Migrating from IDS 5 to IDS 7.3

hi, im planning to upgrade my Informix server from version 5 (machine a) to version 7.3 (machine b, which having infromix ids version 5 as well). My concerns are 1. Should i perform a fresh installation or a version upgrade (on machine b) My idea of this migration is to dbexport and dbimport the databases from machine a to machine b 2. Any other faster method? 3. Any issues on compatibility between those 2 versions ? thanks for your helps in advance.

HishamAR@mesiniaga.com.my wrote: > > hi, > im planning to upgrade my Informix server from version 5 (machine a) to version 7.3 (machine b, > which having infromix ids version 5 as well). My concerns are > > 1. Should i perform a fresh installation or a version upgrade (on machine b) > > My idea of this migration is to dbexport and dbimport the databases from machine a to machine b > 2. Any other faster method? > 3. Any issues on compatibility between those 2 versions ? You could do an ontape archive on the 5.xx system and restore onto the new machine. Then do an in-place upgrade to 7.3x. The disadvantage is you will not have taken the opportunity to reorganize your database to take better advantage of the 7.3x architecture, ie to fragment tables, detach indexes, etc. You could do this over time after the upgrade but you know as well as I do that this will just never happen. So your plan to bring up a clean 7.3x server is better. Personnally I'd use some utility, like my dbcopy, to migrate the data from the live server to the new one after creating the database there using appropriate fragmentation and detaching indexes that can gain from that feature. Dbcopy is part of the package utils2_ak in the IIUG Software Repository. Also, unless you can do a mass recompile of all of your apps and spend time testing everything before going live, I have found that recompiling apps with the newer ESQL and 4GL versions one or two at a time and running them against the old 5.xx server (in an appropriate runtime environment) works very well. The newer connectivity you will be compiling in will actually run faster against the old database than the original apps did and when you are done you are ready to migrate the data and you will have fully tested applications ready to go. FWIW. Art S. Kagel

We did the upgrade recently and there was a parameter to do with process aging that had to be set to 1. If this doesn't ring a bell with anybody then I can find out which ONCONFIFG parameter had to be set. With regards to programs etc , we use 4GL and I personally haven't found any problems at all. Obviously everything had to be re-compiled etc. As far as I know no other developer at my site has encountered upgrade problems. Try DejaNews and look for threads about this type of migration as I posted a message for Info and certainly received a lot of replies. HTH.

The parameter is NOAGE and it is needed only on systems, like HPUX and Solaris that aggressively age long running processes. It is, for example, not needed on DGUX or Linux. Art S. Kagel Robert Taylor wrote: > > We did the upgrade recently and there was a parameter to do with process > aging that had to be set to 1. If this doesn't ring a bell with anybody then > I can find out which ONCONFIFG parameter had to be set. > > With regards to programs etc , we use 4GL and I personally haven't found any > problems at all. Obviously everything had to be re-compiled etc. As far as I > know no other developer at my site has encountered upgrade problems. > > Try DejaNews and look for threads about this type of migration as I posted a > message for Info and certainly received a lot of replies. > HTH.

I would perform a fresh installation on machine b and do a dbexport/dbimport as you said. There really isn't another data migration option available to you, unless you want to do a load/unload (not recommended). You shouldn't have any compatability questions as dbimport/dbexport was created for this exact purpose. Once you get the version 7 going, then you'll be able to use onunload/onload as well as the high performance loader (HPL) for any future migration issues which is far better than dbexport/dbimport. Keep in mind that with dbexport, you have a 2GB limit so you might have to use multiple tapes. Hope this helps. HishamAR@mesiniaga.com.my wrote: > hi, > im planning to upgrade my Informix server from version 5 (machine a) to version 7.3 (machine b, > which having infromix ids version 5 as well). My concerns are > > 1. Should i perform a fresh installation or a version upgrade (on machine b) > > My idea of this migration is to dbexport and dbimport the databases from machine a to machine b > 2. Any other faster method? > 3. Any issues on compatibility between those 2 versions ? > > thanks for your helps in advance. -- Phillip Tien Database Administrator Whole Foods Market, Inc. Sometimes, when I lie in bed at night and look up at the stars, I think to myself, "Man! I really need to fix that roof."