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Migrating and upgrading
You can upgrade to the 14.10 release of HCL Informix® or migrate from other database servers to Informix. Upgrading is an in-place migration method that uses your existing hardware and operating system software. Some changes to the Informix database server can affect upgrading from a previous release.
Migrating Informix® database systems
The Informix® Migration Guide describes how to move data manually between databases, servers, and computers.
Migration to and reversion from 14.10
Preparing for migration to Version 14.10
Before you install the new version of Informix®, you must prepare the database server environment for migration by performing specified pre-migration tasks. If you are also migrating from 32-bit to 64-Bit database servers, you must perform additional tasks.
Preparing for migration
Preparing for migration includes gathering information about and backing up your data, so that you can reinstall the previous version of the server and restore your data if you have a migration problem. Preparing for migration is crucial for successful migration.
Reviewing changes in Informix® product functionality
Changes to Informix® product functionality might affect your plans for migrating to the latest version of the product.

Migrating and upgrading
You can upgrade to the 14.10 release of HCL Informix® or migrate from other database servers to Informix. Upgrading is an in-place migration method that uses your existing hardware and operating system software. Some changes to the Informix database server can affect upgrading from a previous release.
- Migrating Informix® database systems
  The Informix® Migration Guide describes how to move data manually between databases, servers, and computers.
  - Overview of migration
  - Migration to and reversion from 14.10
    - Preparing for migration to Version 14.10
      Before you install the new version of Informix®, you must prepare the database server environment for migration by performing specified pre-migration tasks. If you are also migrating from 32-bit to 64-Bit database servers, you must perform additional tasks.
      - Preparing for migration
        Preparing for migration includes gathering information about and backing up your data, so that you can reinstall the previous version of the server and restore your data if you have a migration problem. Preparing for migration is crucial for successful migration.
        Reviewing changes in Informix® product functionality
        Changes to Informix® product functionality might affect your plans for migrating to the latest version of the product.
        Checking and configuring available space
        Before you migrate to the new version of Informix®, you must make sure that you have enough available space for the new server, your data, and any other network and data tools that you use.
        Configuring for recovery of restore point data in case an upgrade fails
        By default, the CONVERSION_GUARD configuration parameter is enabled and a temporary directory is specified in the RESTORE_POINT_DIR configuration parameter. These configuration parameters specify information that Informix® can use if an upgrade fails. You can change the default values of these configuration parameters before beginning an upgrade.
        Saving copies of the current configuration files
        Save copies of the configuration files that exist for each instance of your source database server. Keep the copies available in case you decide to use the files after migrating or you need to revert to the source database server.
        Preparing 12.10 BSON columns with DATE fields for upgrade
        Before you upgrade from Informix® 12.10 you must unload binary JSON (BSON) columns with DATE fields into JSON format so that you can load them into Informix 14.10
        Closing all transactions and shutting down the source database server
        Before migrating, terminate all database server processes and shut down your source database server. This lets users exit and shuts down the database server gracefully. If you have long running sessions, you must also shut those down.
        Initiating fast recovery to verify that no open transactions exist
        A shutdown procedure does not guarantee a rollback of all open transactions. To guarantee that the source database server has no open transactions, put the source database server in quiescent mode and initiate fast recovery.
        Verifying the integrity of the data
        After verifying that no open transactions exist, verify the integrity of your data by running the oncheck utility. You can also verify the integrity of the reserve pages, extents, system catalog tables, data, and indexes. If you find any problems with the data, fix the problems before you make a final backup of the source database server.
        Verifying that the database server is in quiescent mode
        Before you make a final backup, verify that your source database server is in quiescent mode.
        Making a final backup of the source database server
        Use ON-Bar or ontape to make a level-0 backup of the source database server, including all storage spaces and all used logs. After you make a level-0 backup, also perform a complete backup of the logical log, including the current logical-log file.
        Verifying that the source database server is offline
        Before you install the new database server, verify that the source database server is offline. You must do this because the new database server uses the same files.
      - Pre-migration checklist of diagnostic information
        Before you migrate to a newer version of Informix®, gather diagnostic information, especially if you have large, complex applications. This information will be useful to verify database server behavior after migration. This information will also be useful if you need help from Software Support.
      - Migrating from 32-bit to 64-bit database servers
        If you are migrating from a 32-bit version of Informix® to a 64-bit version of Informix or reverting from a 64-bit version of Informix, you might need to follow additional steps to update certain internal tables.
    - Enterprise Replication and migration
      You must coordinate the migration of all servers that are involved in data replication.
    - High-availability cluster migration
      You must coordinate the migration and reversion of all servers that are involved in high-availability clusters. You can use a rolling upgrade in some cases to update servers while the cluster is online, with minimal interruption to client applications. Otherwise, you must schedule cluster downtime to upgrade the servers. A cluster must be offline to reverse an upgrade or revert to an earlier release.
    - Migrating to Informix® 14.10
      When you migrate to a new version of Informix®, you must complete required migration and post-migration tasks.
    - Reverting from Informix® Version 14.10
      You can revert to the version of the database server from which you migrated. When you run the reversion utility, you specify the target server for reversion and then Informix® checks your database. If necessary, Informix might tell you to drop new objects, before automatically converting your data into the target server.
  - Migration of data between database servers
  - Data migration utilities

Reviewing changes in Informix® product functionality

Changes to Informix® product functionality might affect your plans for migrating to the latest version of the product.

About this task

Changes in functionality in Informix® can potentially impact your applications, scripts, maintenance processes, and other aspects that are related to your database server environment.

Changes to functionality that was introduced before Informix® can also affect your plans.