Re: Cluster with informix.

From: "Centro Medico Paitilla" <cmp@pty.com> > >On 27 Apr 00, at 8:00, Obnoxio The Clown wrote: > > > From: "Centro Medico Paitilla" <cmp@pty.com> > > > > > >We are evaluating an HA (Cluster) solution from SUN > > >Microsystems and IBM, but i have some questions about the > > >capacity of Informix server of work in that environment. I hope that > > >someone can help me with this. > >What's exactly the problem with Sun Cluster and Informix? Is it is >important to me because my applications are in Informix 4GL RDS. >What do you think about IBM HACMP and informix? Why do you want a cluster? What's wrong with just having a nice big box? > > Informix doesn't really support Sun Clusters, or is it that Sun Clusters > > don't support Informix? Depends on who you talk to. But I've just been >to > > a similar debate recently, and the upshot in our case was that we are > > going to Enterprise Replication because we need to propogate our >database > > from a primary server to a backup server and to a reporting box and to a > > development box and.... > > > > The key with ER is to get your database designed correctly from the >get-go > > for ER. If you're in that happy position, I think ER is a great way to > > solve this. Another possible solution, which we currently use, is to use > > HDR for fault tolerance (and it is very tolerant of our faults! :) and >do > > some of the reading of data from the secondary. So we get load balancing > > on that basis. But that might be difficult if you're not using ODBC. > > > >This is a limitation for me, because my critical applications are not >using ODBC. Querix or D4GL may be a solution for this... Forget it. :-) > > >1. Do I have to buy Informix Paralell Server or IDS.2000? It is an > > >OLTP environment... > > > > There is no such thing as Informix Parallel Server, that sounds like an > > Oracle-ism. You might be thinking of Informix XPS or EDS, and that isn't > > for OLTP, it's for decision support. So you need IDS.2000. > > > > >2. With the case that we have two machines in cluster using a > > >cluster software from a machine provider, Can Informix servers work > > >together sharing 50% of the work? > > > > Yes and no. You can't run in a Sun cluster, but you can use Enterprise > > Replication to allow both machines to do half the work each. > > > > >3. If I have an application running on 4GL (RDS), Do I have to buy > > >licences of informix products for both machines? > > > > Yes. > > > >I don't understand that, because if I implement an cluster solution >based in cluster software (SUN or IBM) the informix-4GL will be >installed only in the primary server....and the cluster software do >the rest...??? If you're licensed per user, then does it matter which box it's on? :) > > >4. Is Informix data replication capability more efficient that HA > > >environment based on cluster software from a machine provider? > > > > I guess so, because it's supported. :-) > > > > Another possible solution, which may be better overall, is to have a > > three-box solution. If you were looking at two (say) E4500's, you might > > replace that with 3 E450's, where one would be just for 4GL >applications, > > one would be a primary server and one a secondary, read-only server. You > > could do all your data entry onto the primary, run your reports against > > the secondary and have all the 4GL load on the third box. YAMMV. > > > >This is interesting suggestion, but it has a weak point .... the third >box. If the third box fail, the system would not be available. OK, so get 4 boxes. Two "client" boxes, two server boxes. Or use the server boxes as failover application servers. > > How much load are you expecting to put on the server? Clustering always > > seems a bit of an extreme solution... > > >That's true, but in this case we have a critical healthcare >application that most be available all the time (7X24). We have 100 >concurrent users. I don't think a cluster is worth the hassle. There are other, less painful ways of ensuring resilience. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com