Ingres

Ingres II HOWTO
Prev |  | Next

# 2. Ingres

In this section the Ingres II Relational Database Management System is introduced and you come to know how to get it.

## 2.1. University Ingres and Commercial Ingres

Let us start with an important fact: there are two different types of Ingres. The original one, which was designed and developed in the seventies by a research group led by Michael Stonebraker at the University of California, Berkeley, was the first open source relational database management system: it was free to use and distribute, source code included. In fact, it is still free software, although its development stopped in 1989. Its last version (version 8.9) made it into some Linux distributions as well. If you are interested in it, you can download it from, say, the SuSE site. The packages are:

- The main software

- The tools

In 1979, with the foundation of Relational Technology, the career of Commercial Ingres started. Since 1995 it has been distributed by Computer Associates. Its latest version is Ingres II 2.0. This HOWTO deals with the installation of this type of Ingres.

## 2.2. The Software Development Kit

Ingres, being commercial software, is not free to use. However, CA, like most RDBMS vendors, offers a free version of it (the Software Development Kit) to everyone who is interested in learning Ingres. The SDK has two variants, one for Windows NT and one for Linux. These variants are not quite the same as far as the included components are concerned. Obviously, we are engaged in installing the SDK for Linux here. This contains the following elements:

- Intelligent DBMS: the database engine.

- Internet Commerce Enabled (ICE): Ingres' propriatery CGI solution to connect a database to the Web.

- Enhanced Security: the tool supporting mandatory access control.

- C2 Security Auditing: the possibility of C2 level auditing.

- Terminal Monitors: forms-based and command line SQL interfaces.

- Querying and Reporting Tools: forms-based querying, report-writing and report-running tools plus a forms editor.

- Querying and Reporting Runtime: like the previous one, but without the forms editor.

- Vision Pro: integrated, forms-based development environment with a code generator.

- Embedded SQL Precompilers: precompilers for embedding SQL statements in 3GL applications. Supported languages are: C, C++, COBOL, and Fortran.

You can order a free copy of the Ingres SDK CD on http://www.cai.com/registration/cd_ingres.htm.

Remember that you are not allowed to use the SDK in a business environment. It is for evaluating Ingres and prototyping applications only.

The SDK CD contains both the Windows NT and the Linux versions of the Software Development Kit. You can find the Linux files in the following directories:

- `/doc`: the manuals in PDF format, together with the Linux version of Acrobat Reader (`linux-ar-40.tar.gz`). The installer will not copy the documentation to hard disk. These manuals are also available on http://www.cai.com/products/ingres/documentation_set.htm. I will reference some of them later in this document.

- `/int_lnx`: this directory contains `ingres.tar`, the tarball to be installed. `ingres.tar` can be installed directly from the CD or you can copy it to hard disk first.

Do not forget to read the `Readme` file in the root directory on the CD.

## 2.3. The Beta Version

The freshest beta version of the SDK can always be downloaded from http://www.cai.com/products/betas/ingres_linux/ingres_linux.htm.

| At the time of writing, the version of the downloadable beta is 2.5. The next revision of the HOWTO will cover the installation of this version, too. The 2.0 beta is still available on ftp://ftp.cai.com/pub/marketing/ingres/ingresII9808libc6.tar.

## 2.4. The Ingres II Full Edition

In February 2000 Computer Associates announced the general availability of Ingres II 2.0 for Linux. Besides the components found in the SDK, the full edition contains more modules, such as:

- Net: this component makes possible for Ingres utilities and user applications to access databases residing on different installations.

- Replicator: support for replication functions.

- Star: for handling distributed databases.

- Enterprise Access: communication with different database management systems and other, non-relational data sources (used to be called Gateways).

- Protocol Bridge: for communicating with clients on different types of networks.

- Spatial Object Library: for handling two-dimensional spatial objects.

The CD, besides the `/doc` and `/int_lnx` directories that are common with the SDK, contains `install.sh`, the general Ingres installer and its files. More on `install.sh` later, in subsection Starting the Installation Program.

## 2.5. The Unicenter TNG Framework

At last, let me note that the Linux version of CA's Unicenter TNG Framework also includes Ingres as its embedded database management system. For this reason, knowing Ingres may come in handy when using Unicenter, too. You can order a free Unicenter TNG Framework CD on

- http://www.cai.com/registration/tng_framework_linux/index.htm for RedHat, or

- http://www.cai.com/registration/tng_framework_linux/suse_linux.htm for SuSE.

Prev | Home | Next
Introduction |  | System Requirements