Debezium connector for Informix

Overview

The Debezium Informix connector is based on the Informix Change Data Capture API that enables Change Data Capture in Informix.

The database administrator must prepare the database and the database server for using the Change Data Capture API. See Preparing to use the Change Data Capture API.

After you place tables in capture mode, the connector can read change stream records for each table update and generate change events from them. The connector emits a change event record for each row-level insert, update, and delete operation. By default, change events records are sent to a Kafka topic that has the same name as the source table. Optionally, you can customize the name of the target topic. Client applications read the Kafka topics that correspond to the database tables of interest and can react to each row-level change event.

Typically, the database administrator puts a table into capture mode in the middle of the life of a table. This means that the connector does not have the complete history of all changes that have been made to the table. Therefore, when the Informix connector first connects to a particular Informix database, it starts by performing a consistent snapshot of each table that is in capture mode. After the connector completes the snapshot, the connector streams change events from the point at which the snapshot was made. In this way, the connector starts with a consistent view of the tables that are in capture mode, and does not drop any changes that were made while it was performing the snapshot.

Debezium connectors are tolerant of failures. As the connector reads and produces change events, it records the log sequence number (LSN) of the change stream record. The LSN is the position of the change event in the database log. If the connector stops for any reason, including communication failures, network problems, or crashes, upon restarting it continues reading the change stream where it left off. This behavior also applies to snapshots. That is, if the snapshot was not complete when the connector stopped, after a restart, the connector begins a new snapshot.

How the connector works

To optimally configure and run a Debezium Informix connector, it is helpful to understand how the connector performs snapshots, streams change events, determines Kafka topic names, and handles schema changes.

Snapshots

The Informix replication feature is not designed to store the complete history of database changes. As a result, the Debezium Informix connector cannot retrieve the entire history of the database from the logs. To enable the connector to establish a baseline for the current state of the database, the first time that the connector starts, it performs an initial consistent snapshot of the tables that are in capture mode. For each change that the snapshot captures, the connector emits a read event to the Kafka topic for the captured table.

Default workflow that the Debezium Informix connector uses to perform an initial snapshot

The following workflow lists the steps that Debezium takes to create a snapshot. These steps describe the process for a snapshot when the snapshot.mode configuration property is set to its default value, which is initial. You can customize the way that the connector creates snapshots by changing the value of the snapshot.mode property. If you configure a different snapshot mode, the connector completes the snapshot by using a modified version of this workflow.

1. Establish a connection to the database.

2. Determine which tables are in capture mode and should be included in the snapshot. By default, the connector captures the data for all non-system tables. After the snapshot completes, the connector continues to stream data for the specified tables. If you want the connector to capture data only from specific tables, you can configure the connector to capture the data for a subset of tables or table elements by setting properties such as table.include.list or table.exclude.list.

3. Obtain a lock on each of the tables in capture mode. This lock ensures that no schema changes can occur in those tables until the snapshot completes. The level of the lock is determined by the value of the snapshot.isolation.mode connector configuration property.

4. Read the highest (most recent) LSN position in the server’s transaction log.

5. Capture the schema of all tables or all tables that are designated for capture. The connector persists schema information in its internal database schema history topic. The schema history provides information about the structure that is in effect when a change event occurs.

   By default, the connector captures the schema of every table in the database that is in capture mode, including tables that are not configured for capture. If tables are not configured for capture, the initial snapshot captures only their structure; it does not capture any table data. For more information about why snapshots persist schema information for tables that you did not include in the initial snapshot, see Understanding why initial snapshots capture the schema for all tables.

6. Release any locks obtained in Step 3. Other database clients can now write to any previously locked tables.

7. At the LSN position read in Step 4, the connector scans the tables that are designated for capture. During the scan, the connector completes the following tasks:

   1. Confirms that the table was created before the snapshot began. If the table was created after the snapshot began, the connector skips the table. After the snapshot is complete, and the connector transitions to streaming, it emits change events for any tables that were created after the snapshot began.

   2. Produces a read event for each row that is captured from a table. All read events contain the same LSN position, which is the LSN position that was obtained in step 4.

   3. Emits each read event to the Kafka topic for the source table.

   4. Releases data table locks, if applicable.

8. Record the successful completion of the snapshot in the connector offsets.

The resulting initial snapshot captures the current state of each row in the captured tables. From this baseline state, the connector captures subsequent changes as they occur.

After the snapshot process begins, if the process is interrupted due to connector failure, rebalancing, or other reasons, the process restarts after the connector restarts.

After the connector completes the initial snapshot, it continues streaming from the position that it read in Step 4 so that it does not miss any updates.

If the connector stops again for any reason, after it restarts, it resumes streaming changes from where it previously left off.

Understanding why initial snapshots capture the schema history for all tables

The initial snapshot that a connector runs captures two types of information:

Table data

Information about INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations in tables that are named in the connector’s table.include.list property.

Schema data

DDL statements that describe the structural changes that are applied to tables. Schema data is persisted to both the internal schema history topic, and to the connector’s schema change topic, if one is configured.

After you run an initial snapshot, you might notice that the snapshot captures schema information for tables that are not designated for capture. By default, initial snapshots are designed to capture schema information for every table that is present in the database, not only from tables that are designated for capture. Connectors require that the table’s schema is present in the schema history topic before they can capture a table. By enabling the initial snapshot to capture schema data for tables that are not part of the original capture set, Debezium prepares the connector to readily capture event data from these tables should that later become necessary. If the initial snapshot does not capture a table’s schema, you must add the schema to the history topic before the connector can capture data from the table.

In some cases, you might want to limit schema capture in the initial snapshot. This can be useful when you want to reduce the time required to complete a snapshot. Or when Debezium connects to the database instance through a user account that has access to multiple logical databases, but you want the connector to capture changes only from tables in a specific logic database.

Additional information

• Capturing data from tables not captured by the initial snapshot (no schema change)

• Capturing data from tables not captured by the initial snapshot (schema change)

• Setting the schema.history.internal.store.only.captured.tables.ddl property to specify the tables from which to capture schema information.

• Setting the schema.history.internal.store.only.captured.databases.ddl property to specify the logical databases from which to capture schema changes.

Capturing data from tables not captured by the initial snapshot (no schema change)

In some cases, you might want the connector to capture data from a table whose schema was not captured by the initial snapshot. Depending on the connector configuration, the initial snapshot might capture the table schema only for specific tables in the database. If the table schema is not present in the history topic, the connector fails to capture the table, and reports a missing schema error.

You might still be able to capture data from the table, but you must perform additional steps to add the table schema.

Prerequisites

• You want to capture data from a table with a schema that the connector did not capture during the initial snapshot.

• No schema changes were applied to the table between the LSNs of the earliest and latest change table entry that the connector reads. For information about capturing data from a new table that has undergone structural changes, see Capturing data from tables not captured by the initial snapshot (schema change).

Procedure

1. Stop the connector.

2. Remove the internal database schema history topic that is specified by the schema.history.internal.kafka.topic property.

3. Clear the offsets in the configured Kafka Connect offset.storage.topic. For more information about how to remove offsets, see the Debezium community FAQ.

   Removing offsets should be performed only by advanced users who have experience in manipulating internal Kafka Connect data. This operation is potentially destructive, and should be performed only as a last resort.

4. Apply the following changes to the connector configuration:

   1. (Optional) Set the value of schema.history.internal.captured.tables.ddl to false. This setting causes the snapshot to capture the schema for all tables, and guarantees that, in the future, the connector can reconstruct the schema history for all tables.

