Mimer SQL is now available for the X86_64 architecture!

Introduction

Since the first release of Mimer on VMS in 1982 (Mimer version 3.1 on VAX VMS 3), a large number of Mimer SQL users have deployed their solutions on the VMS platform.

Mimer SQL on OpenVMS has proven to be a server platform that gives stability, performance and scalability for mission-critical database applications.

Description

Mimer SQL is used in many enterprise systems running OpenVMS on HP Integrity servers worldwide. With Mimer SQL, customers benefit from a high performance and zero maintenance DBMS.

Now, Mimer SQL for OpenVMS is available on the x86_64 architecture as well.

For features in Mimer SQL, see the article Mimer SQL overview as a starting point.

Installation

Distribution packages of Mimer SQL for all platforms, including OpenVMS, are available for free download from the Mimer SQL developer web site downloads page.

Use the OpenVMS download page and follow the installation as described in the article Installing Mimer SQL on OpenVMS. Mimer SQL is known for being easy to install and to get started with, so lets get up and running in a few minutes!

Default License

A default license for testing and development is included, it allows up to ten concurrent users. For license upgrades, please contact Mimer SQL sales.

Database Server

The Mimer SQL database server is a single, multi-threaded process. By using DecThreads, good SMP scalability is achieved.

Clients using TCP/IP or Decnet can access the server. For clients running on the same platform, a special shared-memory based communication method is used.

Database APIs

Embedded SQL

An embedded SQL preprocessor is included. It enables SQL commands to be embedded in programs written in C, C++, FORTRAN and COBOL. The embedded syntax complies with the ISO standard for embedded SQL.

See the articles Embedded SQL in C, Embedded SQL in COBOL and Embedded SQL in FORTRAN for further details.

Module SQL

A Module SQL preprocessor is included, used for SQL code files written in the so called Module Language.

Using Module SQL enables separation of SQL statements and the host application, that can be written in C, FORTRAN, COBOL or Pascal. This way, having different source files for SQL and application logic, modularity is honored and reuse of SQL code can be utilized.

See the article called Module SQL for further reading in this matter.

JDBC Driver

A JDBC driver is included in the distribution. The driver is a type 4 driver, which means that it is written entirely in Java. This provides the driver with full portability so that it can be copied or downloaded to any Java-enabled platform. The driver uses TCP/IP to access a Mimer SQL server (version 10.0 or later) on any platform.

If the JDBC application executes on the same node as the Mimer SQL server, it can also use a shared memory for fast communication by mapping a native library.

The supplied driver conforms to JDBC 3 (requires Java 1.4 or later).

Use vmssoftware.com/products/openjdk/ for more information about Java on OpenVMS.

See the JDBC article for more information.

ODBC Driver

The Mimer ODBC driver is a client library that enables applications to access Mimer SQL database servers running on any platform. The driver complies with the ODBC 3.52 specification.

By using the ODBC driver on OpenVMS, you can develop ODBC applications and execute them on the OpenVMS platform.

Unlike other platforms, OpenVMS does not include a Driver Manager that enables OpenVMS applications to dynamically load drivers for different database products. Until such a Driver Manager becomes available on OpenVMS, you can link your applications directly to the Mimer ODBC driver.

Note that in order to run an ODBC application on a Windows platform, the Windows ODBC driver has to be installed on the client side. This driver can then access Mimer database servers on any platform (including OpenVMS). There is no need to install any special software on the server side in order to use ODBC.

See the ODBC article for further details.

Mimer SQL C API

Mimer SQL C API is a native C library suitable for tool integration and application development in environments where API standardization is not a requirement. The following characteristics describe the API:

  • Simplicity
  • Platform independence
  • Small footprint
  • Tight fit with the Mimer SQL application/database communication model.

The so called “MimerAPI” is provided in the MIMERAPI shared library and the mimerapi.h header file provides prototypes and other handy defines.

See the article Mimer SQL C API for further information.

Python

The Python language is one of the most accessible programming languages available today. Mimer SQL can be accessed from Python using a specific adapter developed for the purpose.

Please read the file MIMER$EXAMPLES:README_MIMERPY.TXT which can be found in the V11.0.8 distribution for more information. For more general information, see the article Mimer SQL Python Adapter.

Documentation

The Mimer SQL product for OpenVMS includes the related Mimer SQL manuals and guides in Adobe PDF format. Except for the Release Notes, all Mimer SQL documents can also be found at the Mimer SQL Documentation site. The distribution also includes various readme files with specific details on how to proceed on the OpenVMS platform.

The most important documents when using Mimer SQL on OpenVMS are the Mimer SQL OpenVMS Guide and the Mimer SQL Documentation Set.

In addition, the OpenVMS distribution provides readme files covering the specific details to get going.

Utilities

Mimer SQL includes command-line utilities for database load/unload, backups, tuning, performance monitoring, etc.

There is also the BSQL program that enables SQL statements to be executed interactively from a command prompt.

The Mimer SQL distribution also contains the EXLOAD program to create an example database, together with various example programs and SQL statements.

T4

The product includes an adapter to the T4 tool. This allows Mimer SQL server metric data to be collected together with OpenVMS metrics.

For more information on T4, see vmssoftware.com/products/t4/

Notes

Mimer SQL V11 requires OpenVMS 8.4-2L1 or later on the HPE Integrity Server platform.

On the X86_64 platform, OpenVMS 9.2 is required.

Links

For further details, please see our Howto and Feature articles. Or, contact Mimer SQL Support.

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