What's New

In this section, the features and functions that are specific to the Release 6 are designated by the following symbol —  R 6 .

New features and functions that are exclusive to this Release 7 — Beta build are designated by the following symbol —  R 7 B3.

Support for the newest IBM Informix® DBMS server

Current release of both Server Studio™ and Sentinel™ provide full support for the latest Version 11 “Cheetah” release of IBM Informix® Dynamic Server.

Operating Systems

Current release of both Server Studio™ and Sentinel™ provide full support for:

•  R 6  Microsoft Windows Vista (all editions)
•  R 7 B3 Apple MAC OS X
•  R 7 B3 Windows (Intel 64-bit)

Server Studio™

Database Schema Development and Management

 R 6  Brand new Entity/Relationship Diagrams feature of the Schema Manager enables near instantaneous graphical analysis of complex relationships and dependencies between database objects, such as: Tables, Views, Indexes, Stored Procedures and Triggers. E/R Diagrams provide vital help in visualizing and documenting databases' logical design and constraints.

• Reverse-engineer the entire database by generating the E/R Diagram of the logical schema in a single operation.
• Supports creation of sub-schemas E/R Diagrams to a desired level of object nesting, based on user-selected subset of database objects.
• Interactively customizable object layouts on the E/R Diagrams to suite user's personal schema visualization preferences.
• Selection of any objects' relationship connector by the user on the E/R Diagram provides instantaneous navigation to the relevant source code that defines objects dependencies.
• Ability to store E/R Diagrams in external files for off-line viewing, or for sharing with other team members.
• Multi-page E/R Diagrams printing provides hard-copy documentation of databases' logical design.

 R 6  Completely redesigned Dependencies Analyzer is now fully integrated with the E/R Diagrams component of the Schema Manager to provide comprehensive analysis of complex database objects' dependencies.

• New algorithm significantly improves performance of recursive dependencies analysis for very large-scale databases, containing thousands of objects.
• Integrated tree-view presentation that combines "referring to" and "referred by" object dependencies for user convenience.
• Selection by the user of any node in the Dependencies Analyzer's tree-view provides instantaneous navigation to the relevant source code that defines object's dependencies.

The new Table Manager presents essential properties of database tables in a totally redesigned interface with fewer tab panels that logically organize table's design, physical storage, user activity and other vital information.

•  R 6  New Dependencies tab panel has been added to provide integrated visualization of individual table's dependencies on and relationships to other schema objects in a database, together with detailed contextual examination of how such dependencies and relationships are expressed in the relevant source code.
•  R 6  Ability to view and edit table column’s DEFAULT value has been added.
•  R 6  Table editor has been enhanced with the addition of auto-search facilities for defining columns datatype.
• Enhanced Tables properties summary view displays up-to-date information about database tables' size, extents, fragmentation and the last update statistics dates.
• New facilities to examine physical storage information for the table's detached indexes.
• New Data tab panel has been added to facilitate interactive examination of table's data content.

 R 6  Completely redesigned Execution Plan Analyzer now provides comprehensive graphical facilities to analyze and tune complex SQL statements.

• Graphical Diagrams views, in addition to Tree views, support detail examination of execution plans for either single or multiple SQL statements.
• Execution Plan Analyzer's integration with the Stored Procedures' Properties panel enables near instantaneous graphical analysis of execution plan for all SQL statements contained in a stored procedure, with relative percentage of the overall estimated cost presented for each distinct SQL statement to highlight potential segments of code that may negatively impact performance.
• Execution Plan Analyzer's integration with the Views' Properties panel enables detailed graphical analysis of the execution plan chosen by the database engine for a given View.

 R 7 B3 The brand new SQL Tuner is an easy-to-use tool that allows database professionals to create and tune database code to optimize the efficiency and speed of the database. It increases database performance by not only helping to find and fix poorly-written code, but also aids in building fast and accurate SQL code the first time around. SQL Tuner offers powerful but easy-to-use facilities with an intuitive graphical interface that guide database professionals through the complex process of tuning the code by helping locate bottlenecks and automatically suggesting more optimal SQL cases to correct performance deficiencies.