      Snapshots that capture the schema for all tables require more time to complete.

   2. Add the tables that you want the connector to capture to table.include.list.

   3. Set the snapshot.mode to one of the following values:

      initial

      When you restart the connector, it takes a full snapshot of the database that captures the table data and table structures.
      If you select this option, consider setting the value of the schema.history.internal.captured.tables.ddl property to false to enable the connector to capture the schema of all tables.

      schema_only

      When you restart the connector, it takes a snapshot that captures only the table schema. Unlike a full data snapshot, this option does not capture any table data. Use this option if you want to restart the connector more quickly than with a full snapshot.

5. Restart the connector. The connector completes the type of snapshot specified by the snapshot.mode.

6. (Optional) If the connector performed a schema_only snapshot, after the snapshot completes, initiate an incremental snapshot to capture data from the tables that you added. The connector runs the snapshot while it continues to stream real-time changes from the tables. Running an incremental snapshot captures the following data changes:

   • For tables that the connector previously captured, the incremental snapsot captures changes that occur while the connector was down, that is, in the interval between the time that the connector was stopped, and the current restart.

   • For newly added tables, the incremental snapshot captures all existing table rows.

Capturing data from tables not captured by the initial snapshot (schema change)

If a schema change is applied to a table, records that are committed before the schema change have different structures than those that were committed after the change. When Debezium captures data from a table, it reads the schema history to ensure that it applies the correct schema to each event. If the schema is not present in the schema history topic, the connector is unable to capture the table, and an error results.

If you want to capture data from a table that was not captured by the initial snapshot, and the schema of the table was modified, you must add the schema to the history topic, if it is not already available. You can add the schema by running a new schema snapshot, or by running an initial snapshot for the table.

Prerequisites

• You want to capture data from a table with a schema that the connector did not capture during the initial snapshot.

• A schema change was applied to the table so that the records to be captured do not have a uniform structure.

Procedure

Initial snapshot captured the schema for all tables (store.only.captured.tables.ddl was set to false)

1. Edit the table.include.list property to specify the tables that you want to capture.

2. Restart the connector.

3. Initiate an incremental snapshot if you want to capture existing data from the newly added tables.

Initial snapshot did not capture the schema for all tables (store.only.captured.tables.ddl was set to true)

If the initial snapshot did not save the schema of the table that you want to capture, complete one of the following procedures:

• Procedure 1: Schema snapshot, followed by incremental snapshot

  In this procedure, the connector first performs a schema snapshot. You can then initiate an incremental snapshot to enable the connector to synchronize data.

  1. Stop the connector.

  2. Remove the internal database schema history topic that is specified by the schema.history.internal.kafka.topic property.

  3. Clear the offsets in the configured Kafka Connect offset.storage.topic. For more information about how to remove offsets, see the Debezium community FAQ.

     Removing offsets should be performed only by advanced users who have experience in manipulating internal Kafka Connect data. This operation is potentially destructive, and should be performed only as a last resort.

  4. Set values for properties in the connector configuration as described in the following steps:

     1. Set the value of the snapshot.mode property to schema_only.

     2. Edit the table.include.list to add the tables that you want to capture.

  5. Restart the connector.

  6. Wait for Debezium to capture the schema of the new and existing tables. Data changes that occurred any tables after the connector stopped are not captured.

  7. To ensure that no data is lost, initiate an incremental snapshot.

  Procedure 2: Initial snapshot, followed by optional incremental snapshot

  In this procedure the connector performs a full initial snapshot of the database. As with any initial snapshot, in a database with many large tables, running an initial snapshot can be a time-consuming operation. After the snapshot completes, you can optionally trigger an incremental snapshot to capture any changes that occur while the connector is off-line.

  1. Stop the connector.

  2. Remove the internal database schema history topic that is specified by the schema.history.internal.kafka.topic property.

  3. Clear the offsets in the configured Kafka Connect offset.storage.topic. For more information about how to remove offsets, see the Debezium community FAQ.

     Removing offsets should be performed only by advanced users who have experience in manipulating internal Kafka Connect data. This operation is potentially destructive, and should be performed only as a last resort.

  4. Edit the table.include.list to add the tables that you want to capture.

  5. Set values for properties in the connector configuration as described in the following steps:

     1. Set the value of the snapshot.mode property to initial.

     2. (Optional) Set schema.history.internal.store.only.captured.tables.ddl to false.

  6. Restart the connector. The connector takes a full database snapshot. After the snapshot completes, the connector transitions to streaming.

  7. (Optional) To capture any data that changed while the connector was off-line, initiate an incremental snapshot.

Ad hoc snapshots

By default, a connector runs an initial snapshot operation only after it starts for the first time. Following this initial snapshot, under normal circumstances, the connector does not repeat the snapshot process. Any future change event data that the connector captures comes in through the streaming process only.

However, in some situations the data that the connector obtained during the initial snapshot might become stale, lost, or incomplete. To provide a mechanism for recapturing table data, Debezium includes an option to perform ad hoc snapshots. You might want to perform an ad hoc snapshot after any of the following changes occur in your Debezium environment:

• The connector configuration is modified to capture a different set of tables.

• Kafka topics are deleted and must be rebuilt.

• Data corruption occurs due to a configuration error or some other problem.

You can re-run a snapshot for a table for which you previously captured a snapshot by initiating a so-called ad-hoc snapshot. Ad hoc snapshots require the use of signaling tables. You initiate an ad hoc snapshot by sending a signal request to the Debezium signaling table.

When you initiate an ad hoc snapshot of an existing table, the connector appends content to the topic that already exists for the table. If a previously existing topic was removed, Debezium can create a topic automatically if automatic topic creation is enabled.

Ad hoc snapshot signals specify the tables to include in the snapshot. The snapshot can capture the entire contents of the database, or capture only a subset of the tables in the database. Also, the snapshot can capture a subset of the contents of the table(s) in the database.

You specify the tables to capture by sending an execute-snapshot message to the signaling table. Set the type of the execute-snapshot signal to incremental or blocking, and provide the names of the tables to include in the snapshot, as described in the following table:

Triggering an ad hoc incremental snapshot

You initiate an ad hoc incremental snapshot by adding an entry with the execute-snapshot signal type to the signaling table. After the connector processes the message, it begins the snapshot operation. The snapshot process reads the first and last primary key values and uses those values as the start and end point for each table. Based on the number of entries in the table, and the configured chunk size, Debezium divides the table into chunks, and proceeds to snapshot each chunk, in succession, one at a time.

For more information, see Incremental snapshots.

Triggering an ad hoc blocking snapshot

You initiate an ad hoc blocking snapshot by adding an entry with the execute-snapshot signal type to the signaling table. After the connector processes the message, it begins the snapshot operation. The connector temporarily stops streaming, and then initiates a snapshot of the specified table, following the same process that it uses during an initial snapshot. After the snapshot completes, the connector resumes streaming.

For more information, see Blocking snapshots.

Incremental snapshots

To provide flexibility in managing snapshots, Debezium includes a supplementary snapshot mechanism, known as incremental snapshotting. Incremental snapshots rely on the Debezium mechanism for sending signals to a Debezium connector. Incremental snapshots are based on the DDD-3 design document.

In an incremental snapshot, instead of capturing the full state of a database all at once, as in an initial snapshot, Debezium captures each table in phases, in a series of configurable chunks. You can specify the tables that you want the snapshot to capture and the size of each chunk. The chunk size determines the number of rows that the snapshot collects during each fetch operation on the database. The default chunk size for incremental snapshots is 1024 rows.

