Sybase Central and the IQ Agent for Sybase IQ

Sybase Central is a GUI from Sybase and it is (also) included in the Sybase IQ distribution. It allows you to administrate the IQ server, start and stop IQ, and control a Sybase IQ multiplex server. To perform tasks like starting and stopping IQ with Sybase Central, you need to run an agent on the server where IQ is running.

Before you can fully use Sybase Central for Sybase IQ you need to perform the following tasks, assuming that you already have your IQ server configured. (See here how to do this: Installation guidelines IQ )

Installing the Sybase IQ client software

The Sybase IQ client software comes in a separate distribution file. For Linux this file is called Linux-iq1270_client.tgz. You can also use the Sybase IQ server distribution (for Linux the developers edition is called sybiq127devlin32.tgz). Especially for Linux environments, the installation can best be done with the server distribution file, the client distribution is notoriously difficult, if at all possible, to use.

Store the distribution file in for instance /tmp.

cd /tmp
gunzip sybiq127devlin32.tgz
tar -xf sybiq127devlin32.tar

set the SYBASE environment variable to the installation directory, the directory should already exist.

export SYBASE=/home/peter/iq1270_client

Check if the directory /usr/tmp is created and writable for you. Then start the installation process:

./sybinstall

At the screen to select the products, all products should be selected by default. When that's not the case, for instance Sybase Central or the Java Runtime environment is not selected there may be a problem with the box you are working on. A known issue is that you cannot install a 32 bit installation package on a 64 bit server.

After a successful installation you can remove the installation software, it is no longer needed.

rm sybiq127devlin32.tar
rm -Rf products readme.txt sybinstall

Install the most recent EBF that has been released for the Sybase IQ version you are using. Assuming you have put the EBF file in /tmp

cd /tmp
gunzip EBF16041.tgz
tar -xf EBF16041.tar
cd ebf16041
cd client.Linux
export ASDIR=$SYBASE/ASIQ-12_7
./sybinstall

Again, once the EBF is installed you can remove the installation software.

Configure and start the IQ agent

Log on to the server where Sybase IQ is running. Make sure that the Sybase environment variables are properly set.

cd /opt/sybase/iq127
cd ASIQ-12_7
. ./ASIQ-12_7.sh

For debian/Ubuntu users, before starting the IQ agent, check that "strings" is installed, otherwise install it with

apt-get install binutils

Start the IQ agent

$ASDIR/bin/S99SybaseIQAgent12

Output will be similar like this:

Agent Log File: /var/sybase/IQ1/SybaseIQAgent1099.004.log
Starting Agent ...



 ----------------------------------------
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Initializing security manager
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Startup Timestamp = 01/01 17:49:19.049
01/01 17:49:19 setProperty: asiqalthost (prd-syb-iq1)
01/01 17:49:19 setProperty: asdir (/opt/sybase/iq127/ASIQ-12_7)
01/01 17:49:19 setProperty: host (PRD-SYB-IQ1)
01/01 17:49:19 setProperty: asiqalthost (10.0.0.12,prd-syb-iq1)
01/01 17:49:19 getProp: asdir = /opt/sybase/iq127/ASIQ-12_7
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Started RMI server
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Binding to //PRD-SYB-IQ1/Agent
01/01 17:49:19 getProp: asiqalthost = 10.0.0.12,prd-syb-iq1
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Binding to //10.0.0.12/Agent
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Skipping duplicate bind to //PRD-SYB-IQ1/Agent
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: Agent Started Successfully
01/01 17:49:19 Agent: version 12.7 - 080707
 ----------------------------------------

Notes:

• It is advised to set the ASLOGDIR environment variable to a separate location so that the log files for the agent are not stored in the Sybase software installation directory.
• The sybase IQ agent expects that the configuration file for the database is called params.cfg. When that is not the case, create a symbolic link to the cfg file.

To stop the IQ agent use stop_asiq

stop_asiq -agent

Start Sybase Central

Go back to the server where you installed the Sybase IQ client software. Source in some environment variables.

cd $SYBASE
cd ASIQ-12_7
. ./ASIQ-12_7.sh

Now start Sybase Central. Assuming you have installed an EBF on top of the installation run this command:

./shared/sybcentral43/scjview.sh

otherwise, run this:

./shared/sybcentral43/scjview

When you run Sybase Central remotely, set the DISPLAY variable.

Define a connection profile first. For the servername at the "Database" tab, enter the hostname (or ip-address) of the server where IQ is running, followed by a colon and the port-number (example: prd-syb-iq1:4000). Enter the database name and the database file as well. The database file is the fully specified path name to the .db file (example: /var/sybase/IQ1/IQ1.db).

Once Sybase IQ is running and you are connected to it you can administrate Sybase IQ.

When you use the Sybase IQ agent, do not modify the IQ configuration file through Sybase Central. Very often the new configuration file misses parameters that were previously defined.

It's also possible to start the Sybase IQ server through Sybase Central. However, after starting IQ you can get an error that it is not possible to connect to IQ. Just try again to connect.

Notes

• At the time of writing (January 2009) it is not possible to use the Sybase IQ plugin for Sybase Central in the new version of Sybase Central as shipped with ASE 15.0.3.
• When you get this error message:

Could not connect to the database
The ODBC driver manager could not find the data source
Make sure the data source name (or data source file name) is spelled correctly.

try the jConnect driver. In Sybase Central, go to Connection Profiles (press F9), Edit, Advanced tab, select jConnect as JDBC driver.