Welcome
Migrating and upgrading
You can upgrade to the 15.0 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
These topics describe how to migrate to a new version of HCL Informix® and how to revert to the database server that you migrated from. These topics also describe how to move data manually between databases, servers, and computers.
Overview of migration
Overview of Informix® migration
Before you upgrade to the new version of Informix®, ensure that you understand the migration process, prerequisites, and reversion options.
The migration process
This overview of the migration process describes what you need to know to plan your migration and the resources that you can use to assist you.
Types of migration
There are three ways to migrate to Informix® Version 15.0.

HCL Informix® V15.0 documentation
Welcome to the documentation for HCL Informix® 15.0 and related client tools and products.
Product overview
HCL Informix® is a fast and scalable database server that manages traditional relational, object-relational, and dimensional databases. Its small footprint and self-managing capabilities are suited to embedded data-management solutions.
Installing
These topics describe how to install HCL Informix® database servers, client products, and DataBlade® modules.
Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
Migrating and upgrading
You can upgrade to the 15.0 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
  These topics describe how to migrate to a new version of HCL Informix® and how to revert to the database server that you migrated from. These topics also describe how to move data manually between databases, servers, and computers.
  - Overview of migration
    - Overview of Informix® migration
      Before you upgrade to the new version of Informix®, ensure that you understand the migration process, prerequisites, and reversion options.
      - The migration process
        This overview of the migration process describes what you need to know to plan your migration and the resources that you can use to assist you.
        Migration effort
        The typical in-place migration of an Informix instance to version 15 should take less than 30 minutes. However, depending on your environment, the migration process can take a few hours or several weeks.
        Migration skills
        Your Informix® migration team needs database administration skills, system administration skills, and application programming skills.
        Migration plans
        Before you begin to migrate to a new version of the database server, you should plan for migration.
        Types of migration
        There are three ways to migrate to Informix® Version 15.0.
        Migration tools
        You can choose from various migration tools, depending on the task that you must perform.
      - Upgrading Informix® (in-place migration)
        In-place migration upgrades Informix® directly to the current version by installing the product in a new directory on the same computer, copying a few configuration files, and starting the new server to automatically convert your database data.
      - Migrating Informix® (non-in-place migration)
        Depending on your existing database server setup, you might need to move to a new architecture or a different server. This type of migration is more complicated than in-place migration. It requires more planning and it is more time consuming.
      - Hardware and operating system requirements
        Ensure that you meet the operating system and hardware requirements for Informix® 15.0.0.
      - Fix pack naming conventions
        Informix® releases and fix packs contain version names that appear in the format V.R.M.F.
      - Paths for migration to the new version
        Direct migration to Informix® 15.0 is supported for specific earlier versions of the database server.
    - Overview of moving data
      If you are installing the new version of the database server on another computer or operating system (non-in-place migration), you can use one of several tools and utilities to move data from your current database server.
  - Migration to and reversion from 15.0
  - Migration of data between database servers
  - Data migration utilities
Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
Embedding Informix®
When you embed HCL Informix®, you can use enterprise-class high-availability and high performance with embeddability features such as easy programmability, a small disk and memory footprint, and silent deployment.
Extending Informix®
Beyond standard relational database objects, HCL Informix® can be extended to handle specialized data types, access methods, routines, and other objects. Informix includes many built-in extensions that are fully integrated in the database server. Informix also provides DataBlade® modules, which are packages of extended database objects for a particular purpose and that are installed separately from the database server. Alternatively, you can create your own user-defined objects for Informix.
Data warehousing
In addition to designing and implementing Informix® dimensional databases, you can use tools to create data warehouse applications and optimize your data warehouse queries.
Designing databases
The first step in creating a relational database is to construct a data model, which is a precise, complete definition of the data you want to store. After you prepare your data model, you must implement it as a database and tables. To implement your data model, you first select a data type for each column and then you create a database and tables and populate the tables with data. You can also implement fragmentation strategies and control access to your data.
JSON compatibility
You can use the popular JSON-oriented query language created by MongoDB to interact with data stored in HCL Informix®.
Security
You can secure your Informix® database server and the data that is stored in your Informix databases. You can encrypt data, secure connections, control user privileges and access, and audit data security.
SQL programming
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of the SQL language to develop applications for Informix database servers.
Troubleshooting HCL Informix®
Several troubleshooting techniques, tools, and resources are available for resolving problems that you encounter in your HCL Informix® database server environment.

Types of migration

There are three ways to migrate to Informix® Version 15.0.

Upgrading (In-place migration): Upgrading your instance in place is the fastest, least complex method of migration that uses your existing hardware and operating system. You install a new or improved version of the product in a different location from your current version on the same machine. You can copy your configuration file and add new parameters. When you start the new Informix® instance, the database data is automatically converted. For example, you can upgrade from Version 11.70 to Version 15.0.
Migrating (Non-in-place migration): The process of “switching over your environment from one computer to another. This type of migration requires more planning and setup time compared to upgrading on your existing computer. Non-in-place migration requires that you modify and copy the database schema, user data, and user objects from one server to another server. Use this type of migration if you are moving to Informix® Version 15.0 from an early version of Informix® that has a different architecture, page size, optimization of dbspaces, and extent allocations.
Migrating from a non-IBM database: The process of moving your data from another database management system (DBMS) such as Oracle or Sybase SQL Anywhere to Informix® Version 15.0. This type of migration is especially useful if you are currently using various products. You can consolidate to take advantage of the Informix® features and total cost of ownership.

If you have a high-availability cluster with one or more secondary database servers or if you use Enterprise Replication, you follow additional procedures to upgrade your servers.

The following table describes the differences between in-place and non-in-place migration when you prepare your system for migration. :

In place	Not in place
Install product on current system.	Install product on another system.
Copy ONCONFIG file to target and set parameters.	Initialize an instance using the new version.
Start your instance using the new version.	Create database using the new schema.
Test the performance and functionality of your applications.	Move your data.
Move your instance from compatibility mode to native mode.	Update application and start replication.