September 19, 2003

PLATFORM NEWS: THE MINIMUM VERSION FOR SYNERGY/DE 8.1.5 WILL BE AIX V5.1
In March, IBM announced that as of June 30, 2003, customers will no longer be able to order AIX V4.3, and as of December 31, 2003, customers will no longer be able to get standard support for AIX V4.3. (IBM will provide limited fee-based support after that date.)

Because of IBM’s withdrawal plans, and in order to support 64-bit AIX, we will upgrade to AIX V5.1 for Synergy/DE 8.1.5, which is scheduled for release in Q4 of this year.

If you are one of our AIX customers, we encourage you to upgrade to AIX 5.1 (or 5.2) soon. This will enable you to upgrade to Synergy/DE 8.1.5 and to get future Synergy/DE fixes (which will be applied to 8.1.5). If you have any questions, please contact Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support or your Synergy/DE Account Manager.

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LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE HOW TO BUILD A DISTRIBUTED SYNERGY APPLICATION WITH AN ASP OR ASP.NET FRONT-END
The Demos and Tutorials section of our Web site includes free tutorials to help you and your development teams get up to speed with xfServerPlus and xfNetLink:

• Using Synergy Components with Microsoft .NET and Web Services (7.5, 8.1). Use xfNetLink .NET, xfServerPlus, and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to build a distributed application with an ASP.NET front-end, and more. (Available for Synergy/DE 8.1 or 7.5.)

• Using Synergy Components with Active Server Pages. Use xfNetLink COM, xfServerPlus, and the xfNetLink COM interface generation tools to build a distributed computing system with an ASP front-end, and more. (Available for Synergy/DE 8.1, 7.5, or 7.3)

To download or view these informative tools, visit the Synergy/DE Resource Center’s Demos and Tutorials page.
(Attention HelpDesk customers: After clicking on this link, log into the Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the Demos and Tutorials page.)

Starting from the Synergex Home page? If so, login to the Resource Center. Then under the Education section you will see the Demos and Tutorials link.

Need more information about accessing the Resource Center? Visit the Synergex Resource Center FAQs Web page.

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SUPPORT TECH TIP: ISAM TERABYTE SUPPORT
Question: Now that one of our Synergy ISAM files is almost two gigabytes, we are getting a runtime error 25 ("Output file is full") when we try to update the file. How can we get our system to handle a file of this size?

Answer: Most likely this error is caused by an update that would increase the size of your file beyond two gigabytes, which is the limit for a standard Synergy ISAM file. The ideal solution is to create a terabyte file, which is a Synergy ISAM file that can handle up to 1024 gigabytes. Note, however, that this option is available only on operating systems and file systems that support terabyte files. (See the Synergy Language Reference Manual for information on systems that support this, as well as information on the procedures and utilities described below.) If your system doesn't support terabyte files, skip to the final paragraphs of this article for suggestions on reducing the size of your file.
(Attention HelpDesk customers: After clicking on this link, log into the Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the Synergy/DE 8.1 Online Manuals page.)

To create a terabyte file,

1) Use the ipar utility to create a parameter file from your ISAM file. For example:

ipar oldfile > newfile.par

2) Open the parameter file in a text editor and add ", TBYTE" (without the quotation marks) to the end of the filename/options line, which is the first uncommented line of the file. For example:

oldfile, TBYTE

3) Run fconvert, using the following options:

fconvert -ii oldfile -oif newfile -d newfile.par

This creates a new file (newfile, in this example), which is a terabyte version of the original file.

Note that with Synergy/DE 8.1.5, you'll be able to use the isutl utility to convert a standard ISAM file to a terabyte file—a simpler process than the one described above. (With isutl, you won't have to create a par file and then use it to create yet another file; instead, you’ll simply use isutl to convert the file in place.) In addition, note that the information in the following paragraphs, information on optimizing and maintaining a file, is useful for terabyte files as well as standard ISAM files. The suggestions below generally save space and increase performance—although if you create a terabyte file, you don’t need to follow them to avoid the runtime error.

If your operating system or file system doesn't support terabyte files, your only option is to reduce the size of your file. Start by using the isutl utility with -vi. This instructs isutl to launch the information advisor, which provides information on problems with the file, as well as suggestions for solving any problems and improving the performance of the file. Be sure to follow any suggestions that would reduce the size of the file. The amount of space you'll save depends on how the file is used and how often you've optimized the file in the past.

To keep the file’s size to a minimum, we recommend regular maintenance. This should include regularly using isutl with –vi as mentioned above. In addition, even if the information advisor doesn’t suggest it, you should regularly run isutl with the -ro arguments to optimize the file. The o is optional, but it instructs isutl to rebuild both the index and the data file, which can make file access significantly more efficient. When isutl rebuilds the data file, it removes space that's allotted to deleted records. This can considerably reduce the file's size, but here the savings depends on how often records are deleted from the file and when the last time the file was rebuilt.

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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SYNERGY/DE?
Ever think of Synergy/DE when you’re biting into a hot, delicious Krispy Kreme doughnut? You should! Synergy/DE customer Bay State Milling provides the flour to make those 5 million delicious doughnuts per day! The largest family owned and operated flour miller in North America, Bay State currently mills in excess of 8 million pounds of flour daily. Their Synergy/DE-based application serves as the backbone of their intranet and customer extranet, allowing customers like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts® to log in and access past invoices, account information, shipping information, and details about Bay State Milling’s products.

For more information about Bay State Milling or Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, visit their Web sites.

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