Ingres 2006 - Character-based Querying and Reporting Tools User Guide

Peter Kitson

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Sample Chapter From Ingres 2006 - Character-based Querying and Reporting Tools User Guide
     Copyright © Ingres Corporation



Before Starting Ingres

You or the system administrator must install Ingres on your computer before you can use the program. For installation instructions for your operating system, see the appropriate Getting Started guide.

Enabling Access to the Database

Ingres provides access to data stored locally on your computer, or if you are connected by a network, to data stored remotely on other nodes as well. Your database always resides on a remote host computer. Access the database through a server installed on the remote host.

To access a database, you must have been given access to it by the database administrator. Additionally, your system must meet the following requirements to enable access to local and remote databases:

  • For access to a local database, a server must be running on your local node.
  • For access to a database on a remote node in your network, Ingres Net must be installed on both the local node and the remote node, and a server must be running on the remote node.
  • For access to a non-Ingres database, the Enterprise Access product for that database must be installed. See the installation guide specific to that Enterprise Access product.
  • For access to a distributed database, if your system supports it, Ingres Distributed Option must be installed.

Check with your system administrator for the status of access to local and remote databases on your system from your terminal. Check with the database administrator for a particular database to determine whether you have permission to access it.

About Your Database

Ingres is a relational database management system, which stores data in integrated collections called tables. An Ingres database can consist of any number of tables containing data of a variety of types. In addition to tables, the database contains other objects, such as forms, JoinDefs, reports, and applications you create to manipulate your data, as well as system catalogs that keep track of the objects associated with the database.

For a complete introduction to Ingres database concepts, see the Database Administrator Guide.

System Catalogs and the Catalogdb Utility

A system catalog is set up for each database created. The system catalog is a table that holds information about the database as you work with it. These system catalogs make up the data dictionary. System catalogs store specifications for the tables, indexes, forms, reports, and queries associated with a specific database.

You can review the information stored in the system catalogs by using the following statements, operations, or commands:

  • Help statement
  • Select statement. For more information, see your query language reference guide.
  • Examine operation. For more information, see Getting Information about Tables and Views in the chapter “Using the Tables Utility.”
  • Catalogdb command
  • Visual DBA
You access the catalogdb utility from the operating system. You can obtain information about individual databases, lists of the databases you own, and the databases you are authorized to access, and the locations of specific files, such as the checkpoints and journals associated with a database. The catalogdb command is not applicable to Enterprise Access products. For a full explanation of catalogdb, see the Command Reference Guide. For information about Visual DBA, see the online help.

Creating and Maintaining Databases

When you create a database, you become the database administrator (DBA) for that database. The DBA creates an Ingres database with the system-level command createdb. Unless the DBA specifies that a database must be private, all databases created by the DBA are public and accessible to other users. The DBA is responsible for maintaining the database, and only the DBA who created the database can remove (destroy) it. Destroying a database removes all tables and objects associated with that database. In this environment, the DBA is the person who creates and maintains the database on the remote host computer. The remote host computer is connected to a PC through a network that provides access to the database.

For more information about creating, maintaining, and destroying databases, see the Database Administrator Guide.