line realtime data replication failover environment) using VMware. Actually, the more I think about it, we need on-line realtime data server and 4gl (and linux environement) replication, not High Availability fail-over (as provided by HDR). So I am looking for a solution based on VMware to replicate my entire server environment (as opposed to just data.) A successful end result is to allow a small business to establish and raintain a high availability (though not immediate failover) secondary server off site from the primary server. This would allow a small business to licence (say) the express IDS as opposed to the enterprise version. This approach then makes IDS much more compelling, price wise, to ISV's to base their application portfolio on. Thanks again. I will get the clever people to follow through on your suggestion. Cheers David On Mon, 12 Mar 2007, DAVID FRASER wrote: > 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a VMware environment. > In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate geographic locations, > one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary instance of IDS. > This is very easily done. I would recommend you use the "bridged" network setup on the images but it's up to you. Question though -- why two VMWare images? You can demo HDR (and ER) in one image. Use relative path names as opposed to absolute. I've got 6 HDR instances talking to each other in one VMWare image right now. Cheetah is great stuff!!! > 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented any VMware > server replication technology such that a second server 'mirrors' a primary > server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness alternative to > implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. I have not tried this at all. > > 4th question. If yes to the 3rd question, have you used successfully > replicated IDS is such an environment? > Unknown. > Thanks > > David >

DAVID FRASER said: > Actually, the more I think about it, we need on-line realtime data server > and > 4gl (and linux environement) replication, not High Availability fail-over > (as > provided by HDR). So I am looking for a solution based on VMware to > replicate > my entire server environment (as opposed to just data.) What is DRBD DRBD is a block device which is designed to build high availability clusters. This is done by mirroring a whole block device via (a dedicated) network. You could see it as a network raid-1. What is the scope of drbd, what else do I need to build a HA cluster? DRBD takes over the data, writes it to the local disk and sends it to the other host. On the other host, it takes it to the disk there. The other components needed are a cluster membership service, which is supposed to be heartbeat, and some kind of application that works on top of a block device. http://www.drbd.org/ -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean.

Thanks Clown boy. /:-) No, I had not seen that. Have you used it in a WAN (with telco data speeds) network environment? David DAVID FRASER said: > For question 3: You can buy HDR as an add-on to IDS WE. You don't have > to buy enterprise. Have you considered Linux DRDB? http://www.drbd.org/ -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo

Thanks for the explanation OTC. Do you know what sort of bandwidth this requires? Cheers Kiwi boy DAVID FRASER said: > Actually, the more I think about it, we need on-line realtime data server > and > 4gl (and linux environement) replication, not High Availability fail-over > (as > provided by HDR). So I am looking for a solution based on VMware to > replicate > my entire server environment (as opposed to just data.) What is DRBD DRBD is a block device which is designed to build high availability clusters. This is done by mirroring a whole block device via (a dedicated) network. You could see it as a network raid-1. What is the scope of drbd, what else do I need to build a HA cluster? DRBD takes over the data, writes it to the local disk and sends it to the other host. On the other host, it takes it to the disk there. The other components needed are a cluster membership service, which is supposed to be heartbeat, and some kind of application that works on top of a block device. http://www.drbd.org/ -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo

Hi David, > 2nd question. Has anyone tried implementing IDS HDR in a > VMware environment. Yes, successfully and very easy, but... > In other words having two VMware servers, in seperate > geographic locations, > one running a primary instance of IDS and one a secondary > instance of IDS. ...not in a geographically separate environment. > 3rd question (but relates to the 2nd). Has anyone implemented > any VMware > server replication technology such that a second server > 'mirrors' a primary > server. My thinking is that this provides a small buisness > alternative to > implementing Informix Enterprise licencing JUST to get HDR. Usually when I setup a new vmware image for testing purposes, I copy it, change hostname and IP and off I go. It takes a couple of minutes. Not really "replication", I know. Free VMware Server doesn't have live replicating features, ESX Server probably does but also too expensive if HDR is expensive. You could use snapshots on a free vmware version, but I suppose only if you have overnight maintenance windows available. As I said, copying also works, if it's an acceptable option. Of course, it's nowhere near HDR.

