Comparing Different Redirection Mechanisms

Table 40 summarizes the differences among the three redirection mechanisms.

Table 40. Comparison of Redirection Methods for Different Connectivity Strategies
Comparison Criteria	DBPATH		Connectivity Information		INFORMIXSERVER
Comparison Criteria	Automatic Redirection	User Redirection	Automatic Redirection	User Redirection	User Redirection
When is a client redirected?	When the client next tries to connect with a specified database		After the administrator changes the connectivity information, when the client next tries to establish a connection with a database server		When the client restarts and reads a new value for the INFORMIXSERVER environment variable
Do clients need to be restarted to be redirected?	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
What is the scope of the redirection?	Individual clients redirected	Individual clients redirected	All clients that use a given database server redirected	Individual clients redirected	Individual clients redirected
Are changes to environment variables required?	No		No		Yes