StarQuest Product Release Notes

StarSQL for UNIX v5.52 Release Notes

November 2009

StarSQL Provides Fast, Reliable Access to DB2

StarSQL for UNIX is a powerful ODBC/CLI driver that enables applications running on a UNIX workstation to transparently access, send SQL queries to, and retrieve results from DB2 databases running on remote IBM mainframe, midrange, or Unix systems. It supports the merged ODBC 3.0/CLI specification and is backwards compatible with IBM DB2 v2 CLI.

The following topics are addressed in these Release Notes. Refer to the StarSQL for UNIX Quick Start Guide for detailed information about installing StarSQL for the first time, and refer to the StarSQL for UNIX User's Guide (ssqlunix.pdf) for detailed information about using the StarSQL for UNIX driver.

  • What's New in this Release
  • Upgrade Considerations
  • System Requirements
  • FixPak and PTF Notes
  • Installing and Using StarSQL for UNIX
  • Known Issues
  • Release History
  • Contacting StarQuest

What's New in this Release

This release of the StarSQL for UNIX introduces the following new features and improvements:

  • 64-bit support (Solaris SPARC, HP-UX PA-RISC, and FreeBSD x64)

StarSQL for UNIX v5.51introduced the following new features and improvements:

Upgrade Considerations

This section describes issues of interest for users who are upgrading from a prior version of StarSQL for UNIX.

Rebinding Packages

After installing StarSQL 5.5x, you should rebind StarSQL packages on the host system if you upgrading from a version of StarSQL prior to V5.38. We suggest that you use StarAdmin to do this; see the StarSQL technical document Binding StarSQL Packages Using StarAdmin for details. These packages are backwards compatible with StarSQL 5.38 through 5.4x clients. If you are using any version of StarSQL prior to v5.38, upgrade those clients to StarSQL v5.5 or use a different package collection. See the StarSQL for UNIX User's Guide (ssqlunix.pdf) for details about package compatibility.

Character Substitution

To identify problems with character conversion, StarSQL detects if one or more characters cannot be converted between the host and client character sets and substitutes a question mark, ?, in place of the character(s).  A warning is generated when the substitution occurs, which may be problematic for certain applications that are not anticipating this warning.  To avoid character conversion warnings, either correct any character conversion issues or, if the character substitution is acceptable, set the CharacterSubstitution value to Silent in the StarSQL DSN.

Dynamic SQL for Catalog Queries

To improve performance when connected to DB2 for z/OS servers, StarSQL executes dynamic SQL statements for catalog queries.  This behavior differs from versions of StarSQL prior to v5.36, where static SQL located in the driver's host packages was used to perform all catalog queries.  In order for StarSQL to use dynamic SQL for catalog queries, users must be granted SELECT privileges to the catalog tables, such as SYSIBM.SYSTABLES, SYSIBM.SYSCOLUMNS, SYSIBM.SYSROUTINES, etc.  If you want the StarSQL driver to use static SQL for catalog functions, set the UseDynamicCatalogSQL parameter to No in the StarSQL DSN. Refer to the StarSQL technical document SQV00SQ051 - StarSQL User Requirements for Dynamic SQL Catalog Queries for details.

64-bit Considerations

StarSQL (64-bit) and StarSQL (32-bit) can be installed on the same system and are independent of each other.

StarSQL (64-bit) can use the same StarSQL packages as StarSQL (32-bit). To use StarAdmin to bind host packages, install either the 32-bit version of StarSQL for Windows or the separate StarAdmin package for Windows or Linux. See the StarSQL technical document Binding StarSQL Packages Using StarAdmin for details.

ODBC data sources for 32-bit and 64-bit environments are configured independently using the appropriate version of ODBCConfig, or by editing $HOME/.odbc.ini or $ODBCSYSINI/odbc.ini (ODBCSYSINI is typically /usr/local/etc with the StarQuest-supplied version of unixODBC). The Driver parameter should be set to either StarSQL or StarSQL64.

Note that it is important to specify the correct driver name in File data sources or in DSN-less connection strings.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit Data Sources are visible to both 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC applications and both versions of ODBCConfig, but are only usable by the matching type of application (i.e. 64-bit applications only can use 64-bit DSNs, 32-bit applications can only use 32-bit DSNs). If your ODBC application attempts to use the incorrect type of data source, a "Data source name not found and no default driver specified" error is returned.

To help distinguish the type of a DSN, you may want to add "_32" or "_64" to the data source name.

System Requirements

You can install and run StarSQL for UNIX on computers with the following operating systems.

