What is the easiest way to copy a database from one Informix IDS 11 Server to another

Question

The source database is quite large. The target database doesn't grow automatically. They are on different machines.

I'm coming from a MS SQL Server, MySQL background and IDS11 seems overly complex (I am sure, with good reason).

Answer 1

You have a few choices.

dbexport/dbimport
onunload/onload
HPL (high performance loader) options.

I have personally used onunload/onload and dbexport/dbimport. I have not used HPL. I'm using IDS 10.

onunload/onload IBM docs

Back up the raw database to disk or tape in page size chunks

faster (especially if you go to disk)

Issues if the the database servers are on different operating systems or hardware or if they just have different page sizes.

dbexport/dbimport IBM docs

backup the database in delimited ascii files

writes an ascii schema of the database including all users, tables, views, indexes, etc. Everything about the structure of the database into one huge plain text file.

separate plain text files for each table of the database as well

not so fast

issues on dbimport on any table that has bad data, any view with incorrect syntax, etc. (This can be a good thing, an opportunity to identify and clean)

DO NOT LEAVE THIS TAPE ON THE FRONT SEAT OF YOUR CAR WHEN YOU RUN INTO THE STORE FOR AN ICE CREAM (or you'll be on the news). Also read ... Not a very secure way to be moving data around. :)

Limitation: Requires exclusive access to the source database.

Here is a good place to start in the docs --> Migration of Data Between Database Servers