As an incremental snapshot proceeds, Debezium uses watermarks to track its progress, maintaining a record of each table row that it captures. This phased approach to capturing data provides the following advantages over the standard initial snapshot process:

• You can run incremental snapshots in parallel with streamed data capture, instead of postponing streaming until the snapshot completes. The connector continues to capture near real-time events from the change log throughout the snapshot process, and neither operation blocks the other.

• If the progress of an incremental snapshot is interrupted, you can resume it without losing any data. After the process resumes, the snapshot begins at the point where it stopped, rather than recapturing the table from the beginning.

• You can run an incremental snapshot on demand at any time, and repeat the process as needed to adapt to database updates. For example, you might re-run a snapshot after you modify the connector configuration to add a table to its table.include.list property.

Incremental snapshot process

When you run an incremental snapshot, Debezium sorts each table by primary key and then splits the table into chunks based on the configured chunk size. Working chunk by chunk, it then captures each table row in a chunk. For each row that it captures, the snapshot emits a READ event. That event represents the value of the row when the snapshot for the chunk began.

As a snapshot proceeds, it’s likely that other processes continue to access the database, potentially modifying table records. To reflect such changes, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations are committed to the transaction log as per usual. Similarly, the ongoing Debezium streaming process continues to detect these change events and emits corresponding change event records to Kafka.

How Debezium resolves collisions among records with the same primary key

In some cases, the UPDATE or DELETE events that the streaming process emits are received out of sequence. That is, the streaming process might emit an event that modifies a table row before the snapshot captures the chunk that contains the READ event for that row. When the snapshot eventually emits the corresponding READ event for the row, its value is already superseded. To ensure that incremental snapshot events that arrive out of sequence are processed in the correct logical order, Debezium employs a buffering scheme for resolving collisions. Only after collisions between the snapshot events and the streamed events are resolved does Debezium emit an event record to Kafka.

Snapshot window

To assist in resolving collisions between late-arriving READ events and streamed events that modify the same table row, Debezium employs a so-called snapshot window. The snapshot windows demarcates the interval during which an incremental snapshot captures data for a specified table chunk. Before the snapshot window for a chunk opens, Debezium follows its usual behavior and emits events from the transaction log directly downstream to the target Kafka topic. But from the moment that the snapshot for a particular chunk opens, until it closes, Debezium performs a de-duplication step to resolve collisions between events that have the same primary key..

For each data collection, the Debezium emits two types of events, and stores the records for them both in a single destination Kafka topic. The snapshot records that it captures directly from a table are emitted as READ operations. Meanwhile, as users continue to update records in the data collection, and the transaction log is updated to reflect each commit, Debezium emits UPDATE or DELETE operations for each change.

As the snapshot window opens, and Debezium begins processing a snapshot chunk, it delivers snapshot records to a memory buffer. During the snapshot windows, the primary keys of the READ events in the buffer are compared to the primary keys of the incoming streamed events. If no match is found, the streamed event record is sent directly to Kafka. If Debezium detects a match, it discards the buffered READ event, and writes the streamed record to the destination topic, because the streamed event logically supersede the static snapshot event. After the snapshot window for the chunk closes, the buffer contains only READ events for which no related transaction log events exist. Debezium emits these remaining READ events to the table’s Kafka topic.

The connector repeats the process for each snapshot chunk.

Triggering an incremental snapshot

Currently, the only way to initiate an incremental snapshot is to send an ad hoc snapshot signal to the signaling table on the source database.

You submit a signal to the signaling table as SQL INSERT queries.

After Debezium detects the change in the signaling table, it reads the signal, and runs the requested snapshot operation.

The query that you submit specifies the tables to include in the snapshot, and, optionally, specifies the type of snapshot operation. Currently supports the incremental and blocking types.

To specify the tables to include in the snapshot, provide a data-collections array that lists the tables or an array of regular expressions used to match tables, for example,

{"data-collections": ["public.MyFirstTable", "public.MySecondTable"]}

The data-collections array for an incremental snapshot signal has no default value. If the data-collections array is empty, Debezium detects that no action is required and does not perform a snapshot.

Prerequisites

• Signaling is enabled.

  • A signaling data collection exists on the source database.

  • The signaling data collection is specified in the signal.data.collection property.

Using a source signaling channel to trigger an incremental snapshot

1. Send a SQL query to add the ad hoc incremental snapshot request to the signaling table:

   INSERT INTO <signalTable> (id, type, data) VALUES ('<id>', '<snapshotType>', '{"data-collections": ["<tableName>","<tableName>"],"type":"<snapshotType>","additional-conditions":[{"data-collection": "<tableName>", "filter": "<additional-condition>"}]}');

   For example,

   INSERT INTO myschema.debezium_signal (id, type, data) (1)
   values ('ad-hoc-1',   (2)
       'execute-snapshot',  (3)
       '{"data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema2.table2"], (4)
       "type":"incremental", (5)
       "additional-conditions":[{"data-collection": "schema1.table1" ,"filter":"color=\'blue\'"}]}'); (6)

   The values of the id,type, and data parameters in the command correspond to the fields of the signaling table.

   The following table describes the parameters in the example:

   Table 3. Descriptions of fields in a SQL command for sending an incremental snapshot signal to the signaling table

   Item	Value	Description
   1	myschema.debezium_signal	Specifies the fully-qualified name of the signaling table on the source database.
   2	ad-hoc-1	The id parameter specifies an arbitrary string that is assigned as the id identifier for the signal request. Use this string to identify logging messages to entries in the signaling table. Debezium does not use this string. Rather, during the snapshot, Debezium generates its own id string as a watermarking signal.
   3	execute-snapshot	The type parameter specifies the operation that the signal is intended to trigger.
   4	data-collections	A required component of the data field of a signal that specifies an array of table names or regular expressions to match table names to include in the snapshot. The array lists regular expressions which match tables by their fully-qualified names, using the same format as you use to specify the name of the connector’s signaling table in the signal.data.collection configuration property.
   5	incremental	An optional type component of the data field of a signal that specifies the type of snapshot operation to run. Currently supports the incremental and blocking types. If you do not specify a value, the connector runs an incremental snapshot.
   6	additional-conditions	An optional array that specifies a set of additional conditions that the connector evaluates to determine the subset of records to include in a snapshot. Each additional condition is an object with data-collection and filter properties. You can specify different filters for each data collection. * The data-collection property is the fully-qualified name of the data collection for which the filter will be applied. For more information about the additional-conditions parameter, see Ad hoc incremental snapshots with additional-conditions.

Ad hoc incremental snapshots with additional-conditions

If you want a snapshot to include only a subset of the content in a table, you can modify the signal request by appending an additional-conditions parameter to the snapshot signal.

The SQL query for a typical snapshot takes the following form:

SELECT * FROM <tableName> ....

By adding an additional-conditions parameter, you append a WHERE condition to the SQL query, as in the following example:

SELECT * FROM <data-collection> WHERE <filter> ....