32-bit:

  • Solaris:
    • SUN Solaris 10 or above (SPARC)
  • AIX:
    • IBM AIX 5.3 or above
    • C++ Application Runtime (xlC.rte)
  • Linux (x86):
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop or Server 10 SP2 and later (x86)
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 and later (x86)
    • Ubuntu Desktop or Server Edition v9.04 or later
    • Fedora 10 and later
    • Other versions of Linux may work.
    • To use the 32-bit version of StarSQL on a 64-bit Linux system, you may need to install optional operating system components to support 32-bit applications.
  • HP-UX 11.11 or later (PA-RISC)
    • You also can run StarSQL on HP-UX Itanium if the calling application is a 32-bit PA-RISC binary.
  • FreeBSD 7.0 or later (x86)
    • On FreeBSD, StarSQL includes a version of libiconv.so (with additional needed conversions) in /usr/local/share/starsql/lib; make sure that /usr/local/share/starsql/lib appears before /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

64-bit:

  • SUN Solaris 10 or above (SPARC)
  • HP-UX 11.11or above (PA-RISC)
  • FreeBSD 7.0 or later (x64)
    • On FreeBSD, StarSQL includes a version of libiconv.so (with additional needed conversions) in /usr/local/share/starsql64/lib; make sure that /usr/local/share/starsql64/lib appears before /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
  • Linux x86_64 (AMD64 or Intel EMT64)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop or Server 10 SP2 and later
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 and later
    • Ubuntu Desktop or Server Edition v9.04 or later
    • Fedora 10 and later
    • Other versions of Linux may work.
    You must use release 2.2.14 or later of the 64-bit unixODBC driver manager on a 64-bit computer. The version of unixODBC that is included with StarSQL meets the minimum requirements and has been verified with the 64-bit version of StarSQL.

General:

  • TCP/IP access to the DB2 system. This can be either
    • direct TCP/IP access to a DB2 system with DRDA over TCP/IP support (DB2 for OS/390 v5.x, DB2 UDB v6.x, DB2 for VM v6.x, DB2 for VSE v7.x, OS/400 v4r2 & later)
    • connection to a DB2 system through a StarPipes gateway (StarPipes/400 or StarPipes for Windows). StarPipes gateway provides connectivity between TCP/IP and SNA and centralized configuration.
  • Sufficient disk space for installation
  • Root user authority
  • Access to a StarQuest StarLicense server

Host Databases:

You can use the StarSQL driver to connect to any of the following host databases:

  • DB2 for OS/390 and z/OS v5.1 and later
  • DB2 Server for VSE & VM v7.1 and later
  • DB2 for VM & VSE (formerly known as SQL/DS) v3.3 and later
  • DB2 for i (formerly known as DB2/400, DB2 UDB for iSeries, and DB2 for i5/OS) running OS/400 V3R2 and later
  • DB2 Universal Database (UDB) for Linux, UNIX, and Windows v6.1 and later

For native DRDA over TCP/IP support the host must run one of the following versions of DB2:

  • DB2 for OS/390 and z/OS v5.1 and later
  • DB2 for VM v6.1 and later
  • DB2 for VSE v7.1 and later
  • DB2 for i, running OS/400 V4R2 and later
  • DB2 Universal Database for Linux, UNIX, and Windows v6.1 and later

The following versions of DB2 support LOB (large object) data types:

  • DB2 for OS/390 v6.1 and later
  • DB2 for i, running OS/400 V5R1 and later, with appropriate PTFs
  • DB2 Universal Database for Linux, UNIX and Windows v8.1 and later

If you will be accessing Unicode or ASCII LOB data on DB2 for OS/390 or z/OS, it is recommended that you have applied the PTFs described in the IBM APAR PQ85495. For details, refer to the expert setting UseSYSDUMMYAEU documented in the Customizing the unixODBC Driver Manager Configuration chapter of the StarSQL for UNIX User's Guide (ssqlunix.pdf).

FixPak and PTF Notes

This section describes specific IBM issues and the FixPak and PTFs that may be necessary for StarSQL to function properly.

Refer to StarSQL for UNIX User's Guide (ssqlunix.pdf) for specific IBM issues and the FixPak and PTFs that may be necessary for StarSQL for UNIX to function properly.

In addition to those documented in the User's Guide, the following FixPaks should be installed:

OS/400 PTFs

v6r1

If you are using stored procedures, install PTF's 5761SS1-SI36405 and 5761SS1-SI36136.

v5r4

If you are using stored procedures, install PTF's 5722SS1-SI22551, 5722SS1-SI36406, and 5722SS1-SI36059.

 

Installing and Using the StarSQL for UNIX Software

Known Issues

 

OpenOffice (Linux & Solaris)

There is a known issue with ODBC support in the 64-bit version of OpenOffice (OpenOffice Issue 103847). We recommend either using the 32-bit version of OpenOffice and the 32-bit version of StarSQL, or use the JDBC support of either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of OpenOffice with StarSQL for Java.

