Installation Locations

The values for the following Ingres variables are established at the time of installation:

• II_SYSTEM
• II_DATABASE
• II_CHECKPOINT
• II_JOURNAL
• II_DUMP
• II_WORK
• II_TEMPLATE
• ING_ABFDIR

Some of these values can be easily changed, and some require unloading of the installation.

When Not to Change Installation Locations

Before changing an existing Ingres installation location, be sure that the change is really necessary: ask yourself what needs to be moved, and why.

Installation locations do not need to be changed if:

• The installation needs space for future growth.
• Existing databases are outgrowing their present disk partitions.

Allocation of Space for Future Growth

Ingres provides the capability of creating new locations and placing any new databases, tables, or indexes in these new locations. If the requirement is space for new tables or databases, you do not need to change existing locations.

Instead, create the necessary new locations for these future tables and databases and use the available location flags of createdb (-d, -c, -j, -b, and -w) to create the data, checkpoint, journal, dump, and work files for the newly created database in some other location.

For more information on creating new databases, see the createdb command in the Command Reference Guide.

Allocation of Additional Space for Existing Tables

If space is becoming limited on a disk partition containing a particularly large table, you can move the table to a new disk or partition. Use the modify command to relocate and modify to reorganize statements as described in the Database Administrator Guide.

Location Variables that Do and Do Not Require Unloading (UNIX and Windows)

When you need to change the value of an installation location variable, the procedure depends to some extent on the underlying operating system. On UNIX and Windows, the procedure also depends on whether the change requires unloading the database.

You can change the ING_ABFDIR location value without unloading the installation.

The values of the following locations are stored in the configuration file "aaaaaaaa.cnf" of each database at the time it is created and can only be changed by unloading each database, re-installing Ingres and reloading the databases (thus creating a new configuration file):

• II_SYSTEM
• II_DATABASE
• II_CHECKPOINT
• II_JOURNAL
• II_DUMP
• II_WORK

Change the Value of the ING_ABFDIR Variable (UNIX and Windows)

To change the installation default for ING_ABFDIR:

1. Shut down Ingres with ingstop
2. Change the value of ING_ABFDIR with the ingsetenv command
3. Restart the installation with ingstart

Note: Application developers who do not want to use the installation default can redefine ING_ABFDIR in their local user environment.

Change the Value of the ING_ABFDIR Logical (VMS)

To change the installation default value for ING_ABFDIR in VMS:

1. Shut down Ingres with ingstop.
2. Change the value with a new define command.
3. Restart the installation with ingstart.

ING_ABFDIR can be redefined in the local user environment for application developers who do not want to use the installation default.

Change an Installation Location with Unloading (Windows)

Follow these steps to change the value of II_SYSTEM, II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_JOURNAL, II_DUMP or II_WORK. "II_SYSTEM" is used as the example location to be changed:

1. Unload each database. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.
2. Remove the old installation files by removing everything under the old %II_SYSTEM%\ingres directory and any extended locations.
3. Reinstall Ingres specifying the new value of II_SYSTEM.
4. Recreate each of the databases. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.
   • Use the createdb dbname command to recreate a database.
   • Reload each database by appropriately editing and running the reload script.
5. Once you have reinstalled Ingres and recreated the databases in the new location, take new checkpoints of each of the databases. Checkpoints taken in old locations are no longer valid. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.

Change an Installation Location with Unloading (UNIX)

Follow these steps in UNIX to change the value of II_SYSTEM, II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_JOURNAL II_DUMP, or II_WORK. "II_SYSTEM" is used as the example location being changed:

1. Unload each database. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.
2. Remove the old installation files by removing everything under the old II_SYSTEM/ingres directory and any extended locations.
3. Set the value of II_SYSTEM and PATH to the desired new values, just as if you were installing Ingres for the first time.
4. Reinstall Ingres.

   Follow the instructions in the Installation Guide for a new (not upgrade) installation.

   As part of the installation procedure, you are asked to run the program ingbuild. This program prompts you for the new values of Ingres location variables II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_JOURNAL, II_DUMP, and II_WORK.

5. Recreate each of the databases. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.

   Use the createdb dbname command to recreate a database.

   Reload each database by appropriately editing and running the reload.ing script.

6. Once you have reinstalled Ingres and recreated the databases in the new location, take new checkpoints of each of the databases. Checkpoints taken in old locations are no longer valid. For details, see the Database Administrator Guide.

Change Location Variables (Other than ING_ABFDIR) on VMS

Follow these steps in VMS to change the value of II_SYSTEM, user areas, II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_JOURNAL, II_DUMP, or II_WORK:

1. Shut down Ingres with ingstop.
2. Change the value of II_SYSTEM, II_DATABASE, II_CHECKPOINT, II_JOURNAL, II_DUMP, II_WORK, or user areas with the define command. Remember to modify any startup or other procedures where these logicals are defined.
3. Restart the installation with ingstart.

For more information about stopping and starting the installation using ingstop and ingstart, see the Command Reference Guide.

Use of Symbolic Links (UNIX)

Ingres does not support or recommend the use of symbolic links to change locations in UNIX. (This is possible with the UNIX ln command, which allows the UNIX system administrator to create symbolic links to new directories so that files are found in another directory even though the values of Ingres installation location variables remain unchanged.)

Common problems that arise from the misuse of symbolic links are as follows:

• Any files to which Ingres writes must reside on a file system that is local to the machine on which the writing process is running. This is necessary because of the operating system's inability to guarantee network writes. If symbolic links are used, writable directories can mistakenly be mounted from remote machines. This can cause write errors and data corruption.
• Occasionally Ingres executables reside on NFS file systems that have been exported with the - nosuid option. The permissions appear normal when the ls -l command is issued, but setuid programs fails with permission errors.
• The rm command does not remove files that are symbolic links. Instead, the symbolic link itself is broken, but the original file remains. This can cause cleanup routines to fail in some circumstances.