What's new in InformixHQ

This topic includes information about new features in InformixHQ.

What's new in InformixHQ 2.4.1

Administration

  • Upgrade to H2 Database version 2.2.224 to address security vulnerabilities present in the older versions (2.1.214) of H2 Database.
  • InformixHQ 2.4.1 is developed using Java 11 and is certified with Java 17. We recommend utilizing either Java 11 or Java 17 for optimal compatibility and performance.
  • First time user needs to login with admin/admin credentials. Upon initial log in, user will be prompted to change the password. The earlier method of setting 'initialAdminPassword' property in the properties file, has been removed. This eliminates the need to put the admin password as plain text in a file, thereby increasing the security.
  • InformixHQ version 2.4.1 onwards, following filename changes are done:
    Before 2.4.1 Starting 2.4.1
    informixhq-server.log monitoring-server.log
    informixhq-agent.log monitoring-agent.log
    informixhq-server.properties monitoring-server.properties
    informixhq-agent.properties monitoring-agent.properties
    server.log4j.xml monitoring-server.log4j.xml
    agent.log4j.xml monitoring-agent.log4j.xml

Ease of use

  • Enhancements to Enterprise Replication

    Enhancements to Enterprise Replication include creation of ER Domain and replicates using InformixHQ. This relieves a user from remembering complex CDR commands. Using just a few clicks, their ER domain is ready to use. Users can also see the CDR commands running on Informix Server in the UI.

    Comprehensive built-in documentation is also available for easy reference, within InformixHQ.

  • Introduction of four new toggles to the SQL Editor for improved usability
    • Multi Statement Execution: Users now have the flexibility to run multiple SQL statements keeping this toggle on. Going back to the single statement execution mode is also possible keeping this toggle off. Default is Multi Statement Execution.
      Note: At present, only {} (curly braces) style comments are supported in SQL Editor.
    • Continue on failure: With this toggle on, all the SQL statements given before and after the failing SQL statement are executed, regardless of the error in execution of any of those statements. With the toggle off, InformixHQ will stop at the first SQL statement failure. This toggle is on by default.
    • Auto-commit: With this toggle on, commit is performed for all the executed SQL statements. But, if the toggle is off, and if there are any uncommitted SQL statements, a user will be prompted to rollback or commit those before doing their next operation/action in InformixHQ. This toggle is on by default.
    • Run as Batch Mode: When this toggle is on, the entire contents of the SQL Editor text box will be sent to the server in a batch over a JDBC connection, and the result will be displayed as is in the UI. If this toggle is enabled, Continue on failure will be disabled automatically and any execution error will result in terminating the batch execution. This toggle is off by default.
    • Saving SQL Editor toggles configuration

      Configuration for toggles Continue on failure, Auto-commit and Run as Batch Mode is now saved to H2 Database. User need not reset these toggles post a reconnection to the Informix Server as toggle settings will be automatically restored.

  • Introduction of a new toggle mode ‘Work Online/Work Offline’

    Prior to version 2.4.1, InformixHQ could be used for visualizing, monitoring and managing Informix server instances only if the Informix server instance was in online mode.

    InformixHQ 2.4.1 provides a new toggle Work Online/Work Offline. If a user wants to do some task that does not require InformixHQ connection to Informix server, this toggle can be used. When Work Offline toggle option is selected by the user, InformixHQ disconnects all the user or Agent initiated JDBC connections to the Informix server. However, user can continue to use Setup of server, Monitoring, Alerting, Permissions menu options in InformixHQ. Menu options such as Schema Manager, Replication will be greyed out if user selects Work Offline toggle option and those will become active when user switches to the Work Online.

  • Support for Dark/Light theme mode for InformixHQ

    Support for Dark/Light theme offers both light and dark themes ensuring that a user can choose what works best for them, thereby improving accessibility.

  • Easy access to InformixHQ Server log

    The current InformixHQ Server log file is now accessible for viewing directly from the InformixHQ.

  • Enhancements to Query History

    Query History in InformixHQ, which includes multi statement, will now be saved to the H2 Database as a batch as per the user’s specifications. This relieves users from manually deleting query history from local storage.

