You can use SAPDBA to extend an existing dbspace in your Informix database, because the dbspace is full or soon will be. Adding a chunk extends a dbspace. For more information about checking how full your dbspaces are, see Listing Dbspaces with SAPDBA.

For more information, see Extension of a Dbspace.

• SAPDBA is installed correctly. Refer to SAPDBA Setup.
• You are logged on in expert mode, that is, as user informix , and you have started SAPDBA. Refer to Starting SAPDBA.
• There is enough disk space available for the new chunk. SAPDBA checks the available disk space during the procedure.

1. Choose Dbspaces ® Add a Chunk in SAPDBA.
2. Enter the dbspace you want to extend with a new chunk. If you are not sure which name you require, you can use a partial entry (for example, ps* ).
3. Choose Continue to carry on.

SAPDBA displays further fields for you to specify the size and location of the new primary chunk. If you are adding a chunk to a mirrored dbspace, SAPDBA also displays fields for the location of the mirror chunk. The size of the mirror chunk is the same as the primary chunk.

The minimum size is 1000 KB and the maximum is 2 GB. SAPDBA checks that the size you enter is a multiple of the page size on your machine, usually either 2 or 4 KB. The size you enter is also the threshold for the display in the dialog boxes for location of primary chunk and location of mirror chunk.

4. To define the chunk size in kilobytes, enter a value in the field Size.
5. Use location of primary chunk to define where the new primary chunk is stored:

a. Choose Select gap (UNIX) or Select device (NT).

SAPDBA displays a dialog box showing the Available Gaps (UNIX) or disk drives (NT) on your system. The entries in the dialog box are the same as on Listing Devices with SAPDBA but only the free space is shown.

Only devices with free space equal to or greater than the Size of the chunk you entered in the previous step are displayed. Therefore, if you specified a large chunk size, it is possible that no gaps or disk drives are displayed.

b. Select a suitable gap (UNIX) or disk drive (NT).

SAPDBA fills the fields specifying the location of the primary chunk, using the values you selected.

6. If the dbspace is mirrored, use the box location of mirror chunk to define where the new mirror chunk is stored. Follow the instructions given for location of primary chunk in the previous step. SAPDBA looks for disk space for the mirror chunk on a physically different disk drive than the primary chunk.
7. Choose Execute.

You can check the results by looking in the dbspace.log file, which you can find in the directory $INFORMIXDIR/sapreorg (UNIX) or %INFORMIXDIR%\sapreorg (NT). For more information, see SAPDBA Files, Directories, and Reports. Here is an example of the entry that SAPDBA writes to this file:

Dropping a Chunk with SAPDBA