Re: Any issues with Version 5 to 7 Upgrades?

[robert j cline ii (rcline@netcom.com) wrote] > The client that I am working for has a need to upgrade to Version 7 > of Informix for a another project. > Since the two projects will share the same physical processor (HP9000 > Running HPUX 9.04), the client wishes to upgrade to Version 7. [snip] > My question, is, that since we are currently in a design phase > are there any issues that I should be aware of in converting from > Version 5 to 7. Prior to the conversion I hope that I receive the > V7 Manuals and we should have our first release of the Database > implemented for development and coding. Any pitfalls of enhancements > to V7 that I should be aware of that might affect my DB Design and/or > performance? Boy, talk about Pandora's box! The differences between 5 and 7 are incredible. There is a whole new paradigm between 5 and 6. The major differences lie in the fact that 5 only handled one processor. 6 and up works with multiprocessors. (BTW, You are wise to skip version 6. I have heard many horror stories about 6. Most of those problems are fixed with 7). One major difference is in performance. Your method of performance tuning will change. There are all kinds of new parameters to set in 7 that were not even there in 5. How many virtual processors, what kinds, how to handle data fragmentation (round robin vs. expression-based vs. hash rule), how to do PDQ (parallel data query), and on and on. I strongly suggest you go to the migration class that Informix provides. (Haven't been myself but have heard good things.) One thing to really look out for is performance. If you have less than, say, four processors in your HP, you are likely to see a *decrease* in performance by migrating to 7. We are having all kinds of problems with that. There are other, more subtle differences, like new "errors" where there weren't errors before. Example: In 5 and under, you could close a cursor that is already closed. No problem. With 6 and up, if you try to do that, SQLCODE goes negative (error). Solution: WHENEVER ERROR CALL function, where function checks for that situation and ignores closing of closed cursors. Several other, very small differences. Godspeed! The switch from 5 to 7 is not trivial! -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bob Payne, Systems Engineer Internet: bobp@dev.dsc.dalsys.com | | Dallas Systems Corporation Personal: bpayne@netcom.com | | 12740 Hillcrest Road Voice: (214) 383-2238 | | Dallas, TX 75043 Fax: (214) 788-4208 | | World Wide Web: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bp/bpayne/bpayne.html | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+