The following example shows a SQL query to send an ad hoc incremental snapshot request with an additional condition to the signaling table:

INSERT INTO <signalTable> (id, type, data) VALUES ('<id>', '<snapshotType>', '{"data-collections": ["<tableName>","<tableName>"],"type":"<snapshotType>","additional-conditions":[{"data-collection": "<tableName>", "filter": "<additional-condition>"}]}');

For example, suppose you have a products table that contains the following columns:

• id (primary key)

• color

• quantity

If you want an incremental snapshot of the products table to include only the data items where color=blue, you can use the following SQL statement to trigger the snapshot:

INSERT INTO myschema.debezium_signal (id, type, data) VALUES('ad-hoc-1', 'execute-snapshot', '{"data-collections": ["schema1.products"],"type":"incremental", "additional-conditions":[{"data-collection": "schema1.products", "filter": "color=blue"}]}');

The additional-conditions parameter also enables you to pass conditions that are based on more than one column. For example, using the products table from the previous example, you can submit a query that triggers an incremental snapshot that includes the data of only those items for which color=blue and quantity>10:

INSERT INTO myschema.debezium_signal (id, type, data) VALUES('ad-hoc-1', 'execute-snapshot', '{"data-collections": ["schema1.products"],"type":"incremental", "additional-conditions":[{"data-collection": "schema1.products", "filter": "color=blue AND quantity>10"}]}');

The following example, shows the JSON for an incremental snapshot event that is captured by a connector.

Example: Incremental snapshot event message

{
    "before":null,
    "after": {
        "pk":"1",
        "value":"New data"
    },
    "source": {
        ...
        "snapshot":"incremental" (1)
    },
    "op":"r", (2)
    "ts_ms":"1620393591654",
    "ts_us":"1620393591654547",
    "ts_ns":"1620393591654547920",
    "transaction":null
}

Using the Kafka signaling channel to trigger an incremental snapshot

You can send a message to the configured Kafka topic to request the connector to run an ad hoc incremental snapshot.

The key of the Kafka message must match the value of the topic.prefix connector configuration option.

The value of the message is a JSON object with type and data fields.

The signal type is execute-snapshot, and the data field must have the following fields:

An example of the execute-snapshot Kafka message:

Key = `test_connector`
Value = `{"type":"execute-snapshot","data": {"data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema1.table2"], "type": "INCREMENTAL"}}`

Ad hoc incremental snapshots with additional-conditions

Debezium uses the additional-conditions field to select a subset of a table’s content.

Typically, when Debezium runs a snapshot, it runs a SQL query such as:

SELECT * FROM _<tableName>_ …​.

When the snapshot request includes an additional-conditions property, the data-collection and filter parameters of the property are appended to the SQL query, for example:

SELECT * FROM _<data-collection>_ WHERE _<filter>_ …​.

For example, given a products table with the columns id (primary key), color, and brand, if you want a snapshot to include only content for which color='blue', when you request the snapshot, you could add the additional-conditions property to filter the content:

Key = `test_connector`
Value = `{"type":"execute-snapshot","data": {"data-collections": ["schema1.products"], "type": "INCREMENTAL", "additional-conditions": [{"data-collection": "schema1.products" ,"filter":"color='blue'"}]}}`

You can use the additional-conditions property to pass conditions based on multiple columns. For example, using the same products table as in the previous example, if you want a snapshot to include only the content from the products table for which color='blue', and brand='MyBrand', you could send the following request:

Key = `test_connector`
Value = `{"type":"execute-snapshot","data": {"data-collections": ["schema1.products"], "type": "INCREMENTAL", "additional-conditions": [{"data-collection": "schema1.products" ,"filter":"color='blue' AND brand='MyBrand'"}]}}`

Stopping an incremental snapshot

You can also stop an incremental snapshot by sending a signal to the table on the source database. You submit a stop snapshot signal to the table by sending a SQL INSERT query.

After Debezium detects the change in the signaling table, it reads the signal, and stops the incremental snapshot operation if it’s in progress.

The query that you submit specifies the snapshot operation of incremental, and, optionally, the tables of the current running snapshot to be removed.

Prerequisites

• Signaling is enabled.

  • A signaling data collection exists on the source database.

  • The signaling data collection is specified in the signal.data.collection property.

Using a source signaling channel to stop an incremental snapshot

1. Send a SQL query to stop the ad hoc incremental snapshot to the signaling table:

   INSERT INTO <signalTable> (id, type, data) values ('<id>', 'stop-snapshot', '{"data-collections": ["<tableName>","<tableName>"],"type":"incremental"}');

   For example,

   INSERT INTO myschema.debezium_signal (id, type, data) (1)
   values ('ad-hoc-1',   (2)
       'stop-snapshot',  (3)
       '{"data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema2.table2"], (4)
       "type":"incremental"}'); (5)

   The values of the id, type, and data parameters in the signal command correspond to the fields of the signaling table.

   The following table describes the parameters in the example:

   Table 5. Descriptions of fields in a SQL command for sending a stop incremental snapshot signal to the signaling table

   Item	Value	Description
   1	myschema.debezium_signal	Specifies the fully-qualified name of the signaling table on the source database.
   2	ad-hoc-1	The id parameter specifies an arbitrary string that is assigned as the id identifier for the signal request. Use this string to identify logging messages to entries in the signaling table. Debezium does not use this string.
   3	stop-snapshot	Specifies type parameter specifies the operation that the signal is intended to trigger.
   4	data-collections	An optional component of the data field of a signal that specifies an array of table names or regular expressions to match table names to remove from the snapshot. The array lists regular expressions which match tables by their fully-qualified names, using the same format as you use to specify the name of the connector’s signaling table in the signal.data.collection configuration property. If this component of the data field is omitted, the signal stops the entire incremental snapshot that is in progress.
   5	incremental	A required component of the data field of a signal that specifies the type of snapshot operation that is to be stopped. Currently, the only valid option is incremental. If you do not specify a type value, the signal fails to stop the incremental snapshot.

Using the Kafka signaling channel to stop an incremental snapshot

You can send a signal message to the configured Kafka signaling topic to stop an ad hoc incremental snapshot.

The key of the Kafka message must match the value of the topic.prefix connector configuration option.

The value of the message is a JSON object with type and data fields.

The signal type is stop-snapshot, and the data field must have the following fields:

The following example shows a typical stop-snapshot Kafka message:

Key = `test_connector`
Value = `{"type":"stop-snapshot","data": {"data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema1.table2"], "type": "INCREMENTAL"}}`

Custom snapshotter SPI

For more advanced uses, you can fine-tune control of the snapshot by implementing one of the following interfaces:

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.Snapshotter

Controls whether the connector takes a snapshot.

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.SnapshotQuery

Controls how data is queried during a snapshot.

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.SnapshotLock

Controls whether the connector locks tables when taking a snapshot.

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.Snapshotter interface. All built-in snapshot modes implement this interface.