• Automatically checks the code for "rules-of-thumb" violations defined by Informix experts and generates alternative SQL code to correct them.
• Ability to execute multiple variants of a given SQL code and concurrently present graphical Explain Plan, along with execution statistics and results sets of each code variation.
• Easy side-by-side graphical scenario comparison allows to immediately visualize the performance impact of changes to the SQL statement.
• Helps write SQL code that runs as fast as queries written by experts.
• Full integration with Sentinel's SQL Capture facilities enables extensive analysis and optimization of the SQL code executed by the Informix Dynamic Server.
• Integrated Index Adviser performs a thorough examination of SQL statements and presents index recommendations based on tables which are used by these statements, which helps to optimize database performance in situations when the SQL statements being issued cannot be changed, but the database indexing schema can be altered.

 R 7 B3 New SQL Formatter component formats and beautifies individual Informix SQL statements, SQL scripts and SPL stored procedures and triggers with many formatting options.
SQL code is much easier and faster to read and understand when it is formatted, especially when it is a long and complicated SQL statement or long SPL stored procedure written by other developers. Programmers spend 50% of their time just looking at source code. Formatting source code can make them more productive in this task, saving a significant amount of an IT department's time and budget.

 R 7 B3 New Query Result Difference Analyzer component allows comparing results of two SQL SELECT statements executed from the same or multiple SQL editors.

 R 6.1  The new Query Designer provides an interactive modeling environment that helps developers meet the challenges of creating database queries without the need of dealing with the intricacies of the SQL query language, remembering the table and column names, data types, and special operators for filtering and sorting the results.

• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface of the Query Designer makes it simple to visually design even the most complex database queries in mere minutes.
• Ability to interactively select the specific columns, define all manner of joins (including automatic generation of joins based on existing referential integrity constraints), build complex expressions, catch ‘cartesian product’ conditions, apply filtering and sorting.
•  R 6.2  Supports visual design and generation of complex sub-queries.
• Interactively watch the query being generated based on the design decisions, and easily preview the resulting data.

 R 6.1  Redesigned SQL Manager improves performance and user convenience.

•  R 6  Code completion has been added to help during code development look up and finalize table, views and column names, plus commonly used SQL keywords. It can be automatically invoked with (Ctrl + Space) command, popping up the available database objects, their attributes and context-dependent SQL keywords lists.
•  R 6  SQL Editor now permits change of the default font to accommodate user preferences.
•  R 6  New ability to execute sub-segment of SQL statements from the cursor position in the code editor.
•  R 6  Query result data sets can now be exported to external files with option to include column names header with the data.
•  R 6  New SQL History function provides for automatic logging of the SQL statements executed from the SQL Editor to an external text file and facilitates their easy review and re-execution.
•  R 6  Optional warning is provided when user attempts to execute "DELETE" or "UPDATE" SQL statements without the "WHERE" clause.
•  R 6  Execution Plan Analyzer's integration with SQL Editor enables near instantaneous graphical analysis of execution plan for all SQL statements contained in the editor's active panel, with relative percentage of the overall estimated cost presented for each distinct SQL statement to highlight potential segments of code that may negatively impact performance.
•  R 7 B3 Related Data Links in query result sets. When this feature is activated, the editor performs analysis for retrieved query data sets based on identifiable primary/foreign keys in SELECT column list and displays navigation links to view related data for cells that have primary/foreign keys relations.
•  R 7 B3 Describe Object function provides an ability to get ‘in-place’ syntax for selected object in SQL editor (table, view or stored procedure syntax).
•  R 7 B3 Integrated Query Result Difference Analyzer allows comparing SQL editor's query result sets.
•  R 7 B3 Enhanced Code Completion function
•  R 7 B3 New option to display multiple query results sets within the same Output tab
•  R 7 B3 Ability to graph query results in SQL Editor using multiple chart types, such as pie, bar and XY charts.
•  R 7 B3 Enhanced editor displays line numbers and highlights the current line. Message Log shows time statistics for each statement executed in the editor.

