15.4 client and 12.6 server?

[Former Member]

I'm just discovering the Sybase world.

We want to access an old 12.6 IQ server from a 15.4 client. Is there any chance that it works? Perfectly/Mostly/Not a chance ? Any quirk to know?

This would be to query an IQ datawarehouse from a new BusinessObjects BI 4.1. This compatibility would make our tests much easier, and would avoid to migrate both IQ and BusinessObjects at the same time.

[former_member194571 · Accepted solution]

Hello Christophe,

as usual, the answer is "it depends".

Generally, on protocol level, clients and servers of all somewhat recent IQ and SQL Anywhere versions are compatible. But the smarter clients are, the more issues can show up. It starts with queries against system tables which may rely on the implementation of a specific version, include changed default behavior (which you may be able to tweak by setting options to the default expected by the client version), pass on to option settings or any kind of commands performed by client applications that are not supported on the server version. It might even be that a client queries the server @@version and refuses to work with it if it doesn't match the expectations.

If you're looking for safe ground, you should keep in mind that there might be a reason why BObj supports a more recent version and doesn't support an older one. It usually is not just the connectivity between client library and back-end connectivity. If your environment allows you to take chances, you may go ahead, see if it works and keep in mind that, whenever something behaves strange, the mismatch might be the reason. If you're running on IQ 12.6 server which has been out of support for quite some time, I wouldn't assume that the system is by any means critical.

HTH

Volker

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks to both of you.

I know, 12.6 is not supposed to be critical. But some customers are really slow to upgrade.

[markmumy · Accepted solution]

There's slow, then there is SLOOOOOWWWWWW.  12.6 hasn't been supported in 7 years, so shame on the customer for not following a migration to current versions.  They've skipped something like 8-10 versions (12.7, all the 15 versions, and the 16 versions).  IQ 12.6, 12.7, and 15.x (July 31 2016) are now out of support.

At this point they will have issues with upgrades.  In place upgrades have a minimum version that we support for in place upgrades.  12.6 is too old which will drive an upgrade to be a net new build and a copy of the data not an in-place upgrade.  The good news is that moving to IQ 16 will reduce their database footprint and give them much better performance.  We have made just a few improvements in the 10+ years since we started IQ 12.6 development. 

I would prepare the customer for a migration to IQ 16.  There are so many variables of things that may work, may not work, and certainly most are not supported.

Mark

[markmumy]

Keep in mind that IQ 15.x goes out of support in just 6 weeks (Jul 31 2016).  Trying to develop a solution based on IQ 15 is not a good path as they would have to immediately move to IQ 16 to be supported.

Mark

[Former Member]

I agree. I'm not trying to understand this customer

[john_ting]

There is no  backward compatibility with IQ pluggin from IQ15.4 client to IQ12.6 server, since  IQ 15.4 client is backward compatible up to  IQ 15.2 ESD3 and later version

[tayeb_hadjou]

Hi Christophe,

Even thought basic connectivity and command execution should work, IQ 15.x ODBC drivers have NOT been tested against IQ 12.6 server version, thus compatibility is NOT guaranteed.

Regards,

Tayeb.