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Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
Enterprise Replication
The HCL® Informix® Enterprise Replication Guide describes the concepts of data replication using Informix Enterprise Replication, including how to design your replication system, as well as administer and manage data replication throughout your enterprise.
Setting up and managing Enterprise Replication
After you design your replication system, you define it and start replication.
Preparing the Replication Environment
The following topics explain the steps that are required for setting up Enterprise Replication.
Preparing the Network Environment
You must prepare the network environment for each database server in an Enterprise Replication domain.
Creating sqlhost group entries for replication servers
The sqlhosts file on the host of each replication server must specify a group entry for each replication server in an Enterprise Replication domain. You can manually specify sqlhost file information, or run the cdr autoconfig serv command to add entries to a database server's sqlhost file, and then propagate the entries to other database servers in an Enterprise Replication domain. However, if you are configuring secure ports, you cannot use the cdr autoconfig serv command.

Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
- System administration
  These topics contain concepts, procedures, and reference information for database and database server administrators to use for managing and tuning HCL Informix® database servers.
- Backup and Restore Guide
  The Informix® Backup and Restore Guide describes how to use the Informix ON-Bar and ontape utilities to back up and restore database server data. These utilities enable you to recover your databases after data is lost or becomes corrupted due to hardware or software failure or accident.
- Enterprise Replication
  The HCL® Informix® Enterprise Replication Guide describes the concepts of data replication using Informix Enterprise Replication, including how to design your replication system, as well as administer and manage data replication throughout your enterprise.
  - About Enterprise Replication
    Informix® Enterprise Replication generates and manages multiple copies of data at one or more sites, which allows an enterprise to share corporate data throughout its organization.
  - Planning and designing for Enterprise Replication
    Before you set up your replication system, plan how to include Enterprise Replication into your database server environment, design your database schema by following Enterprise Replication requirements, and then design your replication system between database servers.
  - Setting up and managing Enterprise Replication
    After you design your replication system, you define it and start replication.
    - Preparing the Replication Environment
      The following topics explain the steps that are required for setting up Enterprise Replication.
      - Preparing the Network Environment
        You must prepare the network environment for each database server in an Enterprise Replication domain.
        Configuring hosts information for replication servers
        If you are not using Domain Name Service (DNS) to identify IP addresses and system names, you do need to configure the hosts file on each replication server to add the IP addresses and system names for all other replication servers in the domain.
        Configuring port and service names for replication servers
        Replication servers must know the port numbers for each of the other replication servers in the domain.
        Creating sqlhost group entries for replication servers
        The sqlhosts file on the host of each replication server must specify a group entry for each replication server in an Enterprise Replication domain. You can manually specify sqlhost file information, or run the cdr autoconfig serv command to add entries to a database server's sqlhost file, and then propagate the entries to other database servers in an Enterprise Replication domain. However, if you are configuring secure ports, you cannot use the cdr autoconfig serv command.
        Configuring secure ports for connections between replication servers
        If database servers in your Enterprise Replication environment are on a network that is not trusted, you can configure secure ports and an encrypted password file to enable secure connections.
        Configuring network encryption for replication servers
        You encrypt client/server network communication by specifying the ENCCSM module with the communications support module (CSM) option in the sqlhosts file. You encrypt Enterprise Replication communication by setting encryption configuration parameter ENCRYPT_SMX or by configuring ER group option for onsocssl port in sqlhosts file. Unless onsocssl port is used for communicating with peer ER servers, for communicating with older server versions before 14.10xC6, Enterprise Replication requires configuring ENCRYPT_CDR instead of ENCRYPT_SMX.
        Testing the replication network
        After you set up the network environment, test the connections between the replication servers. You cannot test a connection that uses the s=6 option in the sqlhosts file.
        Testing the password file
        You create and encrypt a password file to allow the CDR utility to access to a secure network environment. Use these steps to test that the encrypted password file is correctly configured.
      - Preparing the Disk
        These topics describe how to prepare your disk for Enterprise Replication.
      - Preparing the Database Server Environment
        To prepare the database server environment, set database server environment variables and configuration parameters, and synchronize the operating system time on all participating database servers.
      - Preparing Data for Replication
      - Load and unload data
        You can load data into or unload data out of tables in your replication environment in various ways, depending on your circumstances.
      - Data Preparation Example
    - Using High-Availability Clusters with Enterprise Replication
    - Defining Replication Servers, Replicates, Participants, and Replicate Sets
      These topics describe the steps defining and starting Enterprise Replication.
    - Grid setup and management
      A grid is a set of replication servers that are configured to simplify administration. When you run SQL data definition statements from within a grid context on a grid server, the statements propagate to all servers in the grid. You can run SQL data manipulation statements and routines through grid routines. You can choose to set up replication automatically when you create a table through a grid. You can propagate external files to other servers in the grid.
    - Shard cluster setup
      Sharding is a way to horizontally partition a single table across multiple database servers in a shard cluster. Enterprise Replication moves the data from the source server to the appropriate target server as specified by the sharding method. You query a sharded table as if the entire table is on the local server. You do not need to know where the data is. Queries that are performed on one shard server retrieve the relevant data from other servers in a shard cluster. Sharding reduces the index size on each shard server and distributes performance across hardware. You can add shard servers to the shard cluster as your data grows.
    - Managing Replication Servers and Replicates
    - Monitor and troubleshooting Enterprise Replication
      You can monitor and diagnose problems with the Enterprise Replication system by using several different methods, depending on your needs.
  - Push data feature
  - Loopback replication
  - Appendixes

Creating sqlhost group entries for replication servers

The sqlhosts file on the host of each replication server must specify a group entry for each replication server in an Enterprise Replication domain. You can manually specify sqlhost file information, or run the cdr autoconfig serv command to add entries to a database server's sqlhost file, and then propagate the entries to other database servers in an Enterprise Replication domain. However, if you are configuring secure ports, you cannot use the cdr autoconfig serv command.

Typically, a server group includes only one database server. However, if the computer has multiple network protocols or network interface cards, the server group includes all aliases for the database server. Enterprise Replication treats the server group as one object, whether it includes one or several database server names.

The following example shows sqlhosts file entries for four Enterprise Replication servers:

serv1
serv2
serv3
serv4

#dbservername  nettype   hostname             servicename  options
 g_serv1       group     -                    -            i=143
 serv1         ontlitcp  ny.usa.com           1230         g=g_serv1
 
 g_serv2       group     -                    -            i=144
 serv2         ontlitcp  tokyo.japan.com      1231         g=g_serv2
 
 g_serv3       group     -                    -            i=145
 serv3         ontlitcp  rome.italy.com       1232         g=g_serv3
 
 g_serv4       group     -                    -            i=146
 serv4         ontlitcp  perth.australia.com  1233         g=g_serv4

Each server has two entries of information:

A group definition, which specifies a group name and unique ID for the replication server
Connectivity information for the database server

All Enterprise Replication commands and options use the name of the database server group or the more familiar database server name (that is, the name that is specified by the INFORMIXSERVER environment variable) for all references to database servers. The exception is the --connect option, which can use either a server name or a group name.

Leaf servers in hierarchical routing topologies do not require connectivity information for all replication servers. A leaf server requires connectivity information for only itself and its parent.