INFORMIXCONTIME

The INFORMIXCONTIME environment variable specifies for how many seconds the CONNECT statement continues each attempt to establish a connection to a database server before returning an error. If you set no value, the default of 60 seconds can typically support a few hundred concurrent client connections, but some systems might encounter very few connection errors with a value as low as 15. The total distance between nodes, hardware speed, the volume of traffic, and the concurrency level of the network can all affect what value you should set to optimize INFORMIXCONTIME.

The INFORMIXCONTIME and INFORMIXCONRETRY environment variables let you configure your client-side connection capability to retry the connection instead of returning a -908 error.

>>-setenv--INFORMIXCONTIME--seconds----------------------------><
 

seconds

represents the minimum number of seconds spent in attempts to establish a connection to a database server.

For example, enter this command to set INFORMIXCONTIME to 60 seconds:

setenv INFORMIXCONTIME 60 

If INFORMIXCONTIME is set to 60 and INFORMIXCONRETRY is set to 3, attempts to connect to the database server (after the initial attempt at 0 seconds) are made at 20, 40, and 60 seconds, if necessary, before aborting. This 20-second interval is the result of INFORMIXCONTIME divided by INFORMIXCONRETRY. If you attempt to set INFORMIXCONTIME to zero, the database server automatically resets it to the default value of 60 seconds.

If execution of the CONNECT statement involves searching DBPATH, the following rules apply:

• All appropriate servers in the DBPATH setting are accessed at least once, even though the INFORMIXCONTIME value might be exceeded. Thus, the CONNECT statement might take longer than the INFORMIXCONTIME time limit to return an error that indicates connection failure or that the database was not found.
• INFORMIXCONRETRY specifies how many additional connection attempts should be made for each database server entry in DBPATH.
• The INFORMIXCONTIME value is divided among the number of database server entries specified in DBPATH. Thus, if DBPATH contains numerous servers, you should increase the INFORMIXCONTIME value accordingly. For example, if DBPATH contains three entries, to spend at least 30 seconds attempting each connection, set INFORMIXCONTIME to 90.

INFORMIXCONTIME takes precedence over the INFORMIXCONRETRY setting. Retry efforts could end after the INFORMIXCONTIME value is exceeded, but before the INFORMIXCONRETRY value is reached.

The INFORMIXCONTIME and INFORMIXCONRETRY environment variables can be modified with the onutil SET command, as in the following example:

% onutil
1> SET INFORMIXCONTIME 120;
Dynamic Configuration completed successfully
2> SET INFORMIXCONRETRY 10;
Dynamic Configuration completed successfully