An Ingres Blog

Since it is possible to have multiple copies of Ingres running on box I was wondering how people switch between them. When I worked in support we used to hand write the scripts used to set-up the Ingres environment. Nowadays, at least with the Linux RPM releases, that script is written for you and placed in a known location ~ingres. Both these things make writing a master script to interrogate your Ingres installations (or instances as some people refer to them as). Below is the script I use:

echo "Release Running Script II_SYSTEM"
echo "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
for i in `ls ~ingres/.ing*bash`;
do
II_SYSTEM=`grep "II_SYSTEM=" $i | sed 's/^.*=//'`
II_INSTALLATION=`II_SYSTEM=$II_SYSTEM $II_SYSTEM/ingres/bin/ingprenv| grep II_INSTALLATION | sed 's/^.*=//'`
STATUS=`ps -fe | grep ingres | grep ${II_INSTALLATION} | grep dbms | wc -l`
if [ $STATUS -ge 2 ]; then
RUNNING=`echo “Y”`
else
RUNNING=`echo “N”`
fi
alias load${II_INSTALLATION}=”. ${i}”
VERSION=`cat $II_SYSTEM/ingres/version.rel`
echo $VERSION ” ” $RUNNING ” ” load${II_INSTALLATION} $II_SYSTEM
done
alias show_ingres=”. ~/bin/ingres_installs”


What it does
For each of the ~ingres/.ing*bash file the script extracts the following information:

• II_SYSTEM from the bash script
• Using II_SYSTEM, fetches the installation code (II_INSTALLATION)
• Checks to see there are at least two dbms processes running and prints the status, one is the dmfrcp (recovery server) the other is the real database server
• Sets up an alias of loadXX where XX is the 2 letter installation code obtained earlier
• Prints out the information obtained; Ingres version, running state, alias needed to access the installation and the value of II_SYSTEM

That script is invoked from .bashrc when the terminal in interactive mode (for non-interactive terminals, e.g. scp, the ingres_installs script might cause problems):

case "$-" in
*i*)
# List ingres installations and setup load aliases
. ~/bin/ingres_installs
echo
~/bin/newsig
;;
*) ;;
esac


So when I login or fire up a new terminal window I get:

Release Running Script II_SYSTEM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II 9.2.0 (int.lnx/114)NPTL Y loadII /opt/Ingres/IngresII
II 9.1.0 (int.lnx/123)NPTL N loadR2 /opt/Ingres/R2
II 9.2.0 (int.lnx/118)NPTL Y loadR3 /opt/Ingres/IngresR3
~ [] [5.2.4]
09:00:11 >


So back to my original question, how do you manage multiple installations?

As I mentioned previously, I am willing to host blogs by people who have some involvement with Ingres. If you work for the company or you are a client / user and you are interested let me know. You can write as much or as little as you want, if you want to inform the world regarding your latest ebay purchase, using up your 2nd hand car buying luck in the process, feel free. Post a comment below with your email address or email me via grant [at] planetingres [dot] org, after some verification (10 question trace point test), I will get you set-up. If you already have your own blog and want to be added to the planetingres.org email me (grant [at] planetingres [dot] org) the URL and it will be added.