Informix Experts

In IDS releases prior to 10.00.TC5, the Informix Dynamic Server(IDS) Windows Service was allowed to log on only as user informix. Launching the IDS installation program setup.exe with the -system command line argument (only) will install IDS and create a new instance running as the Windows Local System user, bypassing screens which prompt for informix user password(informix user does not get created when this option is used).

Starting with version 11.50, you can install IDS on Windows as the local system user account by selecting the Local System User option right on the IDS Server configuration Setup panel. This option is available only in custom mode of installation.

Typically this option provides the same privileges as the informix user account; however, it uses an internal account representing a pseudo-user that does not require a password. The local system account is used by the operating system and services running under Windows during the installation of Dynamic Server. The informix user is still created by default.

However user can choose not to create an informix user account at all, but we have to note that Enterprise Replication between Dynamic Server on UNIX and IDS on Windows Operating System will not work if informix user and Informix-Admin group is not present.Along with the “Start database server as Local System User” checkbox another checkbox “Do not create user informix account” is also provided on the same panel which is greyed out unless the user picks the System User option.

Some of the benefits of why people would want to do this:
• if the machine has a password expiry policy and it is not convenient to change the password of the IDS service this will save having to do it
• some security policies require that the informix user not be a member of the Administrators group. If the IDS service logs on as local system user the informix user no longer has to be an administrator.

Snigdha Sahu[Read More]