Re: Informix 7 on Solaris vs. Linux

Richard Auslander wrote: > An internal proposal > has been made to investigate running Informix under Linux Red Hat 6.0, > since the hardware can be substantially less expensive. But also the IDS Linux Edition lacks some of the features of the commercial Unix versions. For example, "onbar" is not available on this software platforms, as well as other things like raw device support (this is a Linux problem, not an Informix problem). IMHO, at this stage, Linux is not a platform suitable to run an enterprise scale Informix system on. I wish it were, since we'd like to replace our overpriced hard- and software from a commercial vendor, too. Maybe we'll just have to wait for another year or two. Regards, Richard -- +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-6110 | | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-6420 <-- NEW!!! | | 81366 Munich, Germany | GSM : +49-172-8933578 | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+

In article <379C59C0.7A96DF6A@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de>, Richard Spitz <richard.spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de> wrote: >Richard Auslander wrote: >> An internal proposal >> has been made to investigate running Informix under Linux Red Hat 6.0, >> since the hardware can be substantially less expensive. > >But also the IDS Linux Edition lacks some of the features of the >commercial Unix versions. For example, "onbar" is not available on >this software platforms, as well as other things like raw device support >(this is a Linux problem, not an Informix problem). > >IMHO, at this stage, Linux is not a platform suitable to run an enterprise >scale Informix system on. I wish it were, since we'd like to replace our >overpriced hard- and software from a commercial vendor, too. Maybe we'll >just have to wait for another year or two. The lack of onbar is a bit of a shame: I bought Informix for Linux because it provides a rather more complete environment than PostgreSQL (which is what I use for most things). Although I've only been using it for a short while and only for development so far, I'm given to understand from this newsgroup that ontape is not as good as onbar. I believe ontape can do online backups (which is the main feature I'd want of a proper backup system) but perhaps there are some situations where onbar would be better? Without access to onbar, I can't tell. As for raw devices, the latest raw I/O patches for Linux were released today on the kernel mailing list. Stephen Tweedie's patch is available from ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/raw-io/raw-19990727.tar.gz and should work on 2.2.9+ kernels (and 2.3.12-pre5 for those following the devel kernel). I'll repeat my offer here that if anyone shows me any decent benchmarking utilities, I'll benchmark IDS under Linux with and without raw I/O patches to see what figures we get. I'd expect the raw I/O patches either to be rolled into the 2.3 kernel series (last I saw, Stephen had mollified Linus that the design underlying the raw I/O implementation was The Right Way) or, even if not, be part of the standard vendor patches for distributions such as Red Hat Linux and Caldera. In either case, I'd expect commercial distributions of Linux with supported raw I/O to arrive not too long after kernel 2.4 is out this Autumn/Fall. The raw I/O patches have been around so long without major change or problem, that I wouldn't be surprised if they were even made into a standard vendor patch for the next 2.2-based Red Hat release (especially given that Stephen now works for Red Hat). That's just my opinion though. --Malcolm -- Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk> Oxford University Computing Services "I permitted that as a demonstration of futility" --Grey Roger

In article <7nk5lg$3jl$1@news.ox.ac.uk>, Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk> wrote: >In article <379C59C0.7A96DF6A@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de>, >Richard Spitz <richard.spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de> wrote: >>Richard Auslander wrote: >>> An internal proposal >>> has been made to investigate running Informix under Linux Red Hat 6.0, >>> since the hardware can be substantially less expensive. >> >>But also the IDS Linux Edition lacks some of the features of the >>commercial Unix versions. For example, "onbar" is not available on >>this software platforms, as well as other things like raw device support >>(this is a Linux problem, not an Informix problem). [...] >As for raw devices, the latest raw I/O patches for Linux were released >today on the kernel mailing list. Apologies for following myself up. Apparently there was a one-liner fault in that patch. The fixed version is ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/raw-io/raw-19990728.tar.gz >I'd expect the raw I/O patches either to be rolled into the 2.3 kernel >series (last I saw, Stephen had mollified Linus that the design >underlying the raw I/O implementation was The Right Way) And, indeed, it has just been announced that the raw I/O patches are now in the mainstream development kernel as of 2.3.12-pre7. Thus kernel 2.4, due out this autumn/fall, will definitely support raw I/O out of the box. --Malcolm -- Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk> Oxford University Computing Services "I permitted that as a demonstration of futility" --Grey Roger

Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk> wrote: : In article <379C59C0.7A96DF6A@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de>, : Richard Spitz <richard.spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de> wrote: :>Richard Auslander wrote: :>> An internal proposal :>> has been made to investigate running Informix under Linux Red Hat 6.0, :>> since the hardware can be substantially less expensive. :> :>But also the IDS Linux Edition lacks some of the features of the :>commercial Unix versions. For example, "onbar" is not available on :>this software platforms, as well as other things like raw device support :>(this is a Linux problem, not an Informix problem). :> :>IMHO, at this stage, Linux is not a platform suitable to run an enterprise :>scale Informix system on. I wish it were, since we'd like to replace our :>overpriced hard- and software from a commercial vendor, too. Maybe we'll :>just have to wait for another year or two. : The lack of onbar is a bit of a shame: I bought Informix for Linux : because it provides a rather more complete environment than PostgreSQL : (which is what I use for most things). Although I've only been using : it for a short while and only for development so far, I'm given to : understand from this newsgroup that ontape is not as good as onbar. : I believe ontape can do online backups (which is the main feature I'd : want of a proper backup system) but perhaps there are some situations : where onbar would be better? Without access to onbar, I can't tell. Informix on Linux seems to be OK for large scale databases. We run it here for a big web email service with 6 figure user population on a server with 0.2TB (soon to be 2TB) storage. The whole thing is Linux from end to end. Lack of onbar is a real pain, since ontape sucks badly (it is still functional enough to do online backups - just the interface is badly thought out). Lack of some features promised in 9.x (such as long varchars) is also a disappointment. I hope Informix are listening and sort these out in the near future. I suspect that once Informix realize the kind of momentum that comes from deploying Informix on ultra-cheap Linux boxes, they'll come to their senses and port the extra stuff over. Rich. -- rich@annexia.org | Free email for life at: http://www.postmaster.co.uk/ BiblioTech Ltd, Unit 2 Piper Centre, 50 Carnwath Road, London, SW6 3EG. +44 171 384 6917 | Click here to play XRacer: http://xracer.annexia.org/ --- Original message content Copyright © 1999 Richard Jones ---