Re: Update Statistics

RE: > >Not to be difficult here.... ok, nevermind, I'm going to be difficult... > >We are about to migrate from Informix standard engine to on-line. > >When they said ON-LINE we assumed they meant ON-LINE. One of our big >reasons for moving is that our users won't have to be down for backups. >Why then would we ever want our users to have to be down for UPDATE >STATISTICS? Why on earth do you want your database to be up ALL the time? Are you mad? No coffee breaks, no early lunches, no grumbling about "the d#@n computer" going down again? It's people like you who suggested we leave the caves and move to high-rise towering office blocks, staring at glowing green bubbles all day long, and complaining about bad backs. > >Under standard engine, we can UPDATE STATISTICS with all users logged on >doing whatever they like. > >Will somebody PLEASE tell me why Informix does not allow UPDATE >STATISTICS to be run without locking tables? It seems to me, that as in >running ON-LINE backups, it should be the DBA's decision as to whether >they prefer performance hits or downtime. If the concern is up to the >second accuracy in statistics, it should also be the DBA's decision as >to whether this is truely necessary for a given application. > One of life's unsolved mysteries. How did the Egyptians build the pyramids without modern JCBs? Why did the dinosaurs die out? Why do people write programs in Cobol? >Is there a problem with giving the DBA's the pros & cons and allowing us >to make these decisions? > >Thanks in advance for your time and information! > >Cathy You'll notice Informix keep very quiet about this one. Or at least they have every time I've tried to raise it as a major problem. Their response? Silence. I don't believe they're going to do anything about it in the near future, although in 6.0, you'll have the option of specifying 'update statistics low', which just takes a sample of data and shouldn't take as long to run. Bonus. There is, of course, one other solution... Informix Turbo version .03k update statistics takes about one pico-second to run. Move to Turbo. Yours Paul Friday Cave Dweller