Create Informix Flexible Grid using OpenAdmin Tool (OAT)

An Informix instance can be added to Informix Flexible Grid as a 'Grid Node', only if it has been defined as a ER Server or ER Node. Refer to the blog post titled 'Defining a new Enterprise Replication (ER) Server', published on 09/17/2014, in the same blog section, to create / define ER Servers, before you begin working through this article.

In this blog work, let's work through step by step to setup a Flexible Grid and identify one of the ER server as the Source Node, from where, the Admin shall perform the DDL and DML operations that shall be propagated to all other Grid Nodes, as available on the Grid.

In the blog post 'Defining a new Enterprise Replication (ER) Server', we had successfully defined three Informix servers, i.e ‘prot4’, ‘clp’ and ‘special_1’, as new ER Servers and depicted the ER Domain similar to the image shown in Step 10 of the post.

Now, let’s go ahead and create the Flexible Grid using these three server instances that have been defined earlier. 

Step 1: Log on to OpenAdmin Tool

Step 2: Navigate to Replication --> Grid page, as available on the left hand side menu, to add the newly defined Informix ER servers as Grid nodes

Step 3: You shall run into an Informational message saying that ‘This server is not a member of a grid’, which is obvious, as we are in the process of creating a grid. 

So, please ignore the message and turn your attention towards the ‘Actions’ drop down menu, provided on the top-left corner of the working canvas

Step 4: From the ‘Actions’ drop down menu, choose ‘Create Grid’ to create a new grid

 

Step 5: The option chosen in Step 13 will take you to the ‘Create Grid’ wizard as shown in the following image, which comprises of 4 steps that needs to be performed to successfully create a grid. 

  

To start with, on the wizard, provide the Grid name, which can be any custom name ( In this case, we have provided the grid name as ‘konkan_grid’). Optionally use the ‘Filter’ to reduce the entries in the list of ‘Available Servers’ column. 

The ‘Available Servers’ column lists the three Informix server instances that you had earlier defined as ER Servers. As a user, you can either choose to add one or more nodes as ‘Grid Servers’ using ‘Add’ or ‘Add All>>’ option.

Choose a Informix server instance of the available three servers as a ‘Source’ server from where you or the DBA plans to execute queries / commands, that needs to be replicated across the grid. Here, we are choosing g_clp to be the ‘Source’ server from where the commands are executed.

Choose Next to move to next step on the wizard

Step 6: The wizard prompts you to mention the user or set of users who are authorized to perform grid queries from the source server. Here, in this illustration, we choose ‘informix’ user, who shall be perform grid queries on the ‘konkan_grid’

Choose Next to proceed

Step 7: Next step of the wizard displays the actual Admin API commands that shall be executed on the server to create the grid ‘konkan_grid’. 

 Optionally review your options and choose Finish to push the proceedings

Step 8: You should now see that the API’s shown in the previous step were successfully executed and the grid ‘konkan_grid’ was successfully created.

Click on ‘Done’ to complete the wizard

Step 9: As a user, you should now see an entry by name ‘konkan_grid’ under the Grid column and clicking on it shall show it’s properties on the canvas area, as shown in the following image:

It lists g_clp as the source server, since that was the choice we made is Step 14 ( Step 1 of the ‘Create Grid’ wizard ).

As a user you have the luxury to choose more than one Informix server as a source server or restrict the ‘source’ credentials to only one server.

Step 10: If you choose to add few more Informix servers to be participating in ‘konkan_grid’ and be added as Grid Servers, you may do so, by choosing the option ‘Add servers’ from the ‘Actions’ drop down menu available within ‘Grid Servers’ tab in the canvas area, as shown in the following image:

Conclusion: For Informix enthusiasts, who are willing to experience the offerings and exploit the capabilities of Informix Flexible Grid, the blog posts 'Defining a new Enterprise Replication (ER) Server' and 'Create Informix Flexible Grid using OpenAdmin Tool (OAT)', together, will help you reach the stage, where the Grid is ready to be played on. 

Further, as a user, you can explore the options available to play with Grid Queries, break down the Grid into multiple manageable sub-parts called Regions and work on the Data Sharding aspect as well.

Defining a new Enterprise Replication (ER) Server

The blog post is intended for users who are working on creating a Informix Flexible Grid and experience it's unmatched, comprehensive High Availability and Enterprise Replication offerings on a heterogeneous platform. Just to make the reading easy and for the flow, I'll be referring to Informix Flexible Grid as just 'Grid', henceforth, in this blog post.

To start with, the basic requirement to create a Grid is to have Informix servers to be participating in Enterprise Replication (ER) activity, before they are chosen to be part of the Grid as Grid servers.

The blog post offers step by step snap shot to help users define a Informix server as an ER server and then start working on creating a Grid and Regions within the Grid, based on the needs and requirements.

Pre-requisites:

Requirement 1: List out the Informix servers that are scheduled to be defined as ER server and then shall be further participating in the Grid

Requirement 2: To define a server or set of servers as ER server(s), the user needs to manually update the SQLHOSTS file to add a GROUP entry and the SQLHOSTS entry for all the servers that are participating.

To illustrate, in the following example, I shall be considering the Informix servers ‘clp’, ‘prot4’ and ‘special_1’ to be defined as ER servers. So, in this regard, the SQLHOSTS file for all the three servers mentioned above, looks as follows:

Here, g_prot4, g_special_1, g_clp are the names of the GROUP and i=100, i=200 & i=300 stand for unique identifiers.

In short, all the SQLHOSTS file will have the same entries, i.e each SQLHOSTS file will have entries for the other two servers as well.

Requirement 3: The Informix servers those are shortlisted to be defined as ER servers should have connection entries in OpenAdmin Tool.

Step by Step process to define ER Server using OpenAdmin Tool

Step 1: Log on to OpenAdmin Tool

Step 2: Navigate to Replication à ER Domain page, as available on the left hand side menu, to add a Informix server or set of Informix servers to participate in the ER activity

 

Step 3: The user is prompted with the message to define the Informix server as an ER server. Press YES and continue.

Step 4: The user will be now asked to work through the ER Wizard to define the Informix server as an ER server.

Step 5: In the first step, the wizard prompts the user to choose the server that shall be defined as an ER server.

 

Choose a server and click on ‘NEXT’

Step 6: In the second step of the wizard, the user needs to choose to create a new ER domain and can prefer to have the node as ‘Root Node’, as shown below. If the server is the first node in the domain, then it shall be the Root Node, however, if the user adds it to an existing ER domain, then, the user can choose it to be either NonRoot Node or Leaf Node.

 

 

Step 7: In the third step of the wizard, the user is prompted to specify the SBSPACE ( for ER row data ) and DBSPACE ( ER Catalog information ). If the Informix server doesn’t have those entries already, then the user can create them, in this step.

Click NEXT to continue.

Step 8: In the fourth step of the wizard, which is the final one, the user is allowed to review the settings. Click on NEXT to define a new ER Server.

Step 9: The user should see the conclusion message "Congratulations! The new ER server was defined successfully."

Repeat the steps from Step 2, to define further set of Informix servers, which are shortlisted to be part of the Flexible Grid.

Step 10: Once you have successfully defined all the three servers, i.e ‘prot4’, ‘clp’ and ‘special_1’, the ER Domain should look something similar to the image shown below:

  

Note: Defining an Informix server as an ER server doesn’t enable the replication or start the replication. It only means that the server(s) / node(s) are ready to be replication enabled.