Execution Plan Analyzer displays the execution plan file produced by the server optimizer. This file is produced by the server and is located on the server workstation.
To display this file, the Execution Plan Analyzer should be able to access the server workstation to retrieve this file. UNIX IBM Informix servers place this file in the user home directory. Windows NT IBM Informix servers place this file into SQEXPLN subdirectory under the server directory. The file has the user name with extension .out.
For example, informix.out
To configure the Execution Plan Analyzer you should specify the method of accessing the server workstation and additional parameters specific for the selected access method.
Use Tools -> Preferences top-level menu to open Preferences dialog box and choose Execution Plan Analyzer node to select the configuration panel.
There are two standard access methods:
File Access Method - it allows to access the explain plan file directory using local network file mapping. For example, you specify the path to the file directory as: D:\informix\sqlexpln on Windows NT or as /home/administrator on UNIX. This method is very simple but it will not work, for example, if you can not mount UNIX server directory to Windows local file system.
FTP Access method - it allows to access the server file via FTP protocol. The server workstation should run FTP service. You should be able to specify FTP path to your server explain plan directory via FTP. For UNIX servers the path should point to the user home directory for Windows NT it should point to \informix\SQEXPLN subdirectory under the Informix server installation.
When there is Server Administrator add-on module installed, it also provides Telnet access method to IBM Informix UNIX servers. Telnet access method requires the server workstation to provide telnet service. This method becomes a default, because you do not have to perform any additional configuration besides the Host Access tab parameters in the Connection Manager, which is usually done during creation of a new server connection.