Starting the new version of Informix

After installing the new database server, start the server. Do not perform disk-space initialization, which overwrites whatever is on the disk space.

Prerequisite: If you installed Informix® as user root, you must switch to user informix before starting the server.

Important: Informix writes to the logical logs with the transactions that result from creating the sysmaster database. If you run out of log space before the creation of the sysmaster database is complete, Informix stops and indicates that you must back up the logical logs. After you back up the logical logs, the database server can finish building the sysmaster database. You cannot use ON-Bar to back up the logical logs because the database has not been converted yet. If you have ALARMPROGRAM set to log_full.sh in the ONCONFIG configuration file, errors are generated as each log file fills during the migration. Set the value of ALARMPROGRAM to either nothing or no_log.sh so that these errors are not generated. If your logical log does fill up during the migration, you must back it up with ontape, the only backup tool you can use at this point. Issue the ontape -a command.

Start the new version of Informix for the first time by running oninit command on UNIX or by using the Service control application on Windows.

As Informix starts for the first time, it modifies certain disk structures. This operation should extend the initialization process by only a minute or two. If your disks cannot accommodate the growth in disk structures, you will find a message in the message-log file that instructs you to run an oncheck command on a table. The oncheck utility will tell you that you need to rebuild an index. You must rebuild the index as instructed.

Once conversion has completed successfully you will see the following in the message log:

            *   * *   * *   * *   * *   * *   *
             * *   * *   * *   * *   * *   * *
              *     *     *     *     *     *
             Conversion Completed Successfully
              *     *     *     *     *     *
             * *   * *   * *   * *   * *   * *
            *   * *   * *   * *   * *   * *   *

At that point your Version 15.0.0 instance will be in compatibility mode. In this mode the server uses the legacy infrastructure, which has a version of 0. The onstat banner displays the infrastructure version and indicates whether you are in compatibility mode:

IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 15.0.0.0 -- On-Line -- Up 00:50:06 -- 715340 Kbytes
2024-11-08 07:55:29 -- Infrastructure Version: 0 (Compatibility mode)

While in compatibility mode, your legacy applications may be tested and they should work as they did in the prior version. Should reversion to that prior version become necessary, this may be done from compatibility mode using the onmode -b command.

A production system may be run in compatibility mode, but most Version 15.0 features will not be enabled. To enable all Version 15.0 features you must move your instance to native mode.