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Prepare SMI Tables

Even though the database server has returned control to the user, it has not finished its work. The database server now checks the system-monitoring interface (SMI) tables. If the SMI tables are not current, the database server updates the tables. If the SMI tables are not present, as is the case when the disk is initialized, the database server creates the tables. After the database server builds the SMI tables, it puts the message sysmaster database built successfully in the message-log file. For more information about SMI tables, refer to the chapter on the sysmaster database in the IBM Informix: Administrator's Reference.

If you shut down the database server before it finishes building the SMI tables, the process of building the tables aborts. This condition does not damage the database server. The database server simply builds the SMI tables the next time that you bring the database server online. However, if you do not allow the SMI tables to finish building, you cannot run any queries against those tables, and you cannot use ON-Bar for dbspace or logical-log backups.

After the SMI tables have been created, the database server is ready for use. The database server runs until you stop it or, possibly, until a malfunction. It is recommended that you do not try to stop the database server by killing a virtual processor or another database server process. For more information, refer to Starting and Stopping Virtual Processors.

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