What's new in HCL Informix®

Support for larger chunks, larger fragments, larger pages and more rows per page with new 8-byte row identifier

A single fragment in Informix server version 15.0.0 can grow up to 140 trillion pages. Chunks may be as large as 8 exabytes. Page sizes of 256k are supported, which can each store tens of thousands of rows. These and other limits have been raised significantly.

For more information, see Limits in Informix, SMALL and LARGE tables, TABLE_SIZE session environment option.

External smart blobs

Smart Large Objects can now be stored externally in directories of a user’s choice. This can be done using onspaces utility with new '-Ed' and '-En' options. The user will then be responsible for their own backups, restores, and replication of those Large Objects. A traditional smart blob space will still be required for all smart blob meta data.

For more information, see Storing large objects externally.

Invisible indexes

An invisible index is ignored by the query. Although similar to a DISABLED index , an invisible index is maintained and does not require a rebuild when made visible.

For more information on invisible indexes, see VISIBLE and INVISIBLE options for indexes, CREATE INDEX statement.

Obtain query plan of a running query

A new option qplan is now available with onstat -g command to print a running query and its plan. This helps database administrators to identify a slow running process which may be running a slow query. This also helps the administrators to get a more realistic view of the plan of a running query.

For more information, see onstat -g qplan command: Print running query and its plan.

Improved audit records analysis

Audit records now include session id, informing which audit records belong to which session, thereby helping the administrator in better audit log analysis.

For more information, see The onshowaudit utility.

Replication update: changes to '--cascade replicate'

The --cascade replicate option is now generally available for replicates, also through templates. A replicate having the --cascaderepl option turned on will be able, on its only sending participant, to pick up transaction traffic arriving through other replicates.

For more information, see cdr define replicate, cdr modify replicate, cdr realize template.

CSDK Enhancement

Backup on cloud enhancement

The S3 backup capability in ontape is removed and OnBar/PSM is used for backup on cloud. For more information, see Backup capability in ontape.

Helm Chart Deployment

HCL Informix server now supports deployment into Kubernetes clusters via Helm charts. For more information, see Deploying HCL Informix using Helm charts.

Wirelistener API enhancement