Migrating to the new version of Informix

After you prepare your databases for migration, you can migrate to the new version of Informix®.

  • Read the release notes and the machine notes for any new information.
  • Complete the steps in Preparing for migration.

To upgrade a Informix non-root installation, you must run the installation program as the same user who installed the product being upgraded.

If you are migrating the database server from a version that does not support label-based access control, users who held the DBA privilege are automatically granted the SETSESSIONAUTH access privilege for PUBLIC during the migration process. For more information about SETSESSIONAUTH, see the IBM® Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax. For information about label-based access control, see the IBM Informix Security Guide.

Important: Do not connect applications to a database server instance until migration has successfully completed.

Review and complete all tasks that apply:

  1. Installing the new version of Informix.
  2. Setting environment variables.
  3. Customizing configuration files.
  4. Adding Communications Support Modules.
  5. Installing or upgrading any DataBlade modules.
  6. Starting the new version of Informix.

When the migration starts, the online.log displays the message Conversion from version <version number> Started.. The log continues to display start and end messages for all components. When the migration of all components is complete, the message Conversion Completed Successfully appears. For more information about this log, see Migration status messages.

After migration, see Completing required post-migration tasks for information about preparing the new server for use.

If the log indicates that migration failed, you can either:
  • Install the old database server and restore your database from a level-0 backup.
  • Run the onrestorept utility to back out of the upgrade and restore files to a consistent state without having to restore from a backup. You can run this utility only if you set the configuration parameters that enable the utility. See Restoring to a previous consistent state after a failed upgrade.