    Query history is now configurable. New history settings options are added to manage query history and to allow user to set duration for maintaining the query history within the permissible range.

    User can set/edit Query History options from My Settings->User Preferences. One of the following options can be set:
    • Auto delete after 30 days - On selecting Auto delete after 30 days option (30 being the default and also the maximum allowed limit), user can set the number of days the history should be available. On exceeding the days’ limit set by the user, only outdated queries (batch statements) will be deleted.
    • Auto delete after 1000 entries - On selecting Auto delete after 1000 entries option, user can set the number of entries that should be available in the query history. On exceeding this limit set by the user, outdated queries (batch statements) will be deleted. Default limit is 1000 entries, maximum allowed query entries is 1000 entries.
    Note: The Delete scheduler runs every midnight or when the InformixHQ server is restarted. It deletes outdated query histories.

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC8

Administration

  • InformixHQ H2 Database migration: InformixHQ 2.0.0 (Informix Server 14.10.xC8) has upgraded its H2 Database version due to certain security vulnerabilities present in the older versions of H2 Database. Between H2 Database version 1.4.192 and the latest version 2.1.210, there have been considerable changes and direct upgrade of H2 Database is not possible. For existing users, H2 Database (InformixHQ 1.6.3 or lower) is created with version 1.4.192, hence data needs to be migrated to 2.1.210 manually.

    If users using InformixHQ 1.6.3 or lower try to move to InformixHQ 2.0.0 or above they will get an error and they will not be able to start InformixHQ until the data is migrated to the newer version of H2 Database.

    For new users who are using InformixHQ for the first time (version 2.0.0 or higher), no upgrade is needed as InformixHQ will create new H2db with the latest version.

    For more information, see H2 Database, H2 Database Migration

    Note: InformixHQ version 2.1.0 is available with the latest H2 database version 2.1.214. It is recommended to use the latest InformixHQ version.

Ease of use

  • View Agents drop-down and Shutdown button: View Agents feature in InformixHQ helps users to see consolidated view of all the agents. It displays the list of all the Agents' information and their status at one place, depending on user privilege to specific instance/server added in InformixHQ. A user can now shutdown an Agent based on user privileges using the new Shutdown button added to Informix HQ UI .

    For more information, see InformixHQ View Agents and Shutdown

  • Server Shutdown : Using the new Shutdown button is an easy way to shut down the InformixHQ server directly from the InformixHQ UI instead of command prompt.

    For more information, see InformixHQ Server Shutdown

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC7

Administration

  • InformixHQ has been enhanced with HDR Secondary Operations through which InformixHQ allows or restricts certain actions on specific server types. HDR cluster consists of Primary and Secondaries. InformixHQ treats every server added as an individual server. Depending upon server type in cluster, Informix Server allows or restricts certain actions on specific server types. From 14.10.xC7 release, InformixHQ has handled all such operations on secondary servers in the cluster.

    For more information, see HDR Secondary Operations.

  • Documentation updates for starting the InformixHQ server with server.log4j.xml.

    For more information, see Starting the InformixHQ Server.

  • Documentation updates to include InformixHQ setup in secure mode (SSL).

    For more information, see InformixHQ in secure mode.

  • Documentation updates for logging in InformixHQ.

    For more information, see Logging in InformixHQ

Customization

  • Documentation updates to include Custom Reports sub-menu provided under InformixHQ UI. InformixHQ provides many built-in reports to monitor Informix server effectively. To provide further flexibility, there is an option of creating customized reports to meet specific needs of users.

    For more information, see Custom Reports

Ease of use

  • The Schema Manager has been enhanced with SQL Editor to enable user to write custom SQL and display query tree plan in the graphical format. To view execution plan, SQL tracing should be enabled on Informix Server. If it is disabled, SQL editor provides an option for easiness to enable it.

    For more information, see SQL Editor.

  • Documentation updates to include Sensors sub-menu provided under InformixHQ UI. Sensors are provided in InformixHQ to collect the data for metric which users want to monitor over a period. Once Sensor is configured, and InformixHQ agent is configured and Online, Sensor data will be collected at specified interval and stored in Repository database in Informix Server.

    For more information, see Sensors.

