Informix Experts

From archive: May 2009

OpenAdmin Tool Version 2.24 Available Now!

cheetahblog Tags: openadmin oat ‎ 1 Comment ‎ 8,745 Views

It's been five months since the last release of OAT, but hopefully it's been worth the wait. OpenAdmin Tool version 2.24 is now here to make IDS administration even easier!

What's new in OAT 2.24?

Compression

The Storage Optimization feature is new to IDS in 11.50.xC4. And OAT 2.24 provides the graphical interface that makes saving disk space easy.

Compress, uncompress, repack, and shrink operations are all available through OAT. Save disk space by compressing tables and table fragments, consolidate free space in tables and fragments through a repack operation, and return free space to the dbspace through the shrink operation. OAT also helps you to decide which tables or fragments to compress by graphically showing you the estimated the amount of space that compression will save.

SQL Trace for Historical Data

The popular SQL Explorer feature just keeps getting better. In OAT 2.24, the SQL Explorer now allows you to permanently store SQL Trace data in the sysadmin database. Then you can use the SQL Explorer to perform a query drill-down to gather statistical information not only on live SQL statements, but historical SQL as well!

Also new to the SQL Explorer, a Query Optimization Workbench which allows you to create and save external directives to modify a query's behavior.

Query By Example

Query By Example is a new addition to OAT's SQL Toolbox. Query by Example is a easy-to-use CRUD interface that can be used to perform these standard SQL operations on a table: query, insert, update, and delete.

Import/Export Connections

OAT now supports importing and exporting IDS connection information using XML. This feature, available on the OAT administration page, will save you time in setting up OAT as it allows for the ability to export OpenAdmin Tool connection information to an XML file and import it into another instance of OAT.

Enterprise Replication Plug-in version 2.1

The Enterprise Replication plug-in has been building with each release. Version 2.1 of the ER plugin marks a major stride forward - with its support for ER administration and setup. The ER plugin can now be used to do remote graphical setup, administration, and monitoring of Enterprise Replication - on the domain level, on the node level, and on the replication level.

The new ER setup and administration support in OAT includes the ability to:

Define ER servers
Define replicates and replicate sets
Define and realize templates
Start, stop, suspend, and resume replicates and replicate sets
Check replicates and replicate sets for data inconsistencies
Repair data inconsistencies in replicates and replicate sets
Synchronize data to repair inconsistencies in replicates and replicate sets
Repair failed transactions by using Aborted Transaction Spooling (ATS) and Row Information Spooling (RIS) files

Download OAT Version 2.24 now at https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=swg-informixfpd

For additional information on OpenAdmin Tool for IDS, including feature details, screenshots and demos, go to www.openadmintool.org. To post comments or questions about OAT, use the IIUG OAT forum.

Erika Von Bargen

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Tips for Upgrading OAT

cheetahblog Tags: openadmin oat ‎ 7,434 Views

This article will provide tips on the easiest ways to upgrade your OpenAdmin Tool installation.

But first, we must start with describing the two different ways to install OAT:

Automated Installer

The automated OAT installer is provides an automated way to install and configure OAT and all of its prerequisites. The following products are included as part of the automated installer:

OpenAdmin Tool for IDS (and the ER plug-in)
IBM Informix I-Connect 3.50
Apache 2.2.4
PHP 5.2.4
PDO_INFORMIX 1.2.6

What platforms? The automated installer is only available on the following platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS.

When to use it? The automated installer is really intended for first time installations. It's purpose is to drastically simplify the initial step of installing and configuring OAT's prerequisites. The automated installer is also limited to those who do not require custom web server configurations. And those installing on Windows, Linux, or MacOS platforms.

Manual Installation

The manual installation is when you install and configure your own Apache, PHP, PDO_INFORMIX, and Informix CSDK or I-Connect prior to installing OAT. Under this installation method, OAT comes as a zip or tar file that you can just extract into the webserver's document root directory after all prerequisites have been installed and configured.

What platforms? Any platform for which you can get OAT's prerequisite's installed. Although, for some platforms this can be very tricky.

When to use it? You are installing on a platform other than Windows, Linux, or MacOS. Or you have special web server configuration needs that are not supported by the Apache web server shipped with the automated installer. Or you already have a web server/PHP setup, which is exactly your situation if you are upgrading OAT!

Upgrading OAT

So now that we are clear on the initial installation choices, we can finally get to talking about upgrading OAT.

The Automated Installer only supports full installations. It does not support installing individual components (e.g. OAT only), or upgrading components of the installation. Therefore using the automated installer for upgrading OAT only makes sense if you want a completely new installation of the webserver, PHP, and OAT. (Note: on Windows, this will require completely removing your old installation first.)

Therefore, the recommended method for upgrading OAT is to use the manual install package. This makes sense because you already have the webserver, PHP, PDO_INFORMIX, and I-Connect installed and configured. When upgrading, all you need is the new version of the OAT product -- which is just a set of php files. To upgrade, download the OAT zip or tar file and extract it into your web servers document root directory and then visit the OAT install URL (http://<servername>/<oat_directory>/install) to upgrade.

Now when you choose the manual upgrade of just extracting the new version of OAT into your webserver's document root directory, you have two choices:

Extract over the existing installation of OAT

This method is fast and easy. You just extract the newest OAT tar or zip file over the existing OAT directory, visit the OAT install URL (http://<servername>/<oat_directory>/install) to upgrade your OAT connections database, and you're on your way. The disadvantage is that you lose your previous OAT installtion, including any custom changes you may have made to the files shipped as part of the OAT product.

Extract into a new directory in your webserver's document root (Recommended)

This allows you to preserve your OAT existing installation should you ever want to go back to it. But what about preserving the connection information from your previous OAT installation? Again there are two options:

You can make a copy of your previous connections.db (see the OAT Admin Config page for its location) and point your new installation of OAT to the copy. Then when you visit the the OAT install URL (http://<servername>/<oat_directory>/install) of the new installation, it will automatically upgrade the connections.db to the latest version and preserve all of your connection information. But since the OAT connections.db stores OAT plug-in information in addition to IDS server connection information, when you use this method, you will either have to install the same plug-ins into the new version of OAT or copy the OAT plugin directory from your previous installation into the new version of OAT.

The other option for preserving IDS server connection information when upgrading OAT is to use the new OAT 2.24 import/export connections feature. This allows you to export OAT's IDS connection information into an XML file and then import it into another installation of OAT. Of course, here too, if you want the same plugins as your previous installation of OAT, you'll still need to use the Plug-in Manager to install the plug-ins in the new OAT installation.

For additional information on OpenAdmin Tool for IDS, including feature details, screenshots, demos, and the download link, go to www.openadmintool.org. Any questions about OAT or its installation/upgrade can be posted on the IIUG OAT forum.

Erika Von Bargen

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940 is now End of Support

cheetahblog Tags: 940 support eos ‎ 7,211 Views

Please note that IDS 9.40 [All Versions] is now "End of Support". If you are planning on remaining on 9.4, you should start discussingwith your IBM Representative regarding purchasing a service extension else please consider upgrading to the current IDS release.

IDS 11.50.xC4 has several new features like storage optimization and warehouse that you can take advantage of.

The upgrade portal is a good resource for your upgrade plans and is a definite recommendation. If you need any additional assistance or have a quick question, please feel free to email getIDS11@us.ibm.com.

Happy upgrades!!

-Pradeep

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