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IBM Informix extension

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  • Extension

Remotely monitor your IBM Informix instances

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Overview

Remotely monitor IBM Informix databases where OneAgent installation isn't possible.

Use cases

  • Monitor health and state of Informix instances.
  • Detect and alert on anomalous behavior.
  • Understand the resource impact that your applications have on your database.
  • Understand the impact of resource shortages, locks or other database issues have on your application by observing the database server itself.

Requirements

  • IBM Informix JDBC driver must be present on the ActiveGate(s) in one of the below directories:
    • Windows: C:\ProgramData\dynatrace\remotepluginmodule\agent\conf\userdata\libs
    • Linux: /var/lib/dynatrace/remotepluginmodule/agent/conf/userdata/libs/

Compatibility information

  • Informix v. 14.10+
  • Informix Driver v. 4.5.x+

Permissions

In order to properly execute the SQL queries, the user account utilized by the extension must have read access to the sysmaster database and the below tables:

  • syslocks
  • syssessions
  • sysdatabases
  • sysprofile
  • sysseglst
  • sysvpprof
  • sysdbspaces
  • syschunks
  • sysshmvals
  • syschktab
  • sysdbstab
  • sysptprof
  • systabinfo

Activation and setup

  1. Find the extension in Dynatrace Hub and add it to your environment.
  2. Add a monitoring configuration for every IBM Informix instance you'd like to monitor.

Details

This extension collects performance metrics through various SQL queries executed on the Informix instance.

Licensing and costs

There is no charge to use the extension. You are only charged for the data that the extension ingests.

The IBM Informix extension ingests custom metrics, which consume Davis Data Units (DDUs) (Dynatrace classic license) or Metrics powered by Grail (DPS), according to your license model.

To estimate the number of metric data points produced by the extension per minute, use the following formula:

(15 * # of instances) + (2 * # of databases) + (2 * # of tables) + (5 * # of dbspaces)

Dynatrace Platform Subscription

In the Dynatrace Platform Subscription, metric ingestion consumes Metrics powered by Grail according to the number of ingested metric data points.

To calculate the approximate yearly consumption, apply the following calculation: <metric data points per minute> * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days.

Dynatrace classic license

In the classic licensing model, metric ingestion consumes Davis Data Units (DDUs) at the rate of .001 DDUs per metric data point. Multiply the above formula for annual data points by .001 to estimate annual DDU usage.

The DDU cost above does not include any possible log events or custom events that are triggered by the extension. For more information, see DDU events.

Feature sets

When activating your extension using a monitoring configuration, you can limit monitoring to one of the feature sets. To work properly, the extension has to collect at least one metric after the activation.

In highly segmented networks, feature sets can reflect the segments of your environment. Then, when you create a monitoring configuration, you can select a feature set and a corresponding ActiveGate group that can connect to this particular segment.

All metrics that aren't categorized into any feature set are considered to be the default and are always reported.

A metric inherits the feature set of a subgroup, which in turn inherits the feature set of a group. Also, the feature set defined on the metric level overrides the feature set defined on the subgroup level, which in turn overrides the feature set defined on the group level.

overflow
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Overflow - Userinformix.instance.ovuserNumber of times a new session was attempted to exceed the maximum number of sessions
Overflow - Lockinformix.instance.ovlockNumber of times that sessions attempted to exceed the maximum number of locks
Overflow - Transactioninformix.instance.ovtransNumber of times that a thread attempted to exceed the maximum number of transactions
locks
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Lock waitsinformix.instance.lockwtsNumber of times that a session had to wait for a lock
Locks - Databaseinformix.database.locksNumber of locks on the database
dbspace
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Database Space Percent Freeinformix.dbspace.percent_freeThe percent of the dbspace that is free
Chunk - Readsinformix.dbspace.chunks_readNumber of times a read operation has been performed on the database's chunks
Chunk - Writesinformix.dbspace.chunks_writtenNumber of times a write operation has been performed on the database's chunks
Chunk - Pages Readinformix.dbspace.chunk_pages_readNumber of times a read operation has been performed on a page within the database's chunks
Chunk - Pages Writteninformix.dbspace.chunk_pages_writtenNumber of times a write operation has been performed on a page within the database's chunks
default
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Shared Memory Segmentsinformix.instance.count_segmentsThe count of segments present in the Informix server's shared memory
Shared Memory Segment Sizeinformix.instance.segment_sizeThe total size of the segment in the Informix server's shared memory
Shared Memory Segment Blocks Usedinformix.instance.segment_blocks_usedThe total number of blocks (4KB of shared memory) used by the segment in the Informix server's shared memory
Shared Memory Segment Blocks Freeinformix.instance.segment_blocks_freeThe total number of blocks (4KB of share memory) used by the segment in the Informix server's shared memory'
CPU User Time Countinformix.instance.cpu_user.countNumber of microseconds of user time used each minute
CPU System Time Countinformix.instance.cpu_system.countNumber of microseconds of user time used each minute
buffer-cache
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio - Readinformix.instance.buffer_cache_hit_ratio_readThe ratio of pages read from the memory buffer
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio - Writeinformix.instance.buffer_cache_hit_ratio_writeThe ratio of pages written to the memory buffer
sessions
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Sessionsinformix.database.sessionsThe number of sessions on the database
checkpoints
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Checkpoint Countinformix.instance.checkpoint.countThe number of checkpoints performed in the last minute
lru
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Least-Recently Used Writesinformix.instance.lruwritesNumber of times that an LRU write was performed
sequential-scans
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Sequential Scan Countinformix.instance.scan.countSequential scans performed in the last minute
tables
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Table Pages Usedinformix.database.table_pages_usedThe number of pages used by a table within the database
Table Pages Allocatedinformix.database.table_pages_allocatedThe number of pages allocated by a table within the database
Table Pages Usageinformix.database.table_pages_usageThe percent of pages used by a table within the database
Table Data Pagesinformix.database.table_data_pagesThe number of pages that store data by a table within the database
Table Scansinformix.database.table_scansThe number of scans performed on a table within the database
latest-checkpoint
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
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Remotely monitor your IBM Informix instances

Related tags
DatabaseSQLSQLIBMApplication Observability