There is a known issue with using OpenOffice 3.1.1 and ODBC on Solaris to update tables (OpenOffice Issue 105068). If you need this functionality, we recommend using an earlier version of OpenOffice (we have verified that the problem does not exist in OpenOffice 2.2) or use the JDBC support of OpenOffice with StarSQL for Java.

JDBC-ODBC Bridge ( Solaris SPARC 64-bit)

There is a known issue with the JDBC-ODBC bridge in the 64-bit JRE on Solaris SPARC. We recommend either using a 32-bit JRE and the 32-bit version of StarSQL, or use StarSQL for Java.

PHP ( 64-bit)

There are known issue when using a 64-bit version of PHP; patches for PHP are available. Refer to the technical note Using StarSQL with PHP and php-odbc for latest information.

Applications Built with cc or gcc (HP-UX)

We recommend using aCC when building custom ODBC applications to be used with StarSQL. Using an application created with gcc or cc (e.g. JDBC-ODBC Bridge) may result in one of the following error messages:

  • /usr/lib/dld.sl: Unresolved symbol: __ct__13Iostream_initFv_1 (code) from /opt/starsql/lib/libSWODBC.sl
  • SQLState = 01000, [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Can't open lib '/opt/starsql/lib/libSWODBC.sl' : can't open the module

Solution: Set the LD_PRELOAD environment variable to the C++ runtime libraries:

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstd.sl:/usr/lib/libstream.sl:/usr/lib/libCsup.sl:/usr/lib/libm.sl; export LD_PRELOAD

or (64-bit):

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/pa20_64/libstd.sl:/usr/lib/pa20_64/libstream.sl:/usr/lib/pa20_64/libCsup.sl:/usr/lib/pa20_64/libm.sl; export LD_PRELOAD

Application error (HP-UX)

You may see the following error message with some ODBC applications (e.g. perl-static):

[unixODBC][Driver Manager]Driver's SQLAllocHandle on SQL_HANDLE_DBC failed (SQL-IM005)

Solution: This error may result if the ODBC application was built with SHLIB_PATH support disabled.

Use chatr to determine whether SHLIB_PATH support is enabled in your application. If it is disabled, you can enable it with:

$ chatr +s enable <Executable>

You can enable SHLIB_PATH support when building your ODBC application by using the aCC compiler option -Wl,+s:

$ aCC -Wl,+s dl.cxx

 

In the specific case of perl, be sure to use /opt/perl_32/bin/perl-dynamic (or /opt/perl_64/bin/perl-dynamic) rather than perl-static.

Alternatively, If your ODBC application was built with SHLIB_PATH support disabled and you cannot change it, set the _STARSQL32 or _STARSQL64 environment variable to your StarSQL installation location:

$ _STARSQL32=/opt/starsql; export _STARSQL32

Conversion error message (FreeBSD)

You may see the following error message on FreeBSD, indicating that the system-supplied version of libiconv.so in /usr/lib is being used rather than the StarQuest-supplied libiconv.so.

SQLState = 22000, [unixODBC][StarSQL][StarSQL CLI Driver]Conversion from current locale character code set US-ASCII to host code set IBM-500 (CCSID 500 in StarSQL configuration file 'ccsid.csv') is not configured

Solution: Include /usr/local/share/starsql/lib in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, or add it to the system library path with ldconfig.

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/share/starsql/lib:/usr/local/share/starsql/odbc/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

or (64-bit)

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/share/starsql64/lib:/usr/local/share/starsql64/odbc/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Multithreading Applications (FreeBSD)

Certain ODBC applications (e.g. JDBC-ODBC bridge or perl) may fail with a segmentation fault.

Solution: Set the LD_PRELOAD environment variable to the unixODBC driver manager:

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/share/starsql/odbc/lib/libodbc.so; export LD_PRELOAD

or (64-bit)

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/share/starsql64/odbc/lib/libodbc.so; export LD_PRELOAD

 

Installation to non-default location (AIX)

If you install StarSQL for AIX to a location other than the default (/usr/lpp/starsql), you may receive the following error message:

SQLState = 08004, [unixODBC][StarSQL][StarSQL CLI Driver]Some connection parameters are missing for Data Source.

Solution: Include <INSTALLDIR>/lib in your LIBPATH environment variable:

$ LIBPATH=/mystarsql/lib:/mystarsql/odbc/lib; export LIBPATH

JDBC-ODBC Bridge (AIX)

There are known problems using the JDBC-ODBC bridge in IBM JRE 1.6. We recommend using IBM JRE 1.4 or 1.5, or using StarSQL for Java in place of StarSQL with the JDBC-ODBC bridge.

