DB2 News & Tips

Didn't make it to IOD? Try IDUG's regional DB2 conferences

2008-11-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

IDUG Website: Regional training events for Q4 2008

IOD is a glittering, sprawling spectacle of DB2 education, but it's not for everyone. Whether you were unable to attend last week's conference because of work conflicts, budget issues, or a moratorium on business trips to Vegas, IDUG has you covered this month with three affordable DB2 conferences, conveniently located at west coast, heartland, and east coast venues. For only US$425, you can attend two full days of DB2 education for both the z/OS and LUW platforms, delivered by IDUG's most popular speakers.

November 10-11, 2008 in San Ramon, CA

November 17-18, 2008 in Camp Hill, PA

November 19-20, 2008 in Lenexa, KS

Today in the US Supreme Court: Will bad data trump your Fourth Amendment rights?

2008-10-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Wired Threat Level Blog: Supremes Mull Whether Bad Databases Make for Illegal Searches

Although I tend to reserve this space for items about DB2, Ryan Singel's story about Herring vs. US 07-513, a Supreme Court case scheduled for today, struck me as being timely enough and important enough to mention here. I think you'll agree that the implications of this case on database administrators are profound, no matter which side of the argument you happen to support.

If you agree with the adage that says the most important tests of our civil rights involve the least defensible members of society, then it will come as no surprise that the Mr. Herring for which the case is named is a truly skeezy character, enough to arouse suspicions when he visited the Sheriff's Office in Coffee County, Alabama back in 2004. When an investigator there ran a couple of warrants searches on him, they got a hit in nearby Dale County and used it as the justification for locating Herring, pulling him over, and searching his truck for evidence. Sure enough, their search turned up drugs and an illegal weapon, giving them the makings of what appeared to be an open-and-shut case. The problem is that Dale County had no business telling anyone that there was an active warrant out on that guy. The warrant was supposed to have been removed from their system months earlier, but nobody got around to it. If they had, there wouldn't have been any compelling reason to pull Herring over and conduct the search. You might think that a bust made as the result of erroneous data would kill the case, or at least disqualify the resulting evidence obtained during the arrest, but the government disagrees.

Any database professional involved with law enforcement or criminal justice data should be rightfully concerned about such a precedent (should the Supremes uphold it), since it tells us that bad data in our systems may not only open us up to civil suits (the only recourse we citizens have, according to the government), but also to searches and seizures directed at some otherwise upstanding citizens who are guilty of nothing more than bad luck.

How much longer until you as a DBA are asked to insert some knowingly bogus data to help an ongoing investigation?

Keep an eye on this blog for more details on the case.

Last chance to submit your abstracts for IDUG 2009 North America

2008-09-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

IDUG 2009 North America site: Call for presentations

Today is the last official day to submit presentation abstracts for IDUG 2009 North America, which will be held in Denver from May 11-15, 2009. IDUG is looking for 60-minute technical presentations from real-world DB2 users (and vendors and consultants, too) that will help IDUG continue its long tradition as the premier provider of technical DB2 education. If your abstract is selected, your conference registration fee will be waived.

Don't be intimidated by the impending deadline. The abstract should contain only a brief summary of what you will present, followed by five (not six, not four) bullet points that show the major sections of your presentation. Submit as many abstracts as you like, and they will be reviewed fairly by the IDUG Conference Planning Committee (a volunteer group of DB2 users just like you).

IDUG turns the Big D into the Big DB2

2008-05-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

IDUG.org: 2008 North America conference wrap-up

Disclosure: Last week I attended the IDUG 2008 North America conference, not just as an IDUG member, but also as a volunteer on IDUG's conference planning committee, which started organizing the event over nine months ago. If you attended the conference, I and my fellow CPC volunteers probably played some part in your (hopefully positive) experience.

After last year's North American IDUG conference, which somehow managed to be both sprawling and cramped at the same time, it was a relief to find a bunch of Texas-sized rooms situated relatively close together this year. Most of the sessions had fifteen minute breaks scheduled between them, which allowed for a good deal of casual networking given the short distance between most rooms.

As expected, Arvind Krishna's Monday morning keynote provided a detailed state of the union of IBM's holy trinity (DB2, Informix, and IMS). Here are some of the happy numbers I remember:

DB2 on System z powers 9 of the world's top 10 insurance companies, 23 of the top 25 retailers in the US, and every single one of the top 59 banks in the world.

Just one IMS customer (presumably one of the bigger ones) handles as much as three trillion dollars in transactions in a single day.

IMS databases handle transactions for 95% of Fortune 1000 companies

The sum total of all live data managed right now in IMS is estimated to be over 15 exabytes, or 15 billion gigabytes, served up on over 3 million MIPS of mainframe hardware.

You get the idea. DB2 and IMS are big, they're definitely not going away, but IBM keeps working to improve them anyway. Some of those statistics were repeats from previous DB2 conference keynotes, but I believe they're still worth mentioning. One thing that was all new, though, was Arvind's introduction of IBM's newly-acquired SolidDB product as a memory-resident cache that front-ends DB2. As an old UNIFACE Seven developer from the 1990s, I had mostly good experiences working with older versions of Solid, and I can only imagine it must be even better these days.

Curt Cotner's half of the May 19th keynote focused squarely on IBM Data Studio, which appears to be IBM's sincere attempt to atone for Control Center and a rogue's gallery of other infamous DB2 tools. By building Data Studio on top of the Eclipse integrated development environment (which IBM gave to the open source community a few years ago), DB2 admins and developers have a much more solid foundation for building a decent DBA toolkit. I've been working with it for a little while, and it generally does what I want. If you haven't pulled Data Studio down for yourself yet, I recommend you give it a try.