Hi David, > Thanks Carlton. The two images comment relates to two > physical servers linked > by WAN. The main thrust of my questions is to see if there is > a way to > simulate a HDR (in the sense of on-line realtime data > replication failover > environment) using VMware. If you can wait for Cheetah, there is Continuous Log Restore feature exactly for this purposes. > Actually, the more I think about it, we need on-line realtime > data server and > 4gl (and linux environement) replication, not High > Availability fail-over (as > provided by HDR). So I am looking for a solution based on > VMware to replicate > my entire server environment (as opposed to just data.) As Clown said, DRBD is one way (I never tried it). What about filesystem incremental backup to a secondary site? A restore after the failure of the primary, IDS restore from fresh tapes/whatever and you're ready to go. You don't even need to change any config inside VM. You do need to setup either bridged or NAT networking in vmware (I preffer NAT as it's a bit more secure). Then just redirect the clients to the new machine. I haven't tried this exact setup, but it shouldn't be too hard. Regards Davorin

DAVID FRASER said: > Thanks for the explanation OTC. Do you know what sort of bandwidth this > requires? Just reading the docs, I don't think it'll work over a WAN, but it depends on usage, I suppose. Suck it and see, eh? :o) -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean.

DAVID FRASER said: > Thanks Clown boy. /:-) No, I had not seen that. Have you used it in a WAN > (with telco data speeds) network environment? I've not used it at all. But you can ask Clive who posts on CDI from time to time, he knows more than I. -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean.

DAVID FRASER said: > Thanks for the explanation OTC. Do you know what sort of bandwidth this > requires? Just reading the docs, I don't think it'll work over a WAN, but it depends on usage, I suppose. Suck it and see, eh? :o) -- Bye now, Obnoxio "I'm astonished anyone pays real money for this crap." -- Cosmo -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean.

Thanks Philippe. We are working on the installtion of v10 now. Cheers David Hi David, I'm using VMware since a long time with IDS 7.31, IDS 9.40 and, now, with IDS 10.0 and i have no problem (i'm use Mandrake and RHEL vmware partitions). The problems who can reach is depending of the operating system installed into your vmware partition, not depending of vmware. With a vmware partition, you could have problem with sound card, video card (you couldn't use high resolution) but nothing in relationship with IDS kernel. VMware is a good product :-) Philippe

Thanks Davorin. We are going to trial the product that the Clown mentioned in an earlier message on this thread. We can wait for Cheetah for sure. Howevere I am really interested in building an online replication facility for IDS express (as opposed to Enterprise). Why? Money! :-) We develop for small businesses. The competition, in this zone is MS SQL. We need to have a selling proposition againts MS SQL that is compelling. On-line data replication is one such proposition. (Uptime, speed and reliability are a given however small businesses generally do not have enough IT savvy to know the difference). Thanks David Hi David, > Thanks Carlton. The two images comment relates to two > physical servers linked > by WAN. The main thrust of my questions is to see if there is > a way to > simulate a HDR (in the sense of on-line realtime data > replication failover > environment) using VMware. If you can wait for Cheetah, there is Continuous Log Restore feature exactly for this purposes. > Actually, the more I think about it, we need on-line realtime > data server and > 4gl (and linux environement) replication, not High > Availability fail-over (as > provided by HDR). So I am looking for a solution based on > VMware to replicate > my entire server environment (as opposed to just data.) As Clown said, DRBD is one way (I never tried it). What about filesystem incremental backup to a secondary site? A restore after the failure of the primary, IDS restore from fresh tapes/whatever and you're ready to go. You don't even need to change any config inside VM. You do need to setup either bridged or NAT networking in vmware (I preffer NAT as it's a bit more secure). Then just redirect the clients to the new machine. I haven't tried this exact setup, but it shouldn't be too hard. Regards Davorin