RE: IDS or SE and more questions

-----Original Message----- From: Axel Sander [SMTP:axsander@okay.net] Sent: Monday, May 24, 1999 6:29 AM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: IDS or SE and more questions Hi, first my thanks to all who helped me with the first encounter of the INFORMIXSERVER variable. After I had at least the brilliant idea of starting an instance of sqlexecd everything ran fine ;-) So switching from SE 5.0 to SE 7.24 seems no problem for our application. When I finished the first test my boss had the idea of accessing multiple databases simultaneously. Flipping through the answers showed up that SE does not allow distributed databases. The online version will probably too expensive for us so I want to check out the IDS workgroup edition. While digging my way through the documentation (thanks for informix putting this online) I would like to hear the opinions of some long time experts or users of IDS. Our applications feeds around 50 users, database size is approx. 200 MB. The hardware platform will be a Sun Ultra 60 with 2 processors, 1 GB RAM and eventually an external Raid system (the previous system is a 5 year old Sun 20 with 300 MB so the new hardware should give our application an additional boost ;-) I'm just my way through the "Getting started" manual and have the following questions (until now): 1. If we use multiple separate databases on the system using the same connection type (setlitcp): would it be better to add a service and a sqlexecd for every database or is sufficient to have just one service for each different connection type? [Murray Wood] One sqlexecd would be sufficient. 2. Can the sqlexecd check if it's already running a service or will I run into trouble if the sqlexecd is acciedently started twice with the same arguments? [Murray Wood] In your script check whether one is already running before starting it. I dont think it will let you start 2 on the same port on the same machine anyway (try it!). 3. IDS can use raw disk space. Will this be noticably faster than using the unix filesystem (I would think so, but will it be only 20% or doubling/tripling the speed)? [Murray Wood] Recent posts suggest approx 35% gain for raw. (This is over IDS on cooked chunks - you cannot compare performance to that of SE. IDS properly configured runs hugely faster than SE). 4. IDS can use disk mirroring. Instead of adding a raid system would it be more usefull adding a 2nd disk controller and just double the number of disks (1 disk for temporary files, 1 disk databases and this doubled)? [Murray Wood] The answer depends upon what you want to do. If you want redundancy then mirror is compulsary (and use hardware mirroring). If you want performance stripe your raw chunks over many disks. Spread your disk load over as many spindles as possible. It is better to purchase many 4Gb (or 2Gb) disks rather than fewer 9Gb disks, for example. 5. Is the 'archive' backup program part of the IDS or is this a separate product? The "Getting Started" does not answer this. [Murray Wood] It comes with IDS. Is there anything obviously I'm missing on planning this? TIA for all your answers Axel (sunday and time for the Admin Guide - only 1200 pages to go) [Murray Wood] HTH