/**
 * {@link Snapshotter} is used to determine the following details about the snapshot process:
 * <p>
 * - Whether a snapshot occurs. <br>
 * - Whether streaming continues during the snapshot. <br>
 * - Whether the snapshot includes schema (if supported). <br>
 * - Whether to snapshot data or schema following an error.
 * <p>
 * Although Debezium provides many default snapshot modes,
 * to provide more advanced functionality, such as partial snapshots,
 * you can customize implementation of the interface.
 * For more information, see the documentation.
 *
 *
 *
 */
@Incubating
public interface Snapshotter extends Configurable {
    /**
     * @return the name of the snapshotter.
     *
     *
     */
    String name();
    /**
     * @param offsetExists is {@code true} when the connector has an offset context (i.e. restarted)
     * @param snapshotInProgress is {@code true} when the connector is started, but a snapshot is already in progress
     *
     * @return {@code true} if the snapshotter should take a data snapshot
     */
    boolean shouldSnapshotData(boolean offsetExists, boolean snapshotInProgress);
    /**
     * @param offsetExists is {@code true} when the connector has an offset context (i.e. restarted)
     * @param snapshotInProgress is {@code true} when the connector is started, but a snapshot is already in progress
     *
     * @return {@code true} if the snapshotter should take a schema snapshot
     */
    boolean shouldSnapshotSchema(boolean offsetExists, boolean snapshotInProgress);
    /**
     * @return {@code true} if the snapshotter should stream after taking a snapshot
     */
    boolean shouldStream();
    /**
     * @return {@code true} whether the schema can be recovered if database schema history is corrupted.
     */
    boolean shouldSnapshotOnSchemaError();
    /**
     * @return {@code true} whether the snapshot should be re-executed when there is a gap in data stream.
     */
    boolean shouldSnapshotOnDataError();
    /**
     *
     * @return {@code true} if streaming should resume from the start of the snapshot
     * transaction, or {@code false} for when a connector resumes and takes a snapshot,
     * streaming should resume from where streaming previously left off.
     */
    default boolean shouldStreamEventsStartingFromSnapshot() {
        return true;
    }
    /**
     * Lifecycle hook called after the snapshot phase is successful.
     */
    default void snapshotCompleted() {
        // no operation
    }
    /**
     * Lifecycle hook called after the snapshot phase is aborted.
     */
    default void snapshotAborted() {
        // no operation
    }
}

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.SnapshotQuery interface. All built-in snapshot query modes implement this interface.

/**
 * {@link SnapshotQuery} is used to determine the query used during a data snapshot
 *
 *
 */
public interface SnapshotQuery extends Configurable, Service {
    /**
     * @return the name of the snapshot lock.
     *
     *
     */
    String name();
    /**
     * Generate a valid query string for the specified table, or an empty {@link Optional}
     * to skip snapshotting this table (but that table will still be streamed from)
     *
     * @param tableId the table to generate a query for
     * @param snapshotSelectColumns the columns to be used in the snapshot select based on the column
     *                              include/exclude filters
     * @return a valid query string, or none to skip snapshotting this table
     */
    Optional<String> snapshotQuery(String tableId, List<String> snapshotSelectColumns);
}

io.debezium.snapshot.spi.SnapshotLock interface. All built-in snapshot lock modes implement this interface.

/**
 * {@link SnapshotLock} is used to determine the table lock mode used during schema snapshot
 *
 *
 */
public interface SnapshotLock extends Configurable, Service {
    /**
     * @return the name of the snapshot lock.
     *
     *
     */
    String name();
    /**
     * Returns a SQL statement for locking the given table during snapshotting, if required by the specific snapshotter
     * implementation.
     */
    Optional<String> tableLockingStatement(Duration lockTimeout, String tableId);
}

Blocking snapshots

To provide more flexibility in managing snapshots, Debezium includes a supplementary ad hoc snapshot mechanism, known as a blocking snapshot. Blocking snapshots rely on the Debezium mechanism for sending signals to a Debezium connector.

A blocking snapshot behaves just like an initial snapshot, except that you can trigger it at run time.

You might want to run a blocking snapshot rather than use the standard initial snapshot process in the following situations:

• You add a new table and you want to complete the snapshot while the connector is running.

• You add a large table, and you want the snapshot to complete in less time than is possible with an incremental snapshot.

Blocking snapshot process

When you run a blocking snapshot, Debezium stops streaming, and then initiates a snapshot of the specified table, following the same process that it uses during an initial snapshot. After the snapshot completes, the streaming is resumed.

Configure snapshot

You can set the following properties in the data component of a signal:

• data-collections: to specify which tables must be snapshot

• additional-conditions: You can specify different filters for different table.

  • The data-collection property is the fully-qualified name of the table for which the filter will be applied.

  • The filter property will have the same value used in the snapshot.select.statement.overrides

For example:

  {"type": "blocking", "data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema1.table2"], "additional-conditions": [{"data-collection": "schema1.table1", "filter": "SELECT * FROM [schema1].[table1] WHERE column1 = 0 ORDER BY column2 DESC"}, {"data-collection": "schema1.table2", "filter": "SELECT * FROM [schema1].[table2] WHERE column2 > 0"}]}

Possible duplicates

A delay might exist between the time that you send the signal to trigger the snapshot, and the time when streaming stops and the snapshot starts. As a result of this delay, after the snapshot completes, the connector might emit some event records that duplicate records captured by the snapshot.

Change stream records

After a complete snapshot, when a Debezium Informix connector starts for the first time, the connector starts consuming change stream records for the source tables that are in capture mode. The connector does the following:

1. Reads available change records from the current LSN.

2. Groups records by transaction Id and orders them according to the change LSN for each record.

3. Processes records as transactions are committed.

4. Passes begin, commit and change LSNs as offsets to Kafka Connect.

5. Stores the highest commit LSN and the lowest, uncommitted begin LSN that the connector passed to Kafka Connect.

After a restart, the connector resumes emitting change events from the offset (begin, commit and change LSNs) where it left off. It does so by:

1. Reading change records that were created between the last stored, lowest uncommitted begin LSN and the current LSN.

2. Grouping records by transaction Id and ordering them according to the change LSN for each event.

3. Discarding already processed transactions (commit LSN lower than last stored commit LSN).

4. Discarding already processed records of the last incompletely processed transaction, if any (change LSN lower than last stored change LSN and commit LSN equal to last stored commit LSN).

5. Processes the remaining records of any incompletely processed transaction.

6. Continues processing records as transactions are committed.

Topic names

By default, the Informix connector writes change events for all of the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations that occur in a table to a single Apache Kafka topic that is specific to that table. The connector uses the following convention to name change event topics:

topicPrefix.schemaName.tableName

The following list provides definitions for the components of the default name:

topicPrefix

The topic prefix as specified by the topic.prefix connector configuration property.

schemaName

The name of the schema in which the operation occurred.

tableName

The name of the table in which the operation occurred.

For example, consider an Informix installation with a mydatabase database that contains the following tables in the myschema schema:

• products

• products_on_hand

• customers

• orders

  The connector would emit events to the following Kafka topics:

• mydatabase.myschema.products

• mydatabase.myschema.products_on_hand

• mydatabase.myschema.customers

• mydatabase.myschema.orders

The connector applies similar naming conventions to label its internal database schema history topics, schema change topics, and transaction metadata topics.

If the default topic names do not meet your requirements, you can configure custom topic names. To configure custom topic names, you specify regular expressions in the logical topic routing SMT. For more information about using the logical topic routing SMT to customize topic naming, see Topic routing.

Schema history topic

When a database client queries a database, the client uses the database’s current schema. However, the database schema can be changed at any time, which means that the connector must be able to identify what the schema was at the time that each insert, update, or delete operation was recorded. Also, a connector cannot necessarily apply the current schema to every event. If an event is relatively old, it’s possible that it was recorded before the current schema was applied.

To ensure correct processing of events that occur after a schema change, the Debezium Informix connector stores a snapshot of the new schema based on the structures of the Informix change data tables, which mirror the structures of their associated data tables. The connector stores the table schema information, together with the LSN of operations the result in schema changes, in the database schema history Kafka topic. The connector uses the stored schema representation to produce change events that correctly mirror the structure of tables at the time of each insert, update, or delete operation.

When the connector restarts after either a crash or a graceful stop, it resumes reading entries in the Informix change data tables from the last position that it read. Based on the schema information that the connector reads from the database schema history topic, the connector applies the table structures that existed at the position where the connector restarts.

