Can the 32 bit version of Informix 9.4 (9.40.UC3) use chunks over 2 gig, and if so, any recommendations?

My group is preparing to move our Informix 9.40.UC3 instances running under Solaris 2.6 to newer, more powerful Sun servers running under Solaris 2.8. We currently (using Veritas volume manager) have or chunks defined as 2 gig on one server from which we plan to migrate and 1 gig on the rest from which we'll be migrating. I know that chunks up to 4 terabytes are possible with 9.4. However, I have only seen references to this using 9.40.FC3 (the 64 bit version) and not 9.40.UC3 (the 32 bit version). So, the first question I have is if chunks 4 gig or greater are possible with 9.40.UC3. The second question I have, regardless of the answer to the first is if there are any guidelines for chunk sizes? We don't do enough with blob spaces for them to be much of a factor in any decision we'd make. However, we do a fair amount of separating tables into different dbspaces, as well as always keeping root, physical log, logical log, temp and data/index spaces separate from each other. I'd be interested in what the tradeoffs are in terms of performance versus possibly wasting space by going to larger chunks. sending to informix-list

"Ostrar, Michael (GEI, GEFA)" <Michael.Ostrar@ge.com> wrote in message news:cgnrq1$ldc$1@news.xmission.com... > > My group is preparing to move our Informix 9.40.UC3 instances running under Solaris 2.6 to newer, more powerful Sun servers running under Solaris 2.8. We currently (using Veritas volume manager) have or chunks defined as 2 gig on one server from which we plan to migrate and 1 gig on the rest from which we'll be migrating. > > I know that chunks up to 4 terabytes are possible with 9.4. However, I have only seen references to this using 9.40.FC3 (the 64 bit version) and not 9.40.UC3 (the 32 bit version). > > So, the first question I have is if chunks 4 gig or greater are possible with 9.40.UC3. > > The second question I have, regardless of the answer to the first is if there are any guidelines for chunk sizes? We don't do enough with blob spaces for them to be much of a factor in any decision we'd make. However, we do a fair amount of separating tables into different dbspaces, as well as always keeping root, physical log, logical log, temp and data/index spaces separate from each other. I'd be interested in what the tradeoffs are in terms of performance versus possibly wasting space by going to larger chunks. > > > sending to informix-list 1. Yes, 32-bit versions work with large chunks just as happily as the 64-bit versions. 2. For a given dbspace, a single large chunk per disk drive is usually preferred over several smaller chunks per disk drive, however your data and how your application uses them are parameters in this too. So, I guess the answer is the dreaded "it depends"!! With older, smaller disk drives it was easier to create many dbspaces on many disks to maximize the parallel reads/writes but with the disk drive sizes today this is getting more and more difficult to do... Hal Maner M Systems International, Inc. www.msystemsintl.com