Informix DB Migration - Solaris to Linux

ravydavygravy

Heyho,

Anyone here know informix - I want to find out whats involved in a migration of an informix db from informix on Solaris 8 to informix on linux (probably RHEL). Some collegues are trying to make out its a huge deal (and maybe it is), but I can't imagine what complications there might be (its informix, fully supported by IBM on both platforms).

Anyone have any experience with this?

Dave

amcc

while I haven't migrated Informix databases from Solaris to Linux, I have migrated Oracle databases to Linux.
The most straightforward way to do this would probably be to create an empty database of the same size as the source database on the Linux server, then export the data from the Solaris source database and import it to the Linux destination database. The time this takes would depend on the size of the database.

copying the datafiles directly across would probably not be an option, particularly if your Solaris database is on SPARC not on x86 - SPARC is a big endian architecture while x86 is little endian .

ravydavygravy

Yeah, I think they were looking at using the informix dbimport/dbexport tools (which I assume are the same idea as mysqldump)

Daved

Khannie

I don't see why it would be a huge deal at all. Unless the time it takes to read / write the data is enormous. How much data are you looking at? And is downtime acceptable?

Sure you could use a perl script to do it if the informix tools didn't exist (which I'm sure they do). This thread might be better suited to the servers / systems forum though.

ravydavygravy

Didn't even know such a forum existed! I'll post there as well...

brianmc

Informix is my day job.

PM me if you've any questions.

There shouldn't be any issues moving between the two OSes. A more likely complication would be if you had to use a different version of IDS but even then this should be straight forward.

An ontape backup would most likely be the most efficient way to move the data across but if there's issues with that there are plenty of other options.

Dbexport/dbimport does have the advantage of effectively allowing you to "defrag" the database during the migration and provides a good opportunity for any restructuring you might want to do.

Should all else fail, it is even possible to take the chunk files (assuming you're using "cooked" files as opposed to raw partitions) across and with a small element of "fingers crossed" you should be able to get things up and running.

The migration path is obviously different depending on which of the above routes you choose. All going well and assuming you're able to use an "ontape" backup, the main thing is to make sure that you have matching dbspaces on the new box.

ravydavygravy

Great, thanks for that - I'll get more details and get a PM together for you. One small thing - do you have any opinion about running Informix on Solaris vs Linux? The guys currently running the DB are very fond of Solaris/Sparc, but we are mainly a RHEL shop, so in-depth solaris knowledge is getting thin on the ground (hence the desire from the management to move to linux - that, and the cost savings)

Khannie

My 2c: Go where your expertise is.

If money were no object I'd go with Sparc Solaris myself. That sh*t is INVINCIBLE. On the flip side, you can get a lot more processing power for the same money with Intel / AMD hardware. I think SSD's are really worth looking at for a DB box these days. You could use the linux kernel software raid to "RAID 10" 4 of them for some sexy sexy performance.