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Informix Error -910

-910 Cannot create an IBM Informix Dynamic Server database from

an IBM Informix SE client.

This CREATE DATABASE statement cannot be carried out because the database server on your workstation and the one on the other computer system are different products: one is IBM Informix SE and the other is another IBM Informix database server. You can manipulate databases in this configuration, but you cannot create one.

To create a database, either start the same product in both locations, or run this statement locally on the other computer system.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-910 fires when CREATE DATABASE is attempted across a mismatched product pair — the local workstation's database server and the remote target's database server are different Informix products (one SE, the other a different Informix server) — per the official guidance, this specific combination can't create a database, even though other cross-product operations on an already-existing database are supported.

  1. CREATE DATABASE issued from an SE client targeting a non-SE remote server (or vice versa), per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
  2. A workflow that mixes creating databases with ordinary cross-product data access, not realizing creation specifically has this extra restriction that other operations don't.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Start the same product in both locations, per the official guidance, if that's feasible, then retry CREATE DATABASE.
  2. Or run the CREATE DATABASE statement locally on the other computer system, per the official guidance — connect directly to that system (using its own matching product) and create the database there instead of remotely from the mismatched client.
  3. Once the database exists, ordinary cross-product manipulation is supported, per the official guidance — this restriction is specific to the creation step.
Examples
Creating the database locally on the target system instead
-- Instead of creating remotely from a mismatched-product client:
-- CREATE DATABASE sales@remote_server;  -- -910

-- Connect to remote_server directly (using its own matching product)
-- and run CREATE DATABASE there instead.
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Confirm which Informix product is running locally and which is running on the target remote server, and whether they match, before attempting a remote CREATE DATABASE.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -599 — "Cannot mix IBM Informix Dynamic Server syntax with IBM Informix SE syntax." A related SE/Dynamic-Server product-mismatch restriction, about syntax within one statement rather than cross-server database creation.
  • -554 — "Syntax disallowed in this database server." A related product-mismatch restriction, about a single statement/clause not matching the server in use.

Create the database locally on the target system (using its own matching product) instead of remotely from a mismatched-product client.