IBM Informix Health Check and Performance Tuning

Database Performance Drives Company Performance 
End-to-End Health Checks from XTIVIA for Optimized Business

Get your system up to speed with an XTIVIA IBM Informix health check.

XTIVIA’s Unique IBM Informix Health Check Process

Health checks are an essential part of managing any database, and Informix is no different. As an industry standard for enterprise-level data management, IBM’s Informix databases need to be regularly monitored and checked for operational health. A health check reveals how well the database is handling its regular functions. While it may not have glaring errors, it may not be running as fast as it could—thus, a health check can be a big help to your system’s overall effectiveness.

Health checks give valuable data reports on how the server is behaving. Our team can give in-depth analyses on this data, and we routinely help customers implement optimization or error resolution solutions.

Our IBM Informix Health Check rate a database on the following:

  • Is the database and operating system properly tuned?
  • Are there sufficient hardware resources for the various applications?
  • Have schemas been normalized or denormalized where appropriate?
  • Have proper indexes been created?
  • Are critical administrative utilities run regularly?
  • Does the staff have the requisite skills needed to maintain an efficient system?

Issues like these can get extensive quick. One error can cause others, and may have a cascading effect throughout the system. With such sensitive systems (often working in tandem with others), every error needs to be “hunted down” to its source, and resolved accordingly. This is why examining the database in-depth is not optional, but essential for complete IBM Informix health check.

Review your business performance from an end-to-end perspective.

Delivering a successful assessment of your database performance by
uncovering the root cause of any database performance issues is our goal.

Hardware Resources:
Servers hosting IBM Informix rely on three hardware components to operate: CPU, Memory, and input/output. Well-designed systems will have no CPU bottlenecks, input/output should not burden the storage drives, and memory should be efficiently managed. Health checks analyze usage for each of these in-depth, and identifies issues which may be present therein.
Operating System:
Informix has a list of parameter recommendations for each platform. These will be analyzed and addressed. An important parameter is one that controls the size of virtual memory segments used extensively by the database. If the amount of memory allowed in a single segment is too small, the database may create many segments to get its memory. The use of multiple segments is expensive relative to a few very large segments.
Informix Database Server:
Key elements of this score are the use of indexes, table fragmentation and I/O balance, optimizer statistics, parameter settings, transaction logging, database layout, session activity, cache utilizations, and others. These areas will be investigated extensively based on the overall behavior of the database. Each component of the analysis will be detailed in the report which is delivered at the completion of the service.
Client Communications:
There are several optimizations available for client PCs/Workstations connecting to your IBM Informix system. These will be evaluated for appropriateness in the environment. Additionally, if clients are connecting to Informix with older versions of software, there is a tremendous opportunity for performance improvements through client library upgrades.
Application Implementation:

Database applications can often be enhanced through techniques which may have been introduced after the application was originally designed. The use of prepared SQL statements, for example, is a common way to gain performance in applications. A discussion with the on site application developers will lead the engineer to make recommendations for improving the application, or simply stating, the application is well written.

While the above analysis strives to use hardware and software to its fullest potential, this area of the assessment gives operational stability to the environment. Looking at batch jobs, backup and recovery strategies, logging strategies, upgrade strategies, and test platform capability will enable the engineer to provide recommendations for improving the availability of the environment.

During the Performance Analysis, you will need to provide access to your systems and key personnel if this evaluation is to be thorough and meaningful. Key individuals in your environment will be the DBA, the System Administrator, the Application Team Leader, and others you identify as being able to provide insight to the design and workings of the current system.

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What's Next?

We would love to help you with your database project or manage your environment, call us 888.685.3101 Ext. 2 or complete the form and start a conversation with Virtual-DBA today!