Operating System for the Informix Database (SAP Library - SAP Database Guide: Informix (BC-DB-INF-DBA))

Operating System for the Informix Database

Definition

Platform for the Informix database management system (DBMS).

Use

The Informix DBMS for the SAP System can be run with UNIX or Microsoft Windows NT (starting with release 3.0E) operating system platforms.

Integration

Database administration is similar on the two operating systems, except for the following important differences, which are discussed where relevant in this documentation:

Environment differences with NT

The disk layout differs from that of UNIX. For example, there are no raw devices.

NT has disk drives named with a single letter (C, D, and so on). You assign chunks to a single disk drive to extend a dbspace or create a new one when using NT.

Archive, backup and restore of database data with NT

NT currently only supports the Informix tools ontape or ON-Bar , but not ON-Archive (it is anticipated that new Informix tools for data recovery will be supported by NT). This applies to the following sections in the documentation:

ON-Bar for Data Recovery

ontape for Data Recovery

Database Backup (ON-Bar)

Archive

Logical-Log Backup

Emergency Logical-Log Backup

Restore

The following are not relevant for NT:

ON-Archive for Data Recovery

Recovery Report with SAPDBA

SAPDBA

For more information about using SAPDBA with NT, see Use of SAPDBA with UNIX and NT.

Other technical differences

Differences between the functionality of the two operating systems are mentioned in the relevant places in the documentation. One example is the INFORMIX directory, which is called $INFORMIXDIR with UNIX and %INFORMIXDIR% with NT.