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Informix and Virtualization - Supported Environments


Informix Supported Environments for Virtualization

IBM Informix only supports the environments listed on this page. This page will be updated as new environments become validated.

Click here for Informix requirements.


Hardware Embedded Full Virtualization Environments

Informix supports hypervisors fully embedded in hardware/firmware as long as operating system requirements are met. Some examples are systems equipped with PowerVM, VMware ESX 3i or Hitachi Virtage.

*Note: Any enhancements in hypervisor function that come in the form of separate software are not included in the definition of "Hardware Embedded". See the below categories for software virtualization technologies that are currently supported.


Informix Supported Virtualization Environments for x86 and x64 Architectures


Hypervisor Architecture Minimum Guest OS (Windows) Minimum Guest OS (Linux) Minimun Informix Level
VMware ESX 3.0.1 and higher x86/x64 System listed on ESX HCL Any Microsoft Windows level supported by both Informix and ESX Any Linux distribution supported by both Informix and ESX Informix 11.50 (32 or 64 bit)
*Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2 and higher Xen HVM x64 System with: INTEL-VT or AMD-V Not Supported RHEL 5.2 64bit Informix 11.50
*64bit only
*SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 SP2 Xen HVM x64 System with: INTEL-VT or AMD-V Not Supported SLES 10 SP2 64bit Informix 11.50
*64bit only

* Important restrictions regarding RHEL 5.2 and SLES 10 SP2 Xen Environments:

  • Guest VMs must be HVM mode and 64bit Linux. Paravirtual guests are not supported by Informix at this time.
  • Guest OS distro must be within the same major version as the Host OS distro.
  • Disk I/O access must be through the 'phy:' mechanism which is used to export devices or logical volumes to the guest (therefore, no file based devices). The mechanism can be set in your xen guest's configuration file. Other access modes such as 'file:' and 'tap:aio:' are not supported by Informix at this time.
  • Disk devices exported to guest VMs must have write caching disabled using 'hdparm -W0 (device name)'.
  • Live Migration is not supported by Informix at this time.


Informix Supported Full Virtualization Environments for non-x86 Platforms


Hypervisor Architecture Minimum Guest OS
Minimun Informix Level
PowerVM & VIOS IBM System p AIX 5.3 TL05
AIX 6.1
RHEL 5
SLES 10 SP1 		Informix 11.50
z/VM 5.2
z/VM 5.3 		IBM System z
SLES 9 SP3
SLES 10 SP1
RHEL 4 U4
RHEL 5(64bit only) 		Informix 11.50


Informix Supported OS Virtualization Environments for x86 and x64 Platforms
Technology Operating System Minimun Informix Level
*Solaris Zones Solaris 10 (x64) Informix 10, 11.10, 11.50 (64 Bit)


Informix Supported OS Virtualization Environments for non-x86 Platforms
Technology Operating System Minimun Informix Level
*AIX System Workload Partitions (WPARS) AIX 6.1 Informix 11.50
*Solaris Zones Solaris 10 Informix 7.31, 9.4, 11.10, 11.50
HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) HP-UX 11.23, HP-UX 11.31 Informix 11.50
HP Virtual Partitions (vPars) HP-UX 11.11, HP-UX 11.23, HP-UX 11.31 Informix 11.50
HP Integrity Virtual Machines (HPVM) HP-UX 11.23, HP-UX 11.31 Informix 11.50

* Important restrictions regarding WPARs and Zones:
* WPAR mobility is not supported by Informix at this time.

Click here for a link to the HP Online VM migration whitepaper.

Quick Links

IBM Virtual Appliances
DB2 Virtualization Support

Informix Virtualization Support
solidDB Virtualization Support