Universal Logging System

Aka the INFORMIX_TOOLS, is the GPLv3-based ULS-agent for gathering runtime metrics and status information, logging configuration settings and executing regular administrative jobs on Informix database instances running on Unix-like operating systems.

The ULS-Agent for Informix Databases consists of several perl scripts and modules, bash scripts and configuration files to:

• gather runtime metrics of an Informix database instance
• do regular databse consistency checks, full database backups and backup of logical logs
• collect database relevant information as a Informix instance information report
• provide database start and stop scripts, used in SCript-CLuster packages
• grant schema-to-schema access privileges

It requires Perl to run and the ULS-Agent for Linux for data transmission to the ULS-server.

The monitoring script does only read against the database or call Informix built-in utilities. No extra schema is needed but for most SELECTs the DBSA privileges are necessary.

All results and/or reports are generated as ULS value files in the ULS Value File Format which are sent to the ULS-server by using the ULS-Agent for Linux.

The INFORMIX_TOOLS provide:

• number of current sessions, data manipulations and sorting
• buffer and disk reads and writes and their cache hit ratios
• information about dbspace and sblobspace usage
• figures of the memory consumption, logical log usage and flusher activity
• filtered contents of the online.log (database instance message file)

The INFORMIX_TOOLS are only available as a zip archive which only has to be unzipped in a destination folder, no rpm, no deb.

be sure to have the ULS-Agent for Linux installed. Try:

$ whereis flush_test_values
flush_test_values: /usr/local/bin/flush_test_values

to check.

Download the informix_tools_2014-06-22.zip (sorry, in preparation) and copy it to a destination folder (<informix_tools_dir>).

Check the checksums:

$ sha1sum informix_tools*.zip
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999  informix_tools_2014-06-22.zip

Extract them:

$ unzip informix_tools*.zip

Find or create a script to set the proper Informix environment for your Informix database instance, e.g. ~informix/informix_env. Should be similar to:

informix_env

TODO

Create a link to it (in the directory where the zip was unpacked):

$ ln -s ~informix/informix_env informix_env

The scripts of the INFORMIX_TOOLS:

• watch_informix: gather runtime performance and status information
• ontape2file: does an “ontape -s -L 0” backup of the database
• logs2file: does an “ontape -a” backup of the logical logs
• onstat_all: collects status and inventory information from the database
• set_database_privs: set database privileges and schema rights to database users

In conjunction with the SCript-CLuster:

• sccl_startstop

Miscellaneous:

• *.pm: the needed Perl modules to run the Perl scripts
• cron_informix_tools: example for a crontab

The normal usage:

• A crontab is defined, the scripts “watch_informix”, “hourly” and “nightly” are executed regularly
• “watch_informix” gathers the performance and current state information every 10 minutes and generates a file in the ULS Value File Format which is transferred to ULS by the ULS-Agent for Linux
• “nightly” is executed at 22:00h and
  • does a full backup of the database
  • generates an Informix Instance Information Report

The nightly backup is delayed by a random number of minutes to avoid starting all database backups of all servers in the whole IT environment at the same time.

TO BE CONTINUED