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Informix Error -758: Cannot implicitly reconnect to the new server server_name.

Cause and resolution

Cannot implicitly reconnect to the new server server_name.

If you use the CONNECT TO statement to connect to a server, you cannot implicitly reconnect to another server through one of the DATABASE statements (DATABASE, START DATABASE, and so on). You must switch to it with the SET CONNECTION statement.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-758 fires when a session established via CONNECT TO (rather than the default implicit connection) then issues a DATABASE/START DATABASE-family statement that would need to implicitly connect to a different server — per the official guidance, once a connection was made explicitly with CONNECT TO, switching servers must also be explicit, via SET CONNECTION.

  1. A session that used CONNECT TO to establish its connection, then issuing DATABASE other_db where other_db lives on a different server, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
  2. Code written assuming implicit server-switching always works, not accounting for the difference in behavior once a connection was made via explicit CONNECT TO rather than the implicit default connection.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Use SET CONNECTION to switch to the other server explicitly, per the official guidance — this is the documented, required mechanism once CONNECT TO was used.
  2. If the other server doesn't yet have its own named connection, CONNECT TO it first, then SET CONNECTION to make it current.
Examples
The disallowed implicit switch
CONNECT TO 'stores7@server_a';
DATABASE other_db@server_b;
-- -758: implicit server switching isn't allowed after an explicit CONNECT TO
Corrected — explicit connection and switch
CONNECT TO 'stores7@server_a';
CONNECT TO 'other_db@server_b' AS conn_b;
SET CONNECTION conn_b;
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check whether the session originally connected via CONNECT TO, and if so, replace any implicit cross-server DATABASE statement with an explicit CONNECT TO/SET CONNECTION pair.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -1808 — "Reconnect to server_name server to perform the database operation." A closely related error covering this same explicit-connection/implicit-server-switch restriction.
  • -1811 — "Implicit connection not allowed after an explicit connection." The general (non-server-specific) form of this same restriction.

Once connected via CONNECT TO, server switching must be explicit — use SET CONNECTION (after CONNECT TO-ing the target server if needed) instead of an implicit DATABASE switch.