Configuration Auditing and Change Management

Redesigned DB Difference Analyzer substantially improves performance and provides new user convenience.

•  R 6  New functionality to compare database object permissions supports effective security change management and audits.
•  R 6  Added option to ignore special characters and case sensitivity during differential analysis of SPL stored procedures and triggers.
•  R 6  Redesigned algorithm has increased performance of database differential analysis several fold.
•  R 6  ONCONFIG differential analysis has been improved and now supports comparison option for default, current and file defined values.
•  R 6  Improved handling of indexes differential analysis.
•  R 6  Brand new Data Difference functionality of the DB Difference Analyzer facilitates efficient tracking of database systems' metadata changes.
•  R 7 B3 Compare database versions with a current database state as well as between the schema snapshots stored in the Sentinel Version Control Repository.
•  R 7 B3 New option is provided for taking into account or ignoring index and constraint names during schema compare operation.

Data and Storage Management

Data and storage management facilities have undergone a substantial redesign to improve ease and efficiency of handling large quantities of data.

•  R 6  Data Manager now fully supports Informix® High Performance Loader ("HPL") that provides very efficient loading and unloading of vast volumes of data to or from a database. It provides intuitive, easy-to-use graphical management facilities for:
  • Exchange of data with tapes, data files, and programs, and conversion of data from these sources into a format compatible with Informix® databases.
  • Control of the format and selection of records from one or any combination of the input sources, including unloaded files, tapes, or application pipes (for UNIX).
  • Generation of the HPL components such as device array definitions, formats, queries, maps, filters and projects required for a load or unload jobs.
  • Support of HPL's client/server architecture for managing the onpload database on any database server on the enterprise network.


•  R 7 B3 New Heatmaps component allows performing graphical two-dimensional analysis of storage, table activities and user session activities.
•  R 7 B3 Enhanced Table Reorganization wizard provides advanced algorithm allowing up to 20% faster reorg operations.
•  R 7 B3 Enhanced Update Statistics wizard provides new advanced algorithm that takes into account table structure and indexes allowing up to 25% faster Update Statistics operations and faster access to tables' data.
•  R 7 B3 New DBSpace Data Fragmentation Viewer visualizes data distribution in dbspaces.
•  R 6  Improved performance of data import operations.
•  R 6  Data import jobs now fully support multiple tables group operations.
•  R 6  Added support for saving and re-using data import and export jobs definitions.
•  R 6  DB Difference Analyzer features brand new Data Difference functionality which permits comparative data analysis of two tables on either local or combination of any two database servers on the enterprise network. Highly efficient algorithm supports rapid differential analysis of database tables containing millions of records.
•  R 6  Server Administrator's DB Reorg functionality has been updated to take full advantage of HPL's capability to efficiently manage loading and unloading massive quantities of data to or from a database and also now provides support for reorganizing multiple tables within the same operation.
•  R 6.2  Data filtering functionality has been added to Server Administrator's DB Reorg, enabling selective data reloading (i.e. the last 6 months) during table reorg operation.
•  R 6  Support for use of default file names during data import from multiple files in a specified directory has been added.
•  R 6  New Indexes Viewer provides easy analysis of the storage space consumed by database indexes.
• Redesigned Data Editor provides highlighting of the data being edited and enables reversion of data changes made by the user.
• New function to Disable/Enable triggers, indexes and constraints either across select group of tables or for the entire database to facilitate rapid data import.
• Added Excel-compatible CSV file format for saving exported data sets.

Security Management

•  R 6  Redesigned Permissions Manager improves user convenience by providing a substantially more intuitive facilities for managing database security schema.
•  R 6  Ability to replicate permissions definition from a given User or Role to any group of Users and Roles has been added.
•  R 6.2  Replicate User Permissions Wizard has been updated to provide for direct typing of the required user name, along with new ability to sort a list of users and select from it.

Interface and Workflow Enhancements

Redesigned graphical user interface of the application improves conformance to Windows standards, supports multiple workspace operations, provides additional analytics of database structure and activity, enables more efficient responses to issues that need attention and facilitates a more intuitive workflow.