After four days of solid presentations from DB2 users, I was ready to hear some of the folks from the Toronto Lab share what they could about IBM's DB2 product strategy and drop some hints about the next release (whenever that will be). Tim Vincent from IBM spoke for an hour and a half on best practices for DB2 LUW, and ended with a link to a collection of detailed documents that you will want to check out.

Held immediately after Tim's session on best practices, the LUW panel was as informative as ever, with Chris Eaton serving as emcee/quizmaster. Even when the inevitable long, rambling questions started rolling in from the audience, Chris handled them as well as anyone in that position could. The panelists confirmed the rumors that some future version of DB2 LUW will allow a migrated database to be enabled for automatic storage, which will be a big help to all those DBAs sitting on databases that were rolled in from DB2 V8.1 or older. There was also mention of finally disabling some of Express-C's forbidden features, but judging from the questions IBM was asking the audience, it was hardly a done deal. If such a lock ever materializes, it may just be a voluntary switch that a DBA can flip at will.

Attendance was down a bit from last year's IDUG conference in San Jose (which attracted lots of Bay Area IBMers with single-day passes), but there were plenty of favorable comments coming in from this year's crowd, who came all the way to Dallas just to get their DB2 on. Being a CPC volunteer kept me pretty busy at times, but I was still able to enjoy much of the conference. We ate barbecue, played poker, and some of us really got to know a decent local beer. We renewed our certifications, mocked the robotic livestock, and did whatever we could to get out of line dancing. We didn't know if we'd ever find ourselves in Dallas again, so we did what we could to have a good time while we were there.

Still looking for open source DB2 monitoring tools?

2008-02-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hyperic website:Hyperic HQ open source version 3.2 released

It's fun when somebody crashes a dull party, and very few parties have been more dreary over the past few years than the gathering of open-source monitoring tools that work out of the box with DB2 LUW. After deploying and customizing Nagios for a few of my DB2 customers, I felt the need to work up a bit of a rationalization for its abstruse configuration files, but we all know how much comfort rationalizations offer. What I really needed was a solid monitoring stack for DB2, and -- even with a price tag of zero dollars American -- Nagios was often a difficult sell (although their upcoming Version 3 looks somewhat better).

When my friend Irving described Hyperic HQ as the monitoring platform that Nagios should be, I was more than ready to give it a spin. HQ's built-in support of DB2 V8 and DB2 9 was enough encouragement for me to get it running. Seeing so many servers and services automatically register themselves with the HQ server was a welcome change from the "don't do me any favors" philosophy of Nagios.

Before the shiny new release of Hyperic HQ 3.2 earlier this week, I poked and prodded versions 3.0.5 and 3.1.4 as they monitored DB2 and other servers running in my lab. I wasn't wild about the documentation's insistence that I monitor DB2 as the instance owner, so I made the DB2 plugin connect as a SYSMON user instead. The plugin did a decent job of autodetecting the tables and tablespaces that were encountering activity. Best of all, once I installed my agents, I was able to configure everything else over the web, with no hateful configuration files expecting me to learn an arcane language that makes httpd.conf look like a Little Golden Book. One more thing: just about everything in HQ can be graphed. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a big fan of RRDTool, but I'll happily use another graphing tool if it's going to do nearly all the work for me.

The secret gem of Hyperic HQ is the SQL Query server type, which will run any piece of SQL you can throw at it, and even graph the resulting number. If the number returned (or query execution time) fall outside of your predefined limits, it will send you a civilized email alert. Unless you'd rather wait for your users to inform you of database problems, I heartily recommend using Hyperic HQ to wire up DB2 (if not everything) and learn what normal looks like in your shop.

Hyperic HQ is an open source project written in J2EE that runs on an embedded JBoss server. Its internal database is PostgreSQL, but MySQL and Oracle are also supported. If anyone on Planet DB2 are interested in lending a hand with the DB2 port, I'm sure you'll receive a warm welcome from the HQ team.

Non-DB2: Someone blog-tagged me

2008-01-16T12:32:00.001-08:00

Blog tag 8*8:My response to Craig Mullins

If you follow the Planet DB2 blog aggregator, you'll see that there's been some blog-tagging going on, with my blog being one of the more recent targets. Although I generally stick to DB2-related content for this blog, I'll play along and reveal eight things you may not know about me. Then I'll tag eight more bloggers before someone else gets to them (we know a lot of the same people).

1. I played the tenor saxophone pretty much every day from junior high through college, in nearly every possible format: marching band, concert band, jazz big band, combo, and various jazz/funk/R&B groups that gigged around town. Although my grades were good, all of my scholarships were music-related.

2. Being a band geek meant it was inevitable that I would meet my future wife at band camp. This year we will have been married ten years.

3. By the time I first rode on an airplane, I was 18 and had just finished a summer internship at Honeywell, where I was editing Pascal source code for the Airbus A320. So, I was debugging airliners before I ever set foot on one.

4. Since moving to Portland over 11 years ago, I've become a bit obsessed about coffee. I even volunteered (but did not compete) at a regional barista competition, which was more than enough to convince me to stick with my day job. After giving up on trying to make good espresso at home, I now brew my morning coffee a cup at a time, using a Melitta cone, electric teakettle, and two digital scales. (OCD much?)

5. Last spring I donated my 14-year-old car to charity and started riding a bicycle for the first time in 20 years. Despite all of my business travel last year, I still managed to bike over 500 miles on it, just running errands around town. It sure beats hunting for a parking space in downtown Portland.

6. I'm both proud and a bit surprised that the homegrown TiVo I built last summer from commodity PC hardware still works. It uses MythTV software to simultaneously record shows from two different HDTV channels. It's the envy of my neighbors (at least the ones who understand what it is).

7. A few years ago I found a really good recipe for baby back ribs, which I make every summer for my neighborhood potluck. Invite me over, and maybe I'll bring some.

8. 2008 marks my third year as an independent consultant, a bold and exciting move that I've never regretted. One of the things that has helped me succeed is having a large room to use exclusively as a home office. Working from home also gives me the opportunity to fiddle with various pieces of networking equipment, a secret hobby of mine.

That wasn't too painful. Now I take great pleasure in tagging Alexander, Dan, Dawn, Jeff, Leon, Martin, Scott, and Vincent

Free PHP software to monitor DB2

2007-12-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

SourceForge.net website: DB2 Monitoring Console

If you're looking for a web-based monitoring suite for DB2 9, IBM's brand spanking new upload of DB2 Management Console (DMC) to SourceForge may be worth a look. Peter Kohlmann from IBM mentioned this project at IOD 2007, and it's good to see that DMC is already classified as Production/Stable, and free/open via the Apache 2 license. If you're not the type of person who builds and installs PHP servers for fun, Zend Core for IBM installed rather cleanly for me, allowing me to run DMC without much hassle. Give it a try and see how IBM is approaching the idea of building open-source, web-based monitoring for DB2.

Excellent photo of the worst movie theater ever courtesy of MadMask

DB2's latest TPC benchmark transforms into giant robot, beats up on other benchmarks

2007-11-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

TPC website: 343,551 queries per hour on 10,000GB of TPC-H data (US$32.89 per QphH)

Perhaps one of the most surprising omissions at the IOD conference keynote sessions is any mention of IBM's October 15th TPC-H benchmark (the same day the conference began), in which they fired up a battalion of hardware and software to achieve fastest ten terabyte data warehouse benchmark of all time. Thirty-two POWER6 machines spinning a total of more than 3,000 disks served up 343,551 queries per hour, nearly double the speed of the previous throughput record (also set by DB2). Such surreal transaction rates also pushed the price-performance ratio to record lows for that category (well, at least by a couple of pennies, but we'll get to that later). However, with all benchmarks, there are quite a few things to consider.

As with most data warehousing benchmark submissions, the 3,000+ disks mentioned above are basically 90% empty. Remember how much pushback you got from your VP or CxO when you handed him or her a quote for the storage you needed? Now think of the look you'd get if you requested eleven times as much space purely for performance reasons. If anyone out there has been able to use their Jedi mind trick powers to pull off such a feat, please tell me how you did it. I promise I'll pass your name on to IBM and EMC so they can start a bidding war to hire you as the greatest storage sales rep of all time, and I will spend my referral bonus on a gloriously expensive coffeemaker designed by aerospace engineers.

Another curious aspect of these benchmarks is the gap between what IBM recommends and what they do in DB2 benchmarks. When it comes to the TPC-H data warehouse benchmark, IBM is not eating their own dog food. If you have attended a conference presentation or watched a webcast about DB2 9, you'll know that IBM is (justifiably) proud of several engine features that can profoundly improve performance:

Self-tuning memory management

Deep compression

Multi-dimensional clustering

Materialized query tables (Okay, this one is understandable, since the TPC have slapped so many restrictions on this area that it might as well be banned altogether)

Block-based bufferpools (Also understandable, since there's little need to split up a bufferpool for a TPC-H workload that is geared exclusively toward block-based prefetching)

Were any of those features used in IBM's October 15th benchmark? Nope. Does IBM tell customers to exploit those features for their own data warehouses? All the time. The reason for this contradiction has to do primarily with database load time, a metric that is apparently much more significant in the bizarro universe of the TPC than in real-world shops, which rarely load a multi-terabyte warehouse from scratch. MDC tables would have chugged a bit to load so much unsorted data, and deep compression requires a table reorg (and a license for nearly 13,000 value units). What you end up with is a frustrating inconsistency between the real needs of data warehouse decision makers and a skewed technical experiment that purports to help people make those decisions.

That's not to say the benchmarks are pointless. If they were, I wouldn't waste time writing about them. Buried in those interesting details is IBM's preference to disable INTRA_PARALLEL in favor of running two DPF partitions per CPU core, resulting in 256 partitions that each manage barely 50GB of data. It's also not surprising that IBM applied table partitioning to the ORDERS and LINEITEM tables. Anyone running DB2 V8.2 Enterprise Edition should be scheming to figure out how to exploit this powerful feature as they plan an upgrade to DB2 9 or 9.5, since table partitioning is included in that edition at no extra charge.

The last part I wanted to bring up is the price, since the final price-performance ratio carries so much weight. IBM offered themselves a 48% discount for much of the hardware and software, but other competing vendors pull the same stunt with their seven and eight-figure TPC-H configurations, so don't get too worked up over it. Unless you plan to spend millions of dollars up front for such a system, you are unlikely to realize that deep a discount.

Overall, the numbers realized in this benchmark are good news. IBM took their hottest new UNIX hardware and proved that DB2 can exploit all that new hotness to achieve crazy fast performance, even though IBM (for whatever reason) chose not to exploit many of DB2's best features. Maybe one day someone will design a more relevant benchmark, in which the systems running it more closely resemble reality, but in the meantime, we at least have reports like this one that we can dig through for clues.

Photo pun courtesy of B. Shirley

New releases of DB2 software and DB2 magazine greet IOD attendees

2007-10-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

DB2 Magazine: Volume 12, Issue 3

With Web 2.0 and mashups gaining traction as a compelling way to rapidly develop specialized database applications, it was only a matter of time before it hit the pages of DB2 Magazine. The cover story features IBM Web 2.0 expert (and PlanetDB2 blog buddy) Anant Jhingran, who describes how building a data services layer he calls Info 2.0 is essential to enabling Web 2.0 developers to build exciting services that all the cool kids will want to use.

DB2 Magazine's IDUG columnist, DB2 Gold Consultant Dave Buelke, writes about the environmental benefits of running just thirty z/OS mainframes instead of over 4,000 traditional servers. In the past couple years, this topic has resonated with me often because I keep running into database professionals who mention that their companies are moving to the mainframe mostly for environmental reasons. When you can pack that much computing power into a smaller building with less cooling equipment and only consume a fifth as much electricity, it becomes a strong selling point.

Here at IOD, Monday morning kicked off with a multi-part spectacle of noise and color, but many of us DB2 folks were just as impressed with Ambuj Goyal's announcement of DB2 9.5, which, after months of beta testing, is scheduled for GA release on Halloween. Its new thread-based architecture, sophisticated workload management controls embedded right in the engine, and malleable XML documents should result in a quick adoption of this powerful DBMS.

There's simply too much going on at IOD right now, but I hope to grab some time to describe more of it later this week.

Get the most out of next week's IOD conference

2007-10-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker blog: Conference attendee tips

As you probably know, a conference is a different beast than a typical business trip, so I've collected some tips to help you better prepare for it. If you're not already familiar with Lifehacker, the award-winning productivity blog, their article on how to prepare for a conference is a good example of their ever-useful advice. Keep in mind, however, that their tip to explore the conference city in advance on Flickr may result in some NSFW images, since we are talking about Vegas after all.

The following tips come from my own sordid past, and from a committee I'm on that is planning next year's IDUG conference:

Although people tend to think of a conference as several days of sitting in chairs, dodging flying bullet points, you'll also be walking a mile or two each day just to get around. After that, you'll probably be standing around for two to four hours a night at various receptions, unless your PHB is screaming at you to fight another production fire from your hotel room. Just in case you "accidentally" turn off your cell phone in order to mingle at the evening events, wear the most comfortable shoes you have in order to minimize pain and suffering.

Bring a sturdy journal for note taking, and remember to grab a couple of decent pens from the office. Do not rely on the hotel notepads, which disintegrate quickly, or the free pens, which often fail.

While in the exhibitors' area, put yourself on a swag diet. Unless your children are very easily amused, the odds are that nobody back home will want or appreciate the T-shirts or various plastic debris you collected from exhibitors. If you don't want vendors cold-calling you at your office for the next few months, don't take any of their swag. Don't get me wrong, a little bit of stuff is OK, just limit yourself to small sackful that can be easily carried onto the plane. For those of you suffering from an OCD that compels you to amass the largest heap of giveaways, don't depart for the conference without your company's FedEx or UPS number.

Regardless of the temperature outside, it's a safe bet that the rooms at the conference will be kept slightly colder than a meat locker. If you have to wear a sweater in your computer room back home, you'll probably need one for the conference as well. In fact, just bring whatever you normally wear in the computer room, not only to show it off at the conference, but also to keep your jealous co-workers from wearing it while you're away.

While exchanging business cards with new acquaintances (you do plan to meet new people, right?), take a moment to write a quick note about the person on the back of the card they hand you, even if they're still standing there. They'll most likely be flattered that you are taking the time to remember them for later, and you won't be racking your brain later on as you attempt to remember something about that guy or gal you met in some booth after downing your fourth Heineken. Just be discreet while you're jotting down a quick note, and, if possible, try not to let your new colleague see what you're writing about them.

Other than that, eat wisely, take it easy on the caffeine, and drink plenty of water. Call your family each evening (I've found that the break between the day's last session and the beginning of the exhibitor cocktail hour is a very good time), and don't fall behind on sleep. If I've missed anything, feel free to post a comment. See you in Vegas...

Boss photo courtesy of Matthew Lehman

Grab a sneak peek at next week's IOD2007 slides

2007-10-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

IBM Information On Demand 2007 website: Download Conference Presentations

With IOD 2007 just days away, you've either reserved your seat in all the sessions you plan to attend, or you're the gambling type who's counting on a week of lucky breaks to get yourself into some very crowded rooms. No matter which path you've chosen, registered attendees now have access to advance copies of the slides for many IOD sessions. Just sign on to this site and you can start evaluating your choices. The downside is that the PDF files don't contain any of the speaker's typed notes, so they're not a very good substitute for attending the sessions in person.

By getting a head start on these sessions, you'll be saving yourself from the chore of looking through the conference DVD the night of the opening reception, resulting in more time for drinking. You're welcome!

Last chance to submit your DB2 presentation abstracts to IDUG

2007-08-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

IDUG website: IDUG 2008 North America - Call for Presentations

Labor Day weekend brings many things, and for me, one of those things is the yearly reminder to submit my IDUG presentation abstracts before the rapidly approaching deadline. If you've been waiting until the last minute to write and submit an abstract to IDUG for their 2008 conference, well here it is: The deadline for submitting an abstract for a DB2 or IMS technical session is Tuesday, September 4, 2007, so this weekend is your last chance.

They're not looking for a lot of detail in your abstract, just a paragraph overview and five bullet points, but you still don't want to be scrambling to submit it at the last minute, because the IDUG committee members have built a trapdoor contraption that quickly and mercilessly swallows up scruffy, hastily-written abstracts. Take some time to polish it just right, and it may be one of the 120+ sessions that are accepted for next year's conference in Dallas, and that would mean you don't have to pay the registration fee to attend IDUG 2008 North America.

Good luck!

DB2 Fix Packs ripe for the picking

2007-08-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

IBM website: Fix Packs for DB2 V8 and DB2 9

After a long growing season, IBM has raised two delicious DB2 Fix Packs for your consumption. DB2 V8 FixPak 15 and DB2 9 Fix Pack 3 are both available from IBM's FTP site. They are full of juicy fixes, but you should still test them first on a non-production machine. Bon appétit!

Compress your way to a free IDUG conference registration

2007-08-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

IDUG website: DB2 9 Deep Compression Challenge

If the idea of submitting a presentation abstract intimidates you, you now have one more way to try out for a free registration to one of next year's IDUG conferences.

This is something I've been waiting to write about since it was briefly announced during the IDUG 2007 conference in San Jose. IBM and IDUG are teaming up to raffle off four registration passes to next year's IDUG conferences. All you need to do to enter the drawing is provide a brief description of the space savings you've achieved with DB2's deep compression feature. Here's where it gets good: not only do you not need to realize the best compression ratio to win, you don't even need to be running DB2. If you're not running a version of DB2 9 with deep compression enabled, you can run your data through IBM's free Database Storage Analyzer and it will provide a very accurate estimate of the savings you'd get with deep compression.

You have until October 1, 2007 to pull it together. Like I said, if you do end up pulling off an amazing feat of compression, your chances of winning the raffle are the same, but you will get an attaboy at this fall's IOD conference.

Superb, high-density photo courtesy of Gerald Oh

Award-winning, eighteen-terabyte BCU data warehouse featured in latest DB2 Magazine

2007-08-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

DB2 Magazine: Volume 12, Issue 2

IBM's balanced configuration unit methodology for designing and sizing data warehouses may not absolutely guarantee a successful implementation, but it does go a long way toward simplifying the process. The cover story of the latest issue of DB2 Magazine chronicles the path taken by Ingenix to implement Galaxy, the name they gave to their TDWI award-winning enterprise data warehouse.

In other news, IIUG President Stuart Litel reveals that they're tired of us DB2 nerds and are taking their ball and holding their own Informix-only conference next April near the big Informix lab in Lenexa, KS. Sorry you feel that way, guys. You were a fun bunch.

Speaking of conferences, Howard Fosdick drops an interesting factoid in his certification column: over 60% of IDUG conference attendees are not DBAs. I knew there was something suspicious about those folks.

If you didn't get a printed copy of DB2 Magazine this month, then you have no choice but to go here to check it out.

Are you using forbidden features in Express-C?

2007-08-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

developerWorks article: Compare the distributed DB2 9 data servers

If you've spent much time playing with DB2 Express-C, you may have noticed it contains some very powerful features:

multi-dimensional clustering (MDC)

materialized query tables (MQTs)

deep compression

compressed backups

Technically, Express-C users have no permission from IBM to use the features listed above, even though the product currently doesn't prevent anyone from doing so. IBM generally doesn't disable advanced features on lower-end editions of a shared codebase, and Express-C is no exception, so it's up to the user to understand what is and isn't compliant. Each feature listed above requires a licensed DB2 product edition and one or more add-on packages in order to be legit to use. If IBM suddenly decided to follow through on their rules and disable those features in Express-C, you'd be in a pretty bad spot if your app relied on them, unless you were ready to spend a significant amount of money on emergency upgrades.

If any of this comes as a shock, you'll appreciate the lovingly arranged table of features and products assembled by DB2 maven Paul Zikopoulos. Read it, and your excuses of DB2 licensing ignorance will magically disappear.

By the way, none of this applies to pureXML, which IBM has fully authorized for use in DB2 Express-C, so feel free to use the heck out of that until the neighbors come over and ask you to stop.

Stern, commanding photo courtesy of Michael M. Rubino

Viper 2 open beta about to hatch

2007-06-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

developerWorks: DB2 Viper 2 Open Beta forum for Linux, UNIX and Windows

If you're at all curious about the details of the next release of DB2, there is currently no better place to watch for clues than this forum on IBM developerWorks. After three months in closed beta, Viper 2 is now ready for testing and evaluation by a much larger community of users, including you.

Thanks for the swanky photo, yausser!

Fake Name Generator is cheaper than ever

2007-06-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Website: Fake Name Generator

When I first blogged about this last year, the service was hosted behind an electronics vendor's website, and it only allowed you to generate one fake identity at a time for free (but a batch of 2000 cost only a buck). Since then, the site's creator has made several improvements, including a very generous extension to the free portion of the service. Users may now request a batch of up to 40,000 identities for free and receive the resulting data in about two days (at least until we all start hammering the site for freebies). Since you're allowed to have up to three of those free batch requests queued up, you're actually able to receive up to 120,000 names in fairly short order. Theoretically, you could submit more free requests later on, as long as you have no more than three requests in their queue at the same time. If you absolutely cannot wait the two days for a batch to turn around, you can expedite your request for as little as ten bucks. Considering that each batch of 40,000 names used to cost US$20 under the old pricing, this upgrade is easy to appreciate.

ObDB2: Having 40,000 (or more) rows of decent-looking (but utterly fake) customer data to load into your database can really simplify application testing. The names are realistic, so your test users won't be complaining about screens full of gibberish, and the uniqueness of each record means you can leave your constraints in place. The folks behind this valuable service have truly cracked the problem to the point that you probably have no business attempting to generate your own dummy customer data anymore. In fact, I may send them a little money just for the time they've saved me so far.

Totally sweet photo courtesy of Andrea Harner

XMLSpy gets its DB2 on

2007-06-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Altova tools for working with IBM DB2 9 pureXML

I'm not very involved with XML these days, so I have to thank my buddy David for bringing this exciting story to my attention.

On May 30th, 2007, Altova announced the introduction of DB2 9 pureXML support in several of their products, including XMLSpy, the gold standard for XML modeling and development software. Starting with Version 2007 Release 3 (v2007r3), XMLSpy, MapForce, StyleVision, and DatabaseSpy will recognize the pureXML features of DB2 9. Even Altova's no-cost XML forms utility, Authentic, is now integrated with pureXML content in DB2.

If you're working with any amount of XML data, regardless of whether or not it's being handled by pureXML, there's probably an Altova product that can help you, so do yourself a favor and make some time to play with a free 30-day trial version.

Three days left to respond to IDUG's call for volunteers

2007-05-31T21:40:00.000-07:00

IDUG website: Become an IDUG Volunteer

If, for whatever reason, attending an IDUG conference has motivated you to find out more about helping them as a volunteer for 2007-2008, here's your chance. As mentioned in the Call For Volunteers breakfast at IDUG's recent conference in San Jose, IDUG has posted a Word/OpenOffice application form on the IDUG website.

The impending deadline of June 4, 2007 means it's now put up or shut up time. All those ideas you've had on how to improve the yearly conference have a much better chance of being realized if you become a part of the NACPC or one of the other IDUG committees.

Good luck!

...and thanks to Tim Parkinson for the nifty photo.

Last chance to submit your IDUG attendee survey and win prizes

2007-05-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Surveyz.com: IDUG 2007 North America attendee evaluation

If you attended IDUG 2007 in San Jose, you have until the end of Friday, May 25th, to complete an online survey which will not only help IDUG leadership improve the conference, but will also put you in the running for a free conference registration for IDUG 2008 (a US$2000 value). There's really no easier way to get a chance at a free conference reg, so I hope you'll take a moment out of your Friday lunch break to offer your opinion to IDUG.

IDUG... but you may want to as well

2007-05-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

Takeaways from IDUG NA 2007

Yeah, I know...IDUG wrapped up its 2007 conference a while ago, but I took a bit of a vacation afterward, so I'm just starting to dig myself out of the pile of notes, business cards, and action items that I maneuvered my self into back in San Jose. I'm sharing my observations so those of you who didn't attend the conference can get a feel for what goes on there. Even if you did attend, IDUG is kind of a big conference, with a lot going on at the same time, so maybe I saw a few things that you missed.

The numbers
IDUG staffers with SmithBucklin estimate this year's conference turnout at around 1500 attendees, which beats last year's numbers and this year's initial projections. Surprisingly, quite a few attendees simply showed up the first day and paid full rip at the registration booth, rather than booking just a few weeks in advance and saving several hundred dollars. If those folks waited until the last minute to register, they probably paid top dollar for their airfare and lodging as well. I'm a bit puzzled by that tactic, but perhaps it's because I don't work for a big, indecisive company.

The surprisingly good keynote
After fidgeting my way through much of the pitch-heavy keynote at Monday's kickoff session, I didn't have very high expectations for Wednesday's keynote from Jeff Jonas, a guy I'd never met, whose company made some sort of fraud-detecting software that IBM acquired over two years ago. I couldn't have been more wrong. First and foremost, Jeff was genuinely funny, which made the 90 minutes fly by. His slides were illustrated primarily with monochromatic squiggles that one would assume were drawn by a hyperactive first-grader or perhaps a clever parrot, until he explains that he does his own illustrations mostly during long flights and without the aid of a mouse (as if using a mouse would even help). Despite having a title of Chief Scientist, Jeff was surprisingly humble when he talked about the events that shaped his career, such as the stint where he lived out of his car before forming SRD, and the executives he actively recruited to replace him as CEO and chairman of his own company. Even when Jeff got down to brass tacks about his company's software, it was still thoroughly interesting. He covered a lot of ground in his talk, rarely spending more than a minute per slide, in a bit of a rush to catch a mid-morning flight out of San Jose. Many of my colleagues either couldn't or didn't drag themselves to this early morning session, but I'm glad I did, because it was very well done and a refreshingly unique presentation for IDUG.

An afternoon at Nerdvana
The other highlight that day was a late afternoon reception at SVL, which will soon be comemmorating its 30th anniversary as the world's first large-scale software development lab. Conference attendees who caught the IDUG bus to SVL could mingle amongst themselves, talk to DB2 developers from the Toronto Lab, or follow SVL's big-brained Martians on a guided tour through much of the facility. Among other things, the tour revealed that IBM routinely videotapes users (with permission, of course) in order to improve software usability, and that the average software developer at SVL has a private office with a door (what a good idea). We also saw countless zSeries mainframes, and over a third of a petabyte of high-end storage. It may not be the Googleplex, but our sunny afternoon at SVL was the best off-site reception of the six IDUG conferences I've attended.

Emerging details of Viper II
Just when you thought IBM had unveiled all of their database tricks last year when DB2 9 came out, IBMers from the Toronto Lab are already making careful proclamations about the enhancements in the release they're calling Viper II (which is far less confusing than its original codename of Python). I attended some of those IDUG sessions, as well as the closed beta kickoff for Viper II back in March, and I can safely say that IBM is not content to sit and coast after releasing DB2 9. Viper II contains an impressive mix of enhanced features along with entirely new functionality that aims to profoundly change the way DBAs work with DB2. Unfortunately, I am a bit intimidated by the dense stream of legalese preceding those Viper II slides, so I won't be going into detail about what was discussed in those sessions. The good news is that if you attended the conference (or work with someone who did), you can read all about it on the conference DVD. That way, you get the information straight from the source, and I don't get banned from future DB2 beta briefings, which are typically held in Toronto in the dead of winter.

Little DB2 and Big DB2
For various reasons, many mainframe DB2 shops out there are dipping their toes (or being thrown screaming) into DB2 for LUW, and quite a few of them don't like what they see. That can be evidenced by IDUG sessions that are geared to help perplexed mainframe DBAs navigate the alien world of UNIX, and also by the types of questions and complaints that a few mainframe DBAs raised during open discussions with a panel of DB2 LUW developers from the Toronto Lab. One rather vocal mainframe DBA gave DB2 LUW the snarky nickname of "little DB2" and made a habit of saying it in front of the panelists. To dismiss this person as yet another cranky mainframe bigot would be easy, but unfair. He had legitimate issues with DB2 LUW and suffered significantly more from those problems than he ever did on the mainframe. He also touched on the culture clash between old-guard mainframe administrators (JCL-wielding beardos in suspenders) and UNIX admins (Slashdot-worshipping reboot monkeys). The stories from the mainframers in the room made it loud and clear that in many large corporations, mainframes and LUW systems are butting up against each other like tectonic plates, with similar consequences. It's also happening faster than either mainframers or IBM are ready to handle. Imagine being a mainframe DBA who must migrate a DB2 z/OS application over to an DB2 on AIX, only to find that after decades of co-existing, there are still fundamental discrepancies between their SQL instruction sets. I see similar frustration on the other side, with UNIX DBAs who are sincerely interested in learning more about the mainframe, but are unable to find decent transitional guides that offer a basic introduction to mainframe concepts or zSeries architecture. Rather than being annoyed by the mainframe bellyaching in a DB2 LUW session, I was encouraged when I recognized it as an instance of the two tribes coming together, and the improved software and documentation that will hopefully come from it.

This is actually just a minor portion of what I took away from IDUG, so if you're not sure if IDUG is worth attending, I hope you'll realize just how much valuable material is packed into just a few days each year.

Latest issue of DB2 Magazine emerges at IDUG

2007-05-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

DB2 Magazine: Volume 12 Issue 1

I was wondering where DB2 Magazine was hiding this year, only to find it waiting for me here at the IDUG conference in San Jose. The cover caption, "Escaping Information Anarchy", points to Mark Leon's article, which offers a bit of a reality check for organizations working toward data governance. Features by Scott Hayes and Stuart Litel round out the trio for this issue. On the z/OS side, if you've ever wondered what the new face of the mainframe will be, her picture appears in this issue's Dream Job section, and her name is Kristine Harper.

You may have noticed that you've never paid for an issue of DB2 Magazine, which means that someone else has. If DB2 magazine is helpful to you and you'd like it to continue to exist as a free publication, please drop a line to editor Kim Moutsos and tell her how her magazine helps you with your job.

Obligatory IDUG 2007 conference writeup

2007-05-09T03:14:00.001-07:00

Dispatches from the IDUG conference

As my new blog buddies on PlanetDB2 can attest, it
is a real challenge to diligently write about a conference while it's still underway. My theory is that there's a problem with one of the beverages being served at the conference (or at the hotel bar) that suddenly makes the person who drank it very sleepy and, consequently, unable to post updates to his blog. Unfortunately, with so many types of beverages implicated at this event, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact one, so it may take a significant amount of collaborative testing to isolate the root cause. Despite this issue, a flaky hotel thermostat presented me with the opportunity to wake up in the middle of the night and post this update as I wait for the technician to arrive.

Monday, May 7th was the first full day of the conference, kicked off by a series of announcements preceding the keynote speech.

IDUG has a new logo. Readers are encouraged to post comments to this blog to list all the other logos the new one resembles.

This year's sessions will not only be audiotaped, but also synchronized with each presenter's slides. Surprisingly, that coordination will not require any special software on presenters' PCs, posing what must be an interesting challenge for the recording company.

The next IDUG North America conference will be held in Dallas from May 18-22, 2008.

With the IDUG formalities out of the way, it was time for the much-awaited keynote from retired IBM Fellows Don Haderle and Pat Selinger. I was a bit disappointed to see these two remarkable computer scientists being so underutilized on stage, relegated to serving as emcees for various IBM executives who were pitching the types of PowerPoint decks we've all seen far too often. Pat and Don are both undisputed legends in the world of modern databases, so it would have been much more appropriate in my opinion for them to share some of the war stories that led to their breakthrough discoveries. There were some good bits in their talks, but those bits were scattered amongst too much marketing fodder to justify pulling Haderle and Selinger out of retirement.

As with every IDUG keynote, the happy numbers fly by, but I managed to catch a few worth remembering and repeating (as I do ever year):

4800 new DB2/IMS/Informix customers in 2006

180 new business partners in the data management arena

500 organizations exploiting pureXML in DB2 9

9 of the nation's top ten insurance firms use DB2

23 of the top 25 retail corporations use DB2

10 years without an unplanned outage on DB2 servers running at TD Bank

23 terabytes of data stored in DB2 for the Land Registry, the world's largest OLTP database

As we left the keynote, IDUG staffers were handing out the new IDUG logo, which was embossed onto brown circles that were either very nice leather drink coasters or the worst jerky ever.

There are plenty more IDUG nuggets worth mentioning, and I hope to post them soon.

DB2 takes another CODiE!

2007-05-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

CODiE Website: 2007 CODiE Award Winners

After DB2 9 was announced as a finalist, I honestly thought I had created an alarm to remind me to check on this one, but April 17th uneventfully came and went, which left me ignorant as to who won this year's CODiE for best DBMS. After rousing from my apparent slumber, I was pleased to arrive at the CODiE website and find that DB2 9 took the prize for Best Database Management Solution. I can easily imagine the DB2 gang as they stood tall before that cliquish panel of smirking, dismissive CODiE judge-models, never once yielding under the withering gaze. The pressure of being evaluated by those ladies must have been tremendous indeed, but DB2 clearly had "the guts to be judged".

How sweet it must have been for IBM to triumphantly return to the podium of the CODiE awards banquet (after enjoying the cyber-comedy stylings of Greg Schwem) and pick up DB2's fourth CODiE in just 8 years.

Congratulations, guys, and keep up the good work.

IDUG NA 2007 sessions available in various calendar formats

2007-03-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

The deadline has passed for various discounts for IDUG 2007 North America in San Jose, so you're either registered already, or working harder than ever to justify the trip to a PHB. In either case, I've put together a calendar of the conference's 182 technical sessions to help you decide how to spend each day. There are 14 separate discussion threads/tracks, so rather than lump them all together into an unreadable stew, they are grouped by thread, allowing you to focus on just the areas that are relevant to you.

Now for the caveats. There are no rooms listed for the sessions, since that information can change anywhere from six weeks to six minutes before the presentation is scheduled to start. I did not put in links to the details of the sessions, nor did I specify whether a session was for z/OS or LUW, which can be a bit of a problem for threads that cover multiple platforms. Although the information was supplied by one of my IDUG friends, it is subject to change without notice.

If you find this helpful and you have not registered yet, please list me, your humble blog buddy Fred Sobotka, as a referrer on your IDUG conference registration form.

Thread A DB2 Technology Fundamentals
Thread B DB2 for z/OS
Thread C DB2 for z/OS Cutting Edge
Thread D DB2 for LUW
Thread E DB2 for LUW Cutting Edge
Thread F Application Development I
Thread G Application Development II
Thread H Emerging Database Technologies I
Thread I Emerging Database Technologies II
Thread J Technical Product Presentations
Thread K Informix for DBAs
Thread L Informix for Application Developers
Thread M The Informix Edge
Thread N Going Further with Informix

Fix Pack 2 for DB2 9 is now available to download

2007-02-26T10:03:00.000-08:00

IBM support website: DB2 Version 9.1 fix packs and clients

After last week's hints of an imminent Fix Pack, IBM just released Fix Pack 2 for DB2 9, which contains an important security patch. Remember to test first!

Handy SQL-generating scripts to add to your toolbox

2007-02-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

Systems Engineering and RDBMS blog: More DB2 LUW SQL Scripts

If you're just getting started with DB2, you may be thinking about the never-ending list of DB2 statements that you execute just to carry out your DBA duties. Generating those statements from short SQL queries (typically one or two lines, tops) against various SYSCAT views has got to be one of the most laudable manifestations of laziness. Aside from saving tremendous amounts of time (especially for databases with lots of objects), this approach also helps to cut down on typos, since you're not entering nearly as many commands by hand. The scripts in the blog post cover some of the most common DB2 tasks, and an earlier post from the same blog includes a few more. If you're not already generating most of your repeatable DB2 commands from scripted queries against the catalog, it's never too early or too late to take that plunge. Do it, and you'll never look back.

Fix Pack 2 for DB2 9 is about to hatch

2007-02-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

DBA Place blog: IBM DB2 for Linux Temporary File Creation Vulnerability

It seemed like we were due for a new Fix Pack anyway, since we're coming up on three months since IBM released FP1. You may not see the Fix Pack on IBM's site today, but it's clearly on its way, as evidenced by IBM APAR records that reference the fix.

Vote for your favorite DB2 blogger on ITtoolbox

2007-02-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

ITtoolbox site:Second Annual IT Community Choice Awards

Congratulations to Chris Eaton and Willie Favero for making it to the final round of voting in the ITtoolbox blog awards. If either Chris or Willie have posted something that has helped you get more out of DB2, I hope you'll head over and vote for them, not just as a personal gesture of thanks, but also as a message to IBM that you consider technical blogs such as theirs to be a valuable resource.

DB2 9 is a finalist for the 2007 CODiE awards

2007-02-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

2007 CODiE Awards website: Finalist Showcase - Best Database Management Solution

Leon Katsnelson from the Toronto Lab pointed out in a recent blog entry that the SIIA has promoted DB2 9 to the finals in the category of Best Database Management Solution. This means that DB2 9 and other category finalists will be subjected to weeks of intense scrutiny by either a panel of judges or a bevy of intimidating models. Either way, I wish DB2 9 the best of luck.

A Valentine's sampler of IDUG updates

2007-02-14T00:10:00.000-08:00

The advance schedule for the upcoming IDUG North America conference in May is now online, but at least some of the details in that schedule are bound to change over the next three months.

The early bird discount of $345 off the 2007 conference fee will be offered until March 23, 2007.

RUG members are eligible for an additional discount.

This raffle for a free conference registration may still be active. Couldn't hurt to try it out once.

If this is the first IDUG conference you've attended since 2003, while you're registering, please tell them that I, Fred Sobotka, (your humble blog buddy) am the one who sent you.

In other IDUG news, the latest Solutions Journal is in the mail as well as online. Even though Martin Hubel and his talented team put together yet another fine issue, I would not recommend giving it in lieu of a Valentine's Day card.

Last chance to nominate your favorite ITtoolbox blogger

2007-02-13T23:05:00.000-08:00

ITtoolbox site:IT Community Choice Awards

With so many active DB2 bloggers on ITtoolbox, you probably read at least one of them on a regular basis. Here's your chance to give back a little by nominating your favorite blogger, new blog, and blog entry, among other categories. Thanks to 2005 award-winning blogger Chris Eaton for the reminder.

New DB2 security book available on paper and as pixels

2007-01-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

IBM Press: Understanding DB2 9 Security

Before you run away screaming at the first mention of LBAC, you should know that this book also covers several other DB2 security features, many of which have been available for quite a while. That would make sense, considering that lead author Rebecca Bond had already written several chapters before Hurricane Katrina, an event which occurred well before most insiders had access to the Viper beta code. One can guess that the non-technical sections (including a decent overview of the current regulatory climate) were probably written while waiting for Viper, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Despite its title, the book zooms out a bit to provide some helpful context about the alphabet soup of laws (SOX, HIPAA, GLBA, FISMA, etc.) that now impact the DBA at least as much as they affect anyone else in the company.

Since security is an all-encompassing issue, it's only fitting that Rebecca Bond and her co-authors, Kