Applications Manager collects Informix metrics by executing onstat and OS commands on the database server over SSH. Please ensure the following before adding the monitor.

1. Network connectivity

• The Applications Manager server must be able to reach the Informix database server on the SSH port (default 22). If a custom SSH port is used, note it — it must be entered in the OS Port field while adding the monitor.
• Ensure firewall rules permit this connection.
• The Informix database port (default 9088) must also be reachable for JDBC-based metric collection.

2. SSH service on the database server

• SSH daemon (sshd) must be installed and running on the Informix host.
• Password authentication must be enabled. Key-based-only SSH is not currently supported for command-line monitoring.

3. Monitoring OS account

Provide a dedicated OS user account on the database server with:

• A valid login shell (e.g., /bin/bash) — restricted or nologin shells are not supported.
• An active, non-expired password (expired passwords cause the connection to fail).
• Membership in the informix OS group (or use the informix user itself) so that onstat commands can attach to the Informix shared memory.
• (Optional, for Audit Configuration metrics): the informix user or a user with the AAO role (ix_aao group where role separation is enabled) is required to run onaudit -c. Without this, all metrics except audit configuration will still be collected.

4. Informix environment for the monitoring account

The following variables must be exported in the account's login profile (~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile, or /etc/profile), since commands are executed in a non-interactive SSH session:

• INFORMIXDIR
• INFORMIXSERVER
• ONCONFIG
• INFORMIXSQLHOSTS (if not in the default location)
• PATH including $INFORMIXDIR/bin

5. Commands executed by the Informix monitor

The monitoring account must be able to run the following (no sudo is used; the account itself needs these rights):

• Informix: onstat -, onstat -d, onstat -l, onstat -k, onstat -u, onstat -g ckp/sql/ath/ses/seg/dri/rss
• Audit : onaudit -c
• OS-level: uptime, uname -s, ipcs -q, ipcs -m, ipcs -s, and disk usage (df -k on Linux, df -h on AIX, bdf on HP-UX)

6. Pre-validation (recommended)

Before adding the monitor, verify from the Applications Manager server:

ssh <monitoring_user>@<informix_host> 'onstat -'

This should return the Informix server status block without any "permission denied" or "command not found" errors. This is the same check Applications Manager performs while adding the monitor — if it succeeds manually, monitor addition will pass validation.