Re: Difference between Workgroup server and Dynamic server

IDS (formerly DSA) and OWGS are virtually identical. On systems with four processors or less there is NO performance difference!!! The differences are as follows: 1. OWGS is limited to 4 CPU servers (who cares, tell me how many system you known with >4 servers). 2. OWGS does not come with the 'onmonitor' command, instead it is administered by a windows client admin tool. Good Informix DBA's us the 'on' utilities which are common to both, so the lack on 'onmonitor' is irrelivant. 3. OWGS does not support Server Replication (rarely needed except is mission critical apps). 4. OWGS does not support table partitioning accross drives (fragmentation). This feature is redundant except for very large databases. All versions of online allow you to create a dbspace with chunks on many drives anyway. 5. OWGS has limited PDQ (Parrallel Data Query). But this feature is not configured on most informix sites, as their applications are transaction intensive, usually using primary/foriegn keys to access rows in queries. PDQ is only activated for wide Decision Support Queries that will scan entire tables, or very large portions of tables. 6. OWGS can not have the UNIVERSAL server option added. This is due to a licensing policy, and is not because of any technical limitation. UNIVERSAL server option is required if you need any of Informix's OO datablade options, such as the built in text retrieval, or spatial analysis. Most traditional Client/Server apps which are OLTP do not require datablades. 7. OWGS has exactly the same kernel as IDS. 8. OWGS costs '240 per user 9. IDS costs '1100 per user 10. IDS is more scaleable if you need it. I.e. more that a 4 CPU SMP Server, need PDQ for huge DSS queries and hardware platforms with many hard disk drives (>6), or you need to upgrade to the IDS/Universal Server for object relational technology with built in datablade technology. For most typical servers (i.e. 6 SCSI hard disks, 2-4 CPU's), with between 10 and 100 users, both products can be considered identical. OWGS has been used successfully with databases upto 20gb. Regards NOEL M GRIFFIN (Informix GYRU)