•  R 6  User-defined database object filters have been added to the Object Explorer and Properties views to improve overall responsiveness and workflow when working with databases containing large number of objects.
•  R 6  Properties' grids now support persistent layout for columns order and widths to accommodate user preferences.
•  R 6  Added ability to set user-defined default file paths for SQL scripts, code templates, import and export data sets, task automation scripts, ER diagrams, etc.
•  R 6  Memory Pools View has been added to facilitate easy analysis of buffers activity.
•  R 6  Server Storage View has been redesigned to improve efficiency of viewing and analyzing database storage resources.
•  R 6  Support for saving to text files all system reports (such as tables, dbspaces, chunks, etc.) has been added.
•  R 6  Improved printing facilities now permit multi-page grid layout previews and printing of query result sets and all reports.
•  R 6  Added ability to export reports, query result sets and E/R diagrams into PDF format files.
•  R 7 B3 Added ability to close document tabs using “X” icon on tab components.

Server Connection Management

Updated Connection Manager improves user convenience by providing added support for remote operations and ability to automate custom prompt responses during the interactive Telnet/SSH terminal console sessions.

•  R 6  Private key ("PK") authentication has been added to the SSH2 protocol support to improve security of connections to database servers.
• Added SSH2 protocol support.

Sentinel™

Significant memory consumption reduction enables Sentinel™ to better handle large performance parameters monitoring matrixes and reduce overall system response times.

Host Platform Performance Monitoring and Analytics

 R 6  Brand new capability to monitor operating platform performance parameters of the server hosting Informix® databases provides critical ability to gain comprehensive insight into potential causes of database systems' performance and availability degradation.

• Agentless architecture enables painless deployment of a performance monitoring solution for the operating server hosting Informix® databases.
• Supports highly granular collection of the host server's performance metrics at the CPU, disks, volumes and network level.
• Collected time-series performance data of the host server is fully correlated and integrated with the corresponding performance metrics of the resident Informix® databases.

Improved DBMS Performance Monitoring and Analytics

To facilitate a more flexible analysis of the performance parameters collected by Sentinel™, the following features have been added:

•  R 7 B3 Support for additional IDS performance metrics, such as DBSPACE IS OFFLINE, CHUNK IS OFFLINE, ACTIVE THREADS, RATIO of THREADS IN READY QUEUE to ACTIVE THREADS, etc.
•  R 6  Support for additional IDS performance metrics, such as CHECKPOINT DURATAION, MEMORY BUFFERS, % OF LOGICAL LOG FILL, THREADS IN READY QUEUE, etc.
•  R 6  New multi-parametric graphs provide ability to perform correlation analysis of the collected time-series performance data.
•  R 6  New ability to perform statistical analysis of captured SQL statements based of frequency of unique statement's occurrence and the estimated cost of execution.
•  R 6  Full integration of the Execution Plan Analyzer into SQL Capture monitors enables near instantaneous graphical analysis of captured SQL statements' execution plan with relative percentage of the overall estimated cost presented for each distinct SQL statement's segment to highlight potential sources of poor performance.
•  R 6  Filtering of captured SQL statements by database object or by statement type has been added to SQL Capture facilities.
•  R 6  Support for hosting Sentinel's repository on Informix DBMS server.
•  R 6  Ability to store and reuse performance history graphical reports.
•  R 6  User-defined time intervals for retrieval of time-series data stored in historical performance repository.
•  R 6  New Graph Type option selection for charting historical performance data.

Version Snapshots

 R 7 B3 Brand new Version Snapshots feature of Sentinel provides the following functions:

• Create snapshots of database schema for versioning of database changes in a built-in Version Control Snapshots repository.
• Create versions of individual objects such as stored procedures, tables, views, etc.
• Maintain versions of database security states, such as user’s and role’s permissions and track security changes for audit purposes.
• Preview versions of database schema objects using graphical tools and recover selected objects’ schema
• Compare database versions with a current database state as well as between the schema snapshots stored in the Version Control Repository .
• Share the Version Control Repository among groups of DBAs and developers to support team work.

System requirements

Platform support

DBMS servers support