Introduction

This guide provides instructions for installing and activating D3. If you are upgrading D3 from a previous version, another D3 platform, an Advanced Pick system, an R83 system, or a Pick-compatible environment, upgrade installation instructions and migration tips are included.

Information that is relevant to system administration is located in the D3 AIX System Administration Guide, which is included with the software package.

Key concepts of D3 on UNIX

D3 is a multi-user, multitasking database management system (DBMS). D3 is an open systems environment that provides users with the capability to enter, modify, reformat, and retrieve information stored in data files.

This section introduces the key concepts of the implementation of D3 AIX. For ease of readability, the terms AIX and UNIX are used interchangeably.

The basic component of the D3 implementation is the virtual machine. A virtual machine is a program running under UNIX that simulates a real machine. The virtual machine has its own resources (disk, memory, devices, and so on) obtained from UNIX. More than one virtual machine can coexist on the same UNIX system, each D3 process being a separate UNIX process.

The virtual machine is initialized after UNIX is running, and UNIX remains the operating system of the hardware. The D3 package is a virtual machine running on AIX, which provides access to the UNIX environment. This method allows these system configurations:

All UNIX systems: All the terminals are UNIX terminals. Users log in to UNIX. One user must start the D3 virtual machine to enable other UNIX users to access it as well.
Part UNIX, part D3: Some terminals are UNIX terminals, and others are only permitted access to D3. When a UNIX user starts the D3 virtual machine, both D3 and UNIX users can log on to D3.
UNIX is hidden, system appears to be all D3: The machine is configured to be a D3 machine only. When it boots, UNIX starts. The first UNIX user logs in and starts the D3 virtual machine, which makes all terminals D3 terminals. UNIX is still the operating system beneath D3. This is called a turnkey system. See Creating a Turnkey System in the D3 System Administration Guide for specific information.