If you update the schema of an Informix table that is in capture mode, it’s important that you also update the schema of the corresponding change table. You must be a Informix database administrator with elevated privileges to update database schema. For more information about how to update Informix database schema in Debezium environments, see Schema history evolution.

The database schema history topic is for internal connector use only. Optionally, the connector can also emit schema change events to a different topic that is intended for consumer applications.

Additional resources

• Default names for topics that receive Debezium event records.

Schema change topic

You can configure a Debezium Informix connector to produce schema change events that describe schema changes that are applied to tables in the database.

Debezium emits a message to the schema change topic after the following operations occur in the source database:

• You enable Debezium to capture changes from a new table.

• You disable capture for a table from which Debezium previously captured changes.

The connector writes schema change events to a Kafka schema change topic that has the name _<topicPrefix>_ where _<topicPrefix>_ is the topic prefix that is specified in the topic.prefix connector configuration property.

The schema for the schema change event has the following elements:

name

The name of the schema change event message.

type

The type of the change event message.

version

The version of the schema. The version is an integer that is incremented each time the schema is changed.

fields

The fields that are included in the change event message.

Example: Schema of the Informix connector schema change topic

The following example shows a typical schema in JSON format.

{
  "schema": {
    "type": "struct",
    "fields": [
      {
        "type": "string",
        "optional": false,
        "field": "databaseName"
      }
    ],
    "optional": false,
    "name": "io.debezium.connector.informix.SchemaChangeKey",
    "version": 1
  },
  "payload": {
    "databaseName": "inventory"
  }
}

Messages that the connector sends to the schema change topic contain a payload that includes the following elements:

databaseName

The name of the database to which the statements are applied. The value of databaseName serves as the message key.

pos

The position in the transaction log where the statements appear.

tableChanges

A structured representation of the entire table schema after the schema change. The tableChanges field contains an array that includes entries for each column of the table. Because the structured representation presents data in JSON or Avro format, consumers can easily read messages without first processing them through a DDL parser.

Example: Message emitted to the Informix connector schema change topic

The following example shows a message in the schema change topic. The message contains a logical representation of the table schema.

{
  "schema": {
  ...
  },
  "payload": {
    "source": {
      "version": "2.6.2.Final",
      "connector": "informix",
      "name": "informix",
      "ts_ms": 1588252618953,
      "snapshot": "true",
      "db": "testdb",
      "schema": "informix",
      "table": "customers",
      "commit_lsn": "0",
      "change_lsn": "0",
      "txId": null,
      "begin_lsn": "0"
    },
    "ts_ms": 1588252618953, (1)
    "databaseName": "testdb", (2)
    "schemaName": "informix",
    "ddl": null, (3)
    "tableChanges": [ (4)
      {
        "type": "CREATE", (5)
        "id": "\"testdb\".\"informix\".\"customers\"", (6)
        "table": { (7)
          "defaultCharsetName": null,
          "primaryKeyColumnNames": [ (8)
            "id"
          ],
          "columns": [ (9)
            {
              "name": "id",
              "jdbcType": 4,
              "nativeType": null,
              "typeName": "int identity",
              "typeExpression": "int identity",
              "charsetName": null,
              "length": 10,
              "scale": 0,
              "position": 1,
              "optional": false,
              "autoIncremented": false,
              "generated": false
            },
            {
              "name": "first_name",
              "jdbcType": 12,
              "nativeType": null,
              "typeName": "varchar",
              "typeExpression": "varchar",
              "charsetName": null,
              "length": 255,
              "scale": null,
              "position": 2,
              "optional": false,
              "autoIncremented": false,
              "generated": false
            },
            {
              "name": "last_name",
              "jdbcType": 12,
              "nativeType": null,
              "typeName": "varchar",
              "typeExpression": "varchar",
              "charsetName": null,
              "length": 255,
              "scale": null,
              "position": 3,
              "optional": false,
              "autoIncremented": false,
              "generated": false
            },
            {
              "name": "email",
              "jdbcType": 12,
              "nativeType": null,
              "typeName": "varchar",
              "typeExpression": "varchar",
              "charsetName": null,
              "length": 255,
              "scale": null,
              "position": 4,
              "optional": false,
              "autoIncremented": false,
              "generated": false
            }
          ],
          "attributes": [ (10)
            {
              "customAttribute": "attributeValue"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

In messages that the connector sends to the schema change topic, the message key is the name of the database that contains the schema change. In the following example, the payload field contains the key:

{
  "schema": {
    "type": "struct",
    "fields": [
      {
        "type": "string",
        "optional": false,
        "field": "databaseName"
      }
    ],
    "optional": false,
    "name": "io.debezium.connector.informix.SchemaChangeKey",
    "version": 1
  },
  "payload": {
    "databaseName": "testdb"
  }
}

Transaction metadata

Debezium can generate events that represent transaction boundaries and that enrich change event messages.

Debezium generates transaction boundary events for the BEGIN and END delimiters in every transaction. Transaction boundary events contain the following fields:

status

BEGIN or END.

id

String representation of the unique transaction identifier composed of Informix transaction ID itself and LSN of given operation separated by colon, i.e. the format is txID:LSN.

ts_ms

The time of a transaction boundary event (BEGIN or END event) at the data source. If the data source does not provide Debezium with the event time, then the field instead represents the time at which Debezium processes the event.

event_count (for END events)

Total number of events emmitted by the transaction.

data_collections (for END events)

An array of pairs of data_collection and event_count elements that indicates the number of events that the connector emits for changes that originate from a data collection.

Example

{
  "status": "BEGIN",
  "id": "571:53195829",
  "ts_ms": 1486500577125,
  "event_count": null,
  "data_collections": null
}
{
  "status": "END",
  "id": "571:53195832",
  "ts_ms": 1486500577691,
  "event_count": 2,
  "data_collections": [
    {
      "data_collection": "testdb.informix.tablea",
      "event_count": 1
    },
    {
      "data_collection": "testdb.informix.tableb",
      "event_count": 1
    }
  ]
}

By default, the connector emits transaction events to the .transaction topic. You can override the default setting by changing the value of the topic.transaction property.

Data change event enrichment

When transaction metadata is enabled, the connector enriches the change event Envelope with a new transaction field. This field provides information about every event in the form of a composite of fields:

id

String representation of unique transaction identifier.

total_order

The absolute position of the event among all events generated by the transaction.

data_collection_order

The per-data collection position of the event among all events that were emitted by the transaction.

Following is an example of a message:

{
  "before": null,
  "after": {
    "pk": "2",
    "aa": "1"
  },
  "source": {
    ...
  },
  "op": "c",
  "ts_ms": "1580390884335",
  "ts_us": "1580390884335641",
  "ts_ns": "1580390884335641387",
  "transaction": {
    "id": "571:53195832",
    "total_order": "1",
    "data_collection_order": "1"
  }
}

Data change events

The Debezium Informix connector generates a data change event for each row-level INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operation. Each event contains a key and a value. The structure of the key and the value depends on the table that was changed.

Debezium and Kafka Connect are designed for processing continuous streams of event messages. However, because the structure of these events might change over time, consumers might encounter difficulties when processing some Debezium events. To address this challenge, each event is designed to be self-contained. That is, the event contains either the schema for its content, or, in environments that use a schema registry, a schema ID that the consumer can use to obtain the schema from the registry.

