Configuring connectivity between Informix database servers and IBM Data Server clients

To connect to Informix with an IBM Data Server client, you must follow certain configuration steps.

IBM Data Server Client and an applicable driver must be installed.

On each Connection Manager and database server host, add sqlhosts file entries for each server:

For example:

#dbservername    nettype     hostname    servicename   options
 server_1        onsoctcp    host_1      port_1
 server_2        onsoctcp    host_2      port_2
 server_3        onsoctcp    host_3      port_3

In each database server's onconfig file, set the DBSERVERALIASES parameter to specify an alias for the server.
The onconfig file entry for server_1:
```
DBSERVERALIASES drda_1
```
The onconfig file entry for server_2:
```
DBSERVERALIASES drda_2
```
The onconfig file entry for server_3:
```
DBSERVERALIASES drda_3
```

On each Connection Manager's host, add sqlhosts file entries for DRDA aliases. Specify a drtlitcp or drsoctcp protocol and specify a port for DRDA communication.

For example:

#dbservername  nettype    hostname   servicename   options
 server_1      onsoctcp   host_1     port_1
 server_2      onsoctcp   host_2     port_2
 server_3      onsoctcp   host_3     port_3

 drda_1        drsoctcp   host_1     drda_port_1
 drda_2        drsoctcp   host_2     drda_port_2
 drda_3        drsoctcp   host_3     drda_port_3

On the host of each Connection Manager, add a group entry for the group of database server and add a group entry for the group of DRDA aliases. Add group options to the database server and DRDA alias entries. Use the c=1 group-entry option so that connection-attempt starting points in the list of group members is random. Use the e=last_member group-entry option so that the entire sqlhosts is not scanned for group members.

For example:

#dbservername   nettype    hostname   servicename   options
 my_servers     group      -          -             c=1,e=server_3
 server_1       onsoctcp   host_1     port_1        g=my_servers
 server_2       onsoctcp   host_2     port_2        g=my_servers
 server_3       onsoctcp   host_3     port_3        g=my_servers

 drda_aliases   group      -          -             c=1,e=drda_3
 drda_1         drsoctcp   host_1     port_4        g=drda_aliases
 drda_2         drsoctcp   host_2     port_5        g=drda_aliases
 drda_3         drsoctcp   host_3     port_6        g=drda_aliases

Add the DRDA service-level agreements to your Connection Managers' configuration files.

For example:

The first Connection Manager's configuration file has the following entries:

NAME connection_manager_1

CLUSTER my_cluster
{
   INFORMIXSERVER my_servers
   SLA sla_primary_1          DBSERVERS=PRI
   SLA sla_primary_drda_1     DBSERVERS=PRI
   SLA sla_secondaries_1      DBSERVERS=SDS,HDR
   SLA sla_secondaries_drda_1 DBSERVERS=SDS,HDR
   FOC ORDER=ENABLED \
       PRIORITY=1
}

The second Connection Manager's configuration file has the following entries:

NAME connection_manager_2

CLUSTER my_cluster
{
   INFORMIXSERVER my_servers
   SLA sla_primary_2          DBSERVERS=PRI
   SLA sla_primary_drda_2     DBSERVERS=PRI
   SLA sla_secondaries_2      DBSERVERS=SDS,HDR
   SLA sla_secondaries_drda_2 DBSERVERS=SDS,HDR
   FOC ORDER=ENABLED \
       PRIORITY=2
}

On the host of each IBM Data Server client, create sqlhosts file entries for each service-level agreement (SLA) in each Connection Manager configuration file. Create group entries for each group of SLA entries, and add group options to the SLA entries.

For example:

#dbservername            nettype    hostname   servicename  options
 g_primary               group      -          -            c=1,e=sla_primary_2
 sla_primary_1           onsoctcp   cm_host_1  cm_port_1    g=g_primary
 sla_primary_2           onsoctcp   cm_host_2  cm_port_2    g=g_primary

 g_secondaries           group      -          -            c=1,e=sla_secondaries_2
 sla_secondaries_2       onsoctcp   cm_host_1  cm_port_3    g=g_secondaries
 sla_secondaries_2       onsoctcp   cm_host_2  cm_port_4    g=g_secondaries

 g_primary_drda          group      -          -            c=1,e=sla_primary_2_drda
 sla_primary_1_drda      drsoctcp   cm_host_1  cm_port_5    g=g_primary_drda
 sla_primary_2_drda      drsoctcp   cm_host_2  cm_port_6    g=g_primary_drda

 g_secondaries_drda      group      -          -            c=1,e=sla_secondaries_2_drda
 sla_secondaries_2_drda  drsoctcp   cm_host_1  cm_port_7    g=g_secondaries_drda
 sla_secondaries_2_drda  drsoctcp   cm_host_2  cm_port_8    g=g_secondaries_drda

In the previous example, IBM Data Server client connection requests to @g_primary_drda are sent by drsoctcp protocol to one of the Connection Managers. The Connection Manager that receives the request uses an SLA to provide the client application with connection information for the primary server.

If you receive error -23104 when accessing the server through the DRDA protocol, the client application might be trying to bind a value that has an encoding different from the code page or code set of the database locale. Set the GL_USEGLU environment variable to 1 before you start the Informix instance. This setting enables the server to initialize the appropriate Unicode converters that are required to handle the code set conversions.