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The Visual Configuration Differences Analyzer (VCDA) allows you to compare the configurations for an Ingres local installation by taking "snapshots" of its configuration. For example, after you install Ingres and have set up the database schemas, take a snapshot of the configuration. If you encounter problems later on, take another snapshot of the configuration and compare it to the earlier snapshot to see if any configuration changes have contributed to the problem. Keep an on-going record of configuration changes by starting with a snapshot of a new installation that shows all system defaults, and taking a snapshot of the installation each time the configuration is changed.
Note: VCDA compares the configurations of Ingres installations, but not the database object definitions within these installations. To compare database objects, see the Visual Database Objects Differences Analyzer (VDDA), in the Database Administrator Guide and the Ingres online help.
Specifically, VCDA allows you to:
For specific instructions on performing these tasks, refer to the VCDA online help.
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When you take a snapshot of the current configuration for the local installation, VCDA writes the following information to a text file:
This snapshot can be compared to other snapshots as explained below.
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VCDA allows you to compare the current configuration of the local installation with a previously saved configuration snapshot. It also allows you to compare two saved snapshots that do not include the current configuration. VCDA also indicates, using an icon color, if the difference is due to a parameter that is different in both snapshots, or a parameter that exists in one snapshot but not in the other.
If there are no differences in the main parameters, VCDA displays a green icon and a message. If there are no differences in the other information, VCDA displays only a green icon.
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Although you can only take snapshots of the local installation, you can compare configurations on remote installations (even on different platforms) by making the snapshot file from one machine available to another machine that is running VCDA. The snapshot file is a simple text file that is readable across different platforms.
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In addition to comparing configuration snapshots, VCDA allows you to restore selected groups of configuration parameters from a saved snapshot. The only parameters that VCDA does not restore are the values of II_SYSTEM, the hostname and username.
You restore parameters by first selecting the snapshot file that contains the desired parameters. You can specify the specific parameters you want to restore. If the snapshot file you choose corresponds to a networked installation, you can also specify the value of the corresponding Ingres variables and the content of the relevant additional config.dat file, with an option to create the tree structure if it does not exist.
VCDA automatically creates a backup snapshot file of the current configuration before it restores parameters. If for some reason you do not want to keep the restored parameters, you can select this backup snapshot file to restore the parameters to their previous state.
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VCDA uses information from the config.dat file, which normally contains parameters that apply to the local hostname only. However, if you want to concatenate the contents of all your config.dat files into a single config.dat file to distribute across multiple environments, VCDA manages this situation as follows:
A "hostname mapping" option is available in that situation, so that VCDA can compare the additional hostnames configuration parameters. If this option is not used, the parameters are compared including their "hostname" part, (that is, only parameters that are identical for the same hostname within the two snapshots are considered as identical).