IBM Support

The Oninit Command Fails with an Error Referencing /INFORMIXTMP

Troubleshooting


Problem

You execute the oninit command and it fails. Error messages mention the /INFORMIXTMP directory.

Symptom

You attempt to execute the oninit command by itself or with an option. The command returns an error that references /INFORMIXTMP as in this example:

  cannot open file /INFORMIXTMP/.<server_name>.alarm for
   reading (No such file or directory)

or an error is printed to the server log file (online.log) as in this example:


  <time_stamp>  (0) error in creating /INFORMIXTMP

Cause

The ownership and/or permissions on $INFORMIXDIR/bin/oninit are incorrect.

Note: There may be other reasons for this failure.

Resolving The Problem

Use one of the following methods to resolve the problem.

  • Reinstall the product. Use this method to resolve the problem if you are unsure of the ownership and permissions of multiple informix files, Make sure that you perform all the necessary steps given in the documentation, which includes backing up critical files.

  • Reset the ownership and permissions of the oninit executable. Use this method to resolve the problem only if you know that the oninit is the only file that needs to be reset, or you know all of the files that need to be reset. The correct ownership and permissions for all installed Informix files are listed in a file named IIFfiles which is located in $INFORMIXDIR/etc. For example, the entry for oninit in IIFfiles for 11.50.FC9 on AIX is:

      bin/oninit    root   informix  6754  BRAND  VRSN - IDS-CORE

    The appropriate ownership and permissions for this oninit, returned with the ls -la command:

      -rwsr-sr--  1 root  informix  29063396 Aug 19 14:41 oninit

    As user root, set the ownership for this file with:

     %chown root oninit

    Set the group:

      %chgrp informix oninit

    Set the given permissions:

      %chmod 6754 oninit

[{"Product":{"code":"SSGU8G","label":"Informix Servers"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"--","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"}],"Version":"11.1;11.5;11.7;12.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"","label":""}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21566454