Informix File Size Limits during onunload?

System Details: O/S: AIX 4.3.3 ML9 RDBMS: Informix IDS 7.31 UC3 We have a routine that is trying to unload an Informix database and store it to a file system, then back up that file to tape. The database has reached 2GB in size. Here are some things we have addressed so far: 1) The AIX file system was not large-file enabled. We corrected this so the O/S should now allow up to 64GB files in this area. 2) Verified the O/S filesize limits on root, informix, and default users. file sizes are presently set to unlimited. 3) We realized that the UNIX cpio command we would use will also run into problems with 2GB limits when we write to tape, so our script has been changed to use the AIX "backup" command, which does not have this limitation. 4) Our Informix onunload command is set to limit the size of the backup to 30GB and not 2GB, so this should not be an issue. onunload -t /cmunload/database.unl -b 16 -s 30000000000 cmdb1 PROBLEM: We are not even getting to the point of writing to tape. When the Informix database is unloading, it gets to 2GB and then dies. The file is exactly the same size each time we try to extract the data: -rw-r--r-- 1 informix informix 2147483136 Jul 22 00:59 database.unl This is either a limitation on the AIX or on the Informix. I suspect the AIX is the issue, but if someone knows of any Informix parameters that may limit your file sizes, please let me know. Steve

"steven_nospam at Yahoo! Canada" <steven_nospam@yahoo.ca> wrote in message news:1122042213.321624.82990@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > System Details: > > O/S: AIX 4.3.3 ML9 > RDBMS: Informix IDS 7.31 UC3 > > > We have a routine that is trying to unload an Informix database and > store it to a file system, then back up that file to tape. The database > has reached 2GB in size. > > Here are some things we have addressed so far: > > 1) The AIX file system was not large-file enabled. We corrected this so > the O/S should now allow up to 64GB files in this area. > > 2) Verified the O/S filesize limits on root, informix, and > default users. file sizes are presently set to unlimited. > > 3) We realized that the UNIX cpio command we would use will also run > into problems with 2GB limits when we write to tape, so our script has > been changed to use the AIX "backup" command, which does not have this > limitation. > > 4) Our Informix onunload command is set to limit the size of > the backup to 30GB and not 2GB, so this should not be an issue. > > onunload -t /cmunload/database.unl -b 16 -s 30000000000 cmdb1> > PROBLEM: > We are not even getting to the point of writing to tape. When the > Informix database is unloading, it gets to 2GB and then dies. The file > is exactly the same size each time we try to extract the data: > > -rw-r--r-- 1 informix informix 2147483136 Jul 22 00:59 database.unl > > This is either a limitation on the AIX or on the Informix. I suspect > the AIX is the issue ... No, it's Informix. You can't write out to disk files greater than 2Gbytes in size on your version.

"Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:3kd1dtFu2088U1@individual.net... > > "steven_nospam at Yahoo! Canada" <steven_nospam@yahoo.ca> wrote in message > news:1122042213.321624.82990@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... >> System Details: >> >> O/S: AIX 4.3.3 ML9 >> RDBMS: Informix IDS 7.31 UC3 >> >> >> We have a routine that is trying to unload an Informix database and >> store it to a file system, then back up that file to tape. The database >> has reached 2GB in size. >> >> Here are some things we have addressed so far: >> >> 1) The AIX file system was not large-file enabled. We corrected this so >> the O/S should now allow up to 64GB files in this area. >> >> 2) Verified the O/S filesize limits on root, informix, and >> default users. file sizes are presently set to unlimited. >> >> 3) We realized that the UNIX cpio command we would use will also run >> into problems with 2GB limits when we write to tape, so our script has >> been changed to use the AIX "backup" command, which does not have this >> limitation. >> >> 4) Our Informix onunload command is set to limit the size of >> the backup to 30GB and not 2GB, so this should not be an issue. >> >> onunload -t /cmunload/database.unl -b 16 -s 30000000000 cmdb1>> >> PROBLEM: >> We are not even getting to the point of writing to tape. When the >> Informix database is unloading, it gets to 2GB and then dies. The file >> is exactly the same size each time we try to extract the data: >> >> -rw-r--r-- 1 informix informix 2147483136 Jul 22 00:59 database.unl >> >> This is either a limitation on the AIX or on the Informix. I suspect >> the AIX is the issue ... > > No, it's Informix. You can't write out to disk files greater than 2Gbytes > in size on your version. Actually, to be pedantic, to a file system. You *can* write out larger files to raw disk under that IDS/AIX combination.

Thanks Neil, We figured out how to cheat and save larger than 2GB by using a named pipe in our AIX system. This involves the "mknod" command and piping the data received from onunload through the pipe to a compressed file. Check the cross-post in comp.unix.aix if interested. Steve