The JSON structure in the following example shows how a typical Debezium event record represents the four basic four components of change event. The exact representation an event depends on the Kafka Connect converter that you configure for use with your application. A schema field is present in a change event only when you configure the converter to produce it. Likewise, the event key and event payload are present a change event only if you configure the converter to produce them. If you use the JSON converter, and you configure it to produce all four basic change event parts, change events have the following structure:

{
 "schema": { (1)
   ...
  },
 "payload": { (2)
   ...
 },
 "schema": { (3)
   ...
 },
 "payload": { (4)
   ...
 },
}

By default, the connector streams change event records to topics with names that are the same as the event’s originating table. For more information, see topic names.

Change event keys

A change event’s key contains the schema for the changed table’s key and the changed row’s actual key. Both the schema and its corresponding payload contain a field for each column in the changed table’s PRIMARY KEY (or unique constraint) at the time the connector created the event.

Consider the following customers table, which is followed by an example of a change event key for this table.

Example table

CREATE TABLE customers (
 id INTEGER IDENTITY(1001,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
 first_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
 last_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
 email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL UNIQUE
);

Example change event key

When Debezium captures a change from the customers table, it emits a change event record that contains the event key schema. As long as the definition of the customers table remains unchanged, every change that Debezium captures from the customers table results in an event record that has the same key structure. The following example shows a JSON representation of the event structure:

{
    "schema": {  (1)
        "type": "struct",
        "fields": [  (2)
            {
                "type": "int32",
                "optional": false,
                "field": "ID"
            }
        ],
        "optional": false,  (3)
        "name": "mydatabase.myschema.customers.Key"  (4)
    },
    "payload": {  (5)
        "ID": 1004
    }
}

Change event values

The value in a change event is a bit more complicated than the key. Like the event key, the value includes a schema element and a payload element. The schema element contains the schema that describes the Envelope structure of the payload element, including its nested fields. Change events for operations that create, update or delete data all have a value payload with an envelope structure.

Consider the sample `customers`table that was used in the earlier example of a change event key:

Example table

CREATE TABLE customers (
 id INTEGER IDENTITY(1001,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
 first_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
 last_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
 email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL UNIQUE
);

The value element of every change event that Debezium captures from the customers table uses the same schema. The payload of each event value varies according to the event type:

• create events

• update events

• delete events

create events

The following example shows the value portion of a change event that the connector generates for an operation that creates data in the customers table:

{
  "schema": {  (1)
    "type": "struct",
    "fields": [
      {
        "type": "struct",
        "fields": [
          {
            "type": "int32",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "id"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "first_name"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "last_name"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "email"
          }
        ],
        "optional": true,
        "name": "mydatabase.myschema.customers.Value",  (2)
        "field": "before"
      },
      {
        "type": "struct",
        "fields": [
          {
            "type": "int32",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "id"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "first_name"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "last_name"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "email"
          }
        ],
        "optional": true,
        "name": "mydatabase.myschema.customers.Value",
        "field": "after"
      },
      {
        "type": "struct",
        "fields": [
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "version"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "connector"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "name"
          },
          {
            "type": "int64",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "ts_ms"
          },
          {
            "type": "int64",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "ts_us"
          },
          {
            "type": "int64",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "ts_ns"
          },
          {
            "type": "boolean",
            "optional": true,
            "default": false,
            "field": "snapshot"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "db"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "schema"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": false,
            "field": "table"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": true,
            "field": "commit_lsn"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": true,
            "field": "change_lsn"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": true,
            "field": "txId"
          },
          {
            "type": "string",
            "optional": true,
            "field": "begin_lsn"
          }
        ],
        "optional": false,
        "name": "io.debezium.connector.informix.Source",  (3)
        "field": "source"
      },
      {
        "type": "string",
        "optional": false,
        "field": "op"
      },
      {
        "type": "int64",
        "optional": true,
        "field": "ts_ms"
      },
      {
        "type": "int64",
        "optional": true,
        "field": "ts_us"
      },
      {
        "type": "int64",
        "optional": true,
        "field": "ts_ns"
      }
    ],
    "optional": false,
    "name": "mydatabase.myschema.customers.Envelope"  (4)
  },
  "payload": {  (5)
    "before": null,  (6)
    "after": {  (7)
      "id": 1005,
      "first_name": "john",
      "last_name": "doe",
      "email": "john.doe@example.org"
    },
    "source": {  (8)
      "version": "2.6.2.Final",
      "connector": "informix",
      "name": "myconnector",
      "ts_ms": 1559729468470,
      "ts_us": 1559729468470000,
      "ts_ns": 1559729468470000000,
      "snapshot": false,
      "db": "mydatabase",
      "schema": "myschema",
      "table": "customers",
      "commit_lsn": "627404540760620",
      "change_lsn": "627404540485812",
      "txId": "157",
      "begin_lsn": "627404540372400"
    },
    "op": "c",  (9)
    "ts_ms": 1559729471739,  (10)
    "ts_us": 1559729471739241,  (10)
    "ts_ns": 1559729471739241367 (10)
  }
}

update events

The value of a change event for an update in the sample customers table has the same schema as a create event for that table. Similarly, the payload of the value of an update event has a structure that is mirrors the structure of the value payload in a create event. However, the value payloads of_update_ events and create events do not include the same values. The following example shows the change event value for an event record that the connector generates in response to an update in the customers table:

{
  "schema": { ... },
  "payload": {
    "before": {  (1)
      "id": 1005,
      "first_name": "john",
      "last_name": "doe",
      "email": "john.doe@example.org"
    },
    "after": {  (2)
      "ID": 1005,
      "first_name": "john",
      "last_name": "doe",
      "email": "noreply@example.org"
    },
    "source": {  (3)
      "version": "2.6.2.Final",
      "connector": "informix",
      "name": "myconnector",
      "ts_ms": 1559729995937,
      "ts_us": 1559729995937000,
      "ts_ns": 1559729995937000000,
      "snapshot": false,
      "db": "mydatabase",
      "schema": "myschema",
      "table": "customers",
      "commit_lsn": "627404540760620",
      "change_lsn": "627404540485812",
      "txId": "157",
      "begin_lsn": "627404540372400"
    },
    "op": "u",  (4)
    "ts_ms": 1559729998706,  (5)
    "ts_us": 1559729998706742,  (5)
    "ts_ns": 1559729998706742877  (5)
  }
}

delete events

The value in a delete change event for a table has a schema portion that is similar to the schema element in create and update events for the same table. After a user performs a delete operation in the sample customers table, Debezium emits an event message such as the one in the following example:

{
  "schema": { ... },
  },
  "payload": {
    "before": {  (1)
      "id": 1005,
      "first_name": "john",
      "last_name": "doe",
      "email": "noreply@example.org"
    },
    "after": null,  (2)
    "source": {  (3)
      "version": "2.6.2.Final",
      "connector": "informix",
      "name": "myconnector",
      "ts_ms": 1559730445243,
      "ts_us": 1559730445243000,
      "ts_ns": 1559730445243000000,
      "snapshot": false,
      "db": "mydatabase",
      "schema": "myschema",
      "table": "customers",
      "commit_lsn": "627404540760620",
      "change_lsn": "627404540485812",
      "txId": "157",
      "begin_lsn": "627404540372400"
    },
    "op": "d",  (4)
    "ts_ms": 1559730450205,  (5)
    "ts_us": 1559730450205104,  (5)
    "ts_ns": 1559730450205104870  (5)
  }
}

A delete change event record provides a consumer with the information that it needs to process the removal of the row. The record includes the previous values to support consumers that might require them to process the removal.

