HELP! Sybase DBA to Informix DBA - compare?

Anyone who can give some pointers to a seasoned Sybase DBA switching to Informix server on some basic comparisons between the two types of servers ?? really appreciate it in advance!! thank you!! -Bruce btaneja@hotmail.com

Bruce Taneja (btaneja@hotmail.com) wrote: : Anyone who can give some pointers to a seasoned Sybase DBA switching to : Informix server on some basic comparisons between the two types of : servers ?? : really appreciate it in advance!! thank you!! : -Bruce : btaneja@hotmail.com Some points to consider....dependent upon Sybase versions: Informix has row-level locking, so you don't need to jump through all the programming hoops that Sybase called "features" to avoid concurrency problems Sybase: most of the maintenance is done through sp_* stored procedures. Informix has executables (onstat, onparm, etc) that do most of your maintenance jobs. Informix: You can get to just about any performance data through the sysmaster database. Don't know about Sybase. Informix: Much more tuneable than Sybase. Also, more complicated. Informix: Answers the telephone most of the time. Sybase: Telephone? Joe -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Lumbley(jlumbley@netcom.com) author of: "INFORMIX DBA Survival Guide" The DBA Survival Guide, Second Edition will cover NT, 7.X through 7.3, graphical utilities, more survival hints. Publish date: 12/16/98 FINALLY! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Taneja wrote in message <369533B7.2263E59E@hotmail.com>... >Anyone who can give some pointers to a seasoned Sybase DBA switching to >Informix server on some basic comparisons between the two types of >servers ?? I've done the job on both servers, at the same site, and would summarise the main differences thus: 1. Backup/recovery is done at the server level on Informix, but at the database level on Sybase. Thus it's important to consider the releative backup requirements of your databases before lumping them into the same Informix server. 2. Whereas most administrative functions within Sybase are done by standard or in-house stored procedures, the equivalent Informix utilities tend to be command-line... er.. commands. 3. Informix does not have sysusers etc. tables for each database as Sybase does. Database-level security is instead linked to the UNIX (or operating system) user-id. 4. Although I don't think is Informix's strong suit particularly, it really is quite tedious to get information out of a Sybase server as to what individual users are up to, thus making performance/locking problems difficult to analyse. All but the latest versions of Sybase lack row-level locking and so are generally more prone to locking/contention problems. 5. I think in general Informix is the superior product but, in the UK at least, there's far more money in Sybase! Neil Truby aracnet Limited Weybridge, UK