Singlethreaded vs. Multithreaded applications (AIX)

StarSQL/UNIX for AIX is distributed as a set of multithreaded shared libraries and should work with multithreaded applications. If the application that you are developing is not multithreaded, we suggest that you compile and link it with the multithreading options anyway. Use the xlc_r compiler instead of the xlc compiler or, for C++, use the xlC_r compiler instead of the xlC compiler.

SQLNativeSQL() API & ODBC Tracing (64-bit)

There is a known problem with unixODBC ODBC tracing and the SQLNativeSQL() API on 64-bit platforms.

Unicode Applications and Character Data

When a Unicode application uses the StarSQL ANSI driver, it cannot send late-bound character data, i.e. character data bound using the SQL_LEN_DATA_AT_EXEC macro, for the C types SQL_C_CHAR, SQL_C_WCHAR, or SQL_C_TCHAR.

Documentation Errata

The manual installation chapter in the StarSQL for UNIX User's Guide documents the use of admintool on Solaris. This application is no longer available on Solaris 10; use pkgadd and pkgrm instead.

 

Release History

This section provides information about problems or enhancements that are made available as "point releases" and major releases of the StarSQL for UNIX software.

Version Number Release Date Significant Changes
v5.52.1130 Nov 2009 10995 Solaris 64-bit
10974 Invalid cursor state error when user lacks bind privileges on UDB
10990 Add additional SBCS conversion awareness for PC-MBCS CCSIDS
10985 Misinterprets ACCRDB replies - RDBAFLRM is error, regardless of SQLSTATE
10987 SQICONV problem with CCSID lookup for MBCS
10989 permit override of SBCS CCSID to a MBCS converter
11017 Misinterpreted ODBC spec for some 64-bit APIs
11023 64-bit ODBC Call to SQLDescribeParam for CALL statement fails
v5.51.0921 Sept 2009

5.51 release for HP-UX, AIX & FreeBSD

10902 "Autobind" option and keepdynamic setting
10890 build StarSQL/Solaris without -compat flag
10123 build StarSQL on AIX 5.3
v5.51.0910 Sept 2009

5.51 release for Linux & Solaris

10619 port to 64-bit (x64) Linux
8005 Support System DSN
10621 GUI datasource configuration
10639 Eliminate requirement for STARSQL environment variable
10741 change STARSQL environment variable name to _STARSQL[32|64]
10727 installer: add StarLicense client components
10651 Installer: use odbcinst to modify /usr/local/etc/odbcinst.ini
10620 convert readme to HTML
10164 installer: enhance update process

10617 add default value (swtcp32.dll) for Netlib parameter
10702 Failure to retrieve BLOB data for non-nullable column
10547 Parser cannot handle queries starting with "WITH" keyword
10466 Numeric and decimal fields are truncated when using ColdFusion
10583 Parser: error using SUBSTR function in WHERE clause
10509 Add DSN setting to disable return of catalog info
10784 Hang in swpro32 when running .NET applications on IIS
10740 Unix Driver potentially picking up wrong message file when using multiple personalities.
10646 trailing space in DSN causes "Some connection parameters are missing for Data Source."
10745 segmentation fault with perl
10648 replace CLI include files with unixODBC include files
10742 build sample applications with unixODBC includes files
10756 remove libdb2.so symbolic links
10757 rename starping/starping.odbc & simpleconn/simpleconn.odbc to starping.cli/starping & simpleconn.cli/simpleconn

10746 starlic-tester w/o sleep parm - segmentation fault
10724 StarLicense/UNIX: cfg_client_set_loglevel() function returns wrong return code
10723 starlic-admin: missing options for client-loglevel-set and client-loglevel-show
10725 starlic-admin: help should show only client options when invoked by a different name
10726 UNIX configure: need a version of configure that shows only client-related options
10734 Changes for StarLicense/UNIX client

Contacting StarQuest

If you need to contact technical support, please provide the following information to help the support engineers address your issue. You can contact StarQuest via phone, email, or facsimile as indicated at the bottom of this page.

Company Information Address
Phone
Fax
Contact Information First and Last Name of individual contact
Email Address
Host Type Hardware and Operating System (i.e., AS/400 V5R4)
Network Protocol/Gateways Protocol and/or Gateways used (i.e., TCP/IP, HIS 2000)
Client Type Client Type and Operating System (i.e., Windows 2008 SP2)
StarQuest Product,
Version, and Source 		Which StarQuest product and what version is installed (i.e., StarSQL for Windows v5.50.02.18)
Where you obtained the software (i.e., direct from StarQuest, name of specific reseller)
Problem Information Provide as much detail as possible, including information about any application that is using the StarQuest product when the problem occurs and the exact error message that appears.

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