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC6

Administration

  • The Schema Manager page has been enhanced to:
    • Create and Drop Table with advanced options

    For more information, see Schema Manager.

  • The InformixHQ server and agent now use the log4j2 library for logging. By default, the InformixHQ server and agent will log messages at INFO level to an informixhq-server.log file and an informixhq-agent.log file respectively. You can customize the logging behavior by providing a server.log4j.xml when starting the InformixHQ server or an agent.log4j.xml file when starting the InformixHQ agent in the current directory or classpath. Use these log4j2 configuration files to change the logging level (ERROR, WARN, INFO, or DEBUG), change the log file location, or enable rolling window logging.

    For more information, see ifxhq_logging_in.html .

Ease of use

  • Provision is made for the user to specify connection properties for InformixHQ agent separately.

    For more information, see InformixHQ Agent Setup.

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC5

Administration

  • Enhanced to support stronger hash algorithm for passwords by adding a new config property user.password.algorithm.

    For more information, see InformixHQ Server Configuration.

Customization

  • Customized to save dashboard preferences in Custom Dashboard page

    For more information, see Custom Dashboards.

Ease of use

  • Script to start or stop the server has been enhanced to support AIX platform.

    For more information, see Getting Started.

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC4

Administration

  • The Schema Manager page has been enhanced to:
    • Browse and view detailed information about database information like Stored Procedures, Sequences, User Defined Types, Data Blades
    • Browse and view detailed information about table information like Indexes, References, Constraints, Triggers
    • Create Database and Drop Database
    • Create Demo Database and Drop Demo Database
    • Create, Enable, Disable and Drop Index with advanced options

    For more information, see Schema Manager.

  • The Connection Manager page allows you to visualize and manage CM unit, SLA and FOC for any CM.

    For more information, see Connection Manager.

Ease of use

  • New script has been added to start or stop the server which is available in ${INFORMIXDIR}/HQ directory.

    For more information, see Getting Started.

What's new in InformixHQ 14.10.xC2

Administration

  • The Schema Manager page allows you to browse and view detailed information about the various tables and indexes in each of your databases.
  • The Storage > Tables and Indexes page allows you to analyze the storage characteristics of the tables and indexes in each of your databases, perform storage optimization actions such as compress, shrink, repack, defragment, and manage your automatic storage optimization policies.
  • The High Availability page makes it easy to visualize and monitor the functioning of your high availability cluster.
  • The Enterprise Replication page visualizes and provides details drill-down statistics about each Informix node participating in replication.
  • The Auto Update Statistics pages allows you to manage your automatic update statistics policies, ensuring your queries continue to run efficiently as your data changes over time.
  • The Privileges page allows you to manage privileges on your database server, including database level privileges, table level privileges, SQL Admin API privileges, and internal users.
  • The System Reports page provides a full set of detailed reports on various aspects of your database server's performance.
  • The Task Scheduler pages allows you to manage and customize tasks for your database server.
  • The Memory Manager page allow you to visualize and monitor your database server's memory usage as well as configure its Low Memory Manager configuration.
  • The Backups page has been enhanced to display a history timeline of your most recent database server backups.

Ease of use

  • Centralized user permission management, on the redesigned System Settings > User Management page, allows you to view and manage user's permissions within InformixHQ in a single place.
  • The group incidents page allows you to view all the alerting incidents that occurs on an entire group of Informix servers from one centralized page.
  • The new logging framework allows not only for a better out of the box logging experience, but also provides enhanced options for logging customization.

    For more information, see Logging in InformixHQ.

Customization

  • Build custom dashboards for a single database server or for multiple database servers, configuring what monitoring data is displayed on the dashboard and how that data is arranged and visualized. Custom dashboards allow you to define UI pages that show you the Informix monitoring data that is most important to you.

    For more information, see Custom Dashboards.

  • Create your own custom SQL sensors for monitoring your Informix instances. Any sysmaster SQL query can now be turned into a sensor that will integrate directly into InformixHQ's monitoring and alerting systems.

    For more information, see Custom SQL Sensors.

  • A new extensible alerting option allows you to define a custom script to be executed whenever an alerting incident occurs.

    For more information, see Alerting incident.