In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Informix 14 on CentOS 9. We will be installing Informix with the basic defaults.
1. Install OS and install necessary packages.
First, we will download CentOS 9 and install it on either a physical server or VM. When installing the OS, select either “Server with GUI” or “Minimal install”. The Informix install does not require GUI nor XWindows (X11).
Download ncurses-compat-libs for centoOS 9 as it is required for Informix installation.
https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/9/Everything/x86_64/Packages/n/ncurses-compat-libs-6.2-8.20210508.1.el9.x86_64.rpm
Copy both Informix and ncurses-compat-libs to newly installed centOS server.
SFTP ibm.ids.14.10.FC1.LNX.tar to /tmp
SFTP both Informix tar and ncurses-compat-libs*.rpm to /tmp
Install additional required packages.
dnf install libnsl
dnf install libaio
dnf install libc.so.6
dnf install libgcc_s.so.1
dnf install libstdc++.so.6
Install ncurses-compat-libs only after you install the above packages.
rpm -Uvh /tmp/ncurses-compat-libs-6.2-8.20210508.1.el9.x86_64.rpm
2. Setup Host
As root user, edit the file /etc/hosts and add the content show below:
vi /etc/hosts
Add the IP and hostname
192.168.56.110 centOS9.domain.com centOS9 #entry for local server
Add firewall rules. As root, execute the following instructions to enable access through port 9088:
firewall-cmd –zone=public –add-port=9088/tcp –permanent
firewall-cmd –reload
As root, create the Informix user group:
groupadd informix
Create the Informix user:
useradd -c “IBM IDS” -g informix informix
Set the password for the Informix user:
passwd Informix
As root, create Informix install directory:
mkdir -p /informix/ids14.10
Change ownership and permissions for directory created above.
chown Informix:Informix /Informix/ids14.10
chmod -R /Informix/
As root, create the /etc/profile.d/informix.sh and add the Informix global environment variables as shown below:
vi /etc/profile.d/informix.sh
Add the following to the informix.sh
export INFORMIXDIR=/informix/ids14.10
#UTF8 Locale
export DB_LOCALE=en_us.utf8
export CLIENT_LOCALE=en_us.utf8
export DBDATE=DMY4-
export PATH=${PATH}:${INFORMIXDIR}/bin
Set the environment using the informix.sh you created above.
. /etc/profile.d/informix.sh
3. Install Informix
Perform the following as user root. For this example we will be using ol_infomrix1410 as the name of the Informix instance (INFORMIXSERVER=ol_informix1410)
Unpack the Informix installation files by cd’ing to informix directory (/informix/ids14.10) and executing the tar command to unpack the file.
cd /informix/ids14.10
tar xvf /tmp/ibm.ids.14.10.FC1.LNX.tar
Start the installer.
Check if environment variables are set:
env |grep INF
Start installation script. You should already be in /Informix/ids14.10
./ids_install
For this tutorial, we will be accepting all the defaults prompts. Refer below.
To Begin Installation,
Respond to each prompt to proceed to the next step in the installation.
If you want to change something on a previous step, type ‘back’.
You may cancel this installation at any time by typing ‘quit’.
PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
Press Enter to continue viewing the license agreement, or enter “1” to
accept the agreement, “2” to decline it, “3” to print it, or “99” to go back
to the previous screen.: 1
Choose location for software installation
Default Install Folder: /informix/ids14.10
ENTER AN ABSOLUTE PATH, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT
->1- Typical installation
2- Custom installation
3- Extract the product files (-DLEGACY option)
ENTER THE NUMBER FOR YOUR CHOICE, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT:
->1- Yes – create a server instance
2- No – do not create a server instance
ENTER THE NUMBER FOR YOUR CHOICE, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT: 1
Select the number of expected database users.
->1- 1 – 100
2- 101 – 500
3- 501 – 1000
4- 1000+
ENTER THE NUMBER FOR YOUR CHOICE, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT:1
===============================================================================
Installation Summary
——————–
Please review the following before continuing:
Product Name:
IBM Informix Software Bundle
Install Folder:
/informix/ids14.10
Product Features:
IBM Informix database server,
Base Server,
Extensions and tools,
J/Foundation,
Database extensions,
Conversion and reversion support,
XML publishing,
Demonstration database scripts,
Enterprise Replication,
Data loading utilities,
onunload and onload utilities,
dbload utility,
High-Performance Loader,
Backup and Restore,
archecker utility,
ON-Bar utility,
Interface to Tivoli Storage Manager,
Administrative utilities,
Performance monitoring utilities,
Miscellaneous monitoring utilities,
Auditing utilities,
Database import and export utilities,
JSON Client Support,
Global Language Support (GLS),
West European and Americas,
East European and Slavic,
Japanese,
Korean,
Chinese,
Thai
Disk Space Information (for Installation Target):
Required: 686,778,315 Bytes
Available: 87,762,710,528 Bytes
PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
===============================================================================
Ready To Install
—————-
InstallAnywhere is now ready to install IBM Informix Software Bundle onto your
system at the following location:
/informix/ids14.10
PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
You will only get this prompt if you selected to create a initial instance of Informix during installation.
===============================================================================
Server Initialization
———————
The server will now be initialized. Initialization might take quite a while,
depending on the performance of your computer.
PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
===============================================================================
Using the new instance
———————-
A database server instance was created. If you chose to initialize the
instance, it is ready to use.
You can open a command prompt to an initialized instance by running one of the
following commands at /informix/ids14.10, where ol_informix1410 is the path or
filename of the instance.
Windows:
ol_informix1410.cmd
UNIX csh:
source ol_informix1410.csh
UNIX ksh or bourne:
./ol_informix1410.ksh
If initialization fails, check the online.log file for messages. The
instance’s root chunk must be owned by the correct user and group, and it must
have readable and writable (rw) permission bits set only for owner and group.
PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
Final installation prompt:
===============================================================================
Installation Complete
———————
Congratulations! IBM Informix Software Bundle installation is complete.
Product install status:
Informix Dynamic Server: Successful
For more information about using Informix products, see the IBM Informix 14.10
Knowledge Center at
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGU8G/welcomeIfxServers.html.
PRESS <ENTER> TO EXIT THE INSTALLER
After installation we need to update the informix.sh file so that the correct environment variables are set for all users.
Update /etc/profile.d/informix.sh with contents of /informix/ids14.10/ol_informix1410.csh.
more /informix/ids14.10/ol_informix1410.csh
setenv INFORMIXDIR /informix/ids14.10
setenv INFORMIXSERVER ol_informix1410
setenv ONCONFIG onconfig.ol_informix1410
setenv INFORMIXSQLHOSTS /informix/ids14.10/etc/sqlhosts.ol_informix1410
setenv GL_USEGLU 1
setenv PATH ${INFORMIXDIR}/bin:${INFORMIXDIR}/extend/krakatoa/jre/bin:${PATH}
Open /etc/profile.d/informix.sh with vi to update it.
vi /etc/profile.d/Informix.sh
Add the following lines to the environment file and save and exit.
export INFORMIXSERVER=ol_informix1410
export ONCONFIG=onconfig.ol_informix1410
export INFORMIXSQLHOSTS=/informix/ids14.10/etc/sqlhosts.ol_informix1410
export PATH=${PATH}:${INFORMIXDIR}/bin:${INFORMIXDIR}/extend/krakatoa/jre/bin
Verify that Informix is running by logging in to the server as user informix. Check Informix variables.
env |grep INF
As informix user verify that Informix is running by running the onstat command:
onstat –
Congratulations, you have a running installation of Informix 14.10.