Informix connector events are designed to work with Kafka log compaction. Log compaction enables removal of some older messages as long as at least the most recent message for every key is kept. Retaining the most recent message enables Kafka to reclaim storage space while ensuring that the topic contains a complete data set that can be used for reloading key-based state.

When a row is deleted, the delete event value still works with log compaction, because Kafka can remove all earlier messages that have that same key. However, for Kafka to remove all messages that have that same key, the message value must be null. To make this possible, after Debezium’s Informix connector emits a delete event, the connector emits a special tombstone event that has the same key but a null value.

Data type mappings

For a complete description of the data types that Informix supports, see Data Types in the Informix documentation.

The Informix connector represents changes to rows by emitting events whose structures mirror the structure of the source tables in which the change events occur. Event records contain fields for each column value. To populate values in these fields from the source columns, the connector uses a default mapping to convert the values from the original Informix data types to a Kafka Connect schema type or a semantic type. The connector provides default mappings for the following Informix data types:

• Basic types

• Temporal types

• Timestamp types

• Decimal types If the default data type conversions do not meet your needs, you can create a custom converter for the connector.

Basic types

The following table describes how the connector maps each Informix data type to a literal type and a semantic type in event fields.

• literal type describes how the value is represented using Kafka Connect schema types: INT8, INT16, INT32, INT64, FLOAT32, FLOAT64, BOOLEAN, STRING, BYTES, ARRAY, MAP, and STRUCT.

• semantic type describes how the Kafka Connect schema captures the meaning of the field using the name of the Kafka Connect schema for the field.

If present, a column’s default value is propagated to the corresponding field’s Kafka Connect schema. Change events contain the field’s default value unless an explicit column value is specified. Consequently, there is rarely a need to obtain the default value from the schema. Passing the default value helps satisfy compatibility rules when using Avro as the serialization format together with the Confluent schema registry.

Temporal types

Informix maps temporal types based on the value of the time.precision.mode connector configuration property. The following sections describe these mappings:

• time.precision.mode=adaptive

• time.precision.mode=connect

time.precision.mode=adaptive

To ensure that events exactly represent the values in the database, when the time.precision.mode configuration property is set to the default value, adaptive, the connector determines the literal and semantic types based on the column’s data type definition.

time.precision.mode=connect

When the time.precision.mode configuration property is set to connect, the connector uses Kafka Connect logical types. This setting can be useful for consumers that can handle only the built-in Kafka Connect logical types, and that cannot handle variable-precision time values. However, because Informix supports tens of microsecond precision, if a connector is configured to use connect time precision, and the database column has a fractional second precision value that is greater than 3, the connector generates events that result in a loss of precision.

Timestamp types

The DATETIME type represents a timestamp without time zone information. Such columns are converted into an equivalent Kafka Connect value based on UTC. For example, the DATETIME value “2018-06-20 15:13:16.94514” is represented by an io.debezium.time.Timestamp with the value “1529507596000”.

The timezone of the JVM running Kafka Connect and Debezium does not affect this conversion.

Decimal types

Setting up Informix

For Debezium to capture change events that are committed to Informix tables, a Informix database administrator with the necessary privileges must configure the database for change data capture.

Perform the following tasks to prepare for using the Change Data Capture API:

1. As the database user informix, run the syscdcv1.sql script from the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory. This will install the syscdcv1 database.

2. Verify that the syscdcv1 database exists by creating a connection to it as user informix.

3. Set the DB_LOCALE environment variable to be the same as the locale of the database from which you want to capture data.

Deployment

To deploy a Debezium Informix connector, you install the Debezium Informix connector archive, configure the connector, and start the connector by adding its configuration to Kafka Connect.

Prerequisites

• Apache ZooKeeper, Apache Kafka, and Kafka Connect are installed.

• Informix is installed and capture mode is enabled for tables to prepare the database to be used with the Debezium connector.

Procedure

1. Download the Debezium Informix connector plug-in archive from Maven Central.

2. Extract the JAR files into your Kafka Connect environment.

3. Download the JDBC driver for Informix and Informix Change Stream client from Maven Central, and copy the downloaded JAR files to the directory that contains the Debezium Informix connector JAR file (that is, debezium-connector-informix-2.6.2.Final.jar).

   Due to licensing requirements, the Debezium Informix connector archive does not include the Informix JDBC driver and Change Stream client that Debezium requires to connect to a Informix database. To enable the connector to access the database, you must add the driver and client library to your connector environment.

4. Add the directory with the JAR files to Kafka Connect’s plugin.path.

5. Restart your Kafka Connect process to pick up the new JAR files.

If you are working with immutable containers, see Debezium’s container images for Apache ZooKeeper, Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect with the Informix connector already installed and ready to run.

You can also run Debezium on Kubernetes and OpenShift.

Next steps

• Configure the connector and add the configuration to your Kafka Connect cluster.

Informix connector configuration example

The following example shows the configuration for a connector instance that captures data from an Informix server with the logical name fullfillment on port 9088 at 192.168.99.100. Typically, you configure the Debezium Informix connector in a JSON file by setting the configuration properties that are available for the connector.

You can choose to produce events for a subset of the schemas and tables in a database. Optionally, you can ignore, mask, or truncate columns that contain sensitive data, that are larger than a specified size, or that you do not need.

{
  "name": "informix-connector",  (1)
  "config": {
    "connector.class": "io.debezium.connector.informix.InformixConnector", (2)
    "database.hostname": "192.168.99.100", (3)
    "database.port": "9088", (4)
    "database.user": "informix", (5)
    "database.password": "in4mix", (6)
    "database.dbname": "mydatabase", (7)
    "topic.prefix": "fullfillment", (8)
    "table.include.list": "mydatabase.myschema.customers", (9)
    "schema.history.internal.kafka.bootstrap.servers": "kafka:9092", (10)
    "schema.history.internal.kafka.topic": "schemahistory.fullfillment" (11)
  }
}

For the complete list of the configuration properties that you can set for the Debezium Informix connector, see Informix connector properties.

You can send this configuration with a POST command to a running Kafka Connect service. The service records the configuration and starts one connector task that performs the following actions:

• Connects to the Informix database.

• Reads change-data tables for tables that are in capture mode.

• Streams change event records to Kafka topics.

Adding connector configuration

To start running a Informix connector, create a connector configuration and add the configuration to your Kafka Connect cluster.

Prerequisites

• Informix replication is enabled to expose change data for tables that are in capture mode.

• The Informix connector is installed.

Procedure

1. Create a configuration for the Informix connector.

2. Use the Kafka Connect REST API to add that connector configuration to your Kafka Connect cluster.

Results

After the connector starts, it performs a consistent snapshot of the Informix database tables that the connector is configured to capture changes for. The connector then starts generating data change events for row-level operations and streaming change event records to Kafka topics.

Connector properties

The Debezium Informix connector has numerous configuration properties that you can use to achieve the right connector behavior for your application. Many properties have default values. Information about the properties is organized as follows:

• Required configuration properties

• Advanced configuration properties

• Database schema history connector configuration properties that control how Debezium processes events that it reads from the database schema history topic.

  • Pass-through database schema history properties

• Pass-through database driver properties that control the behavior of the database driver.

Required Debezium Informix connector configuration properties

The following configuration properties are required unless a default value is available.

column.mask.hash.SHA-256.with.salt.CzQMA0cB5K = inventory.orders.customerName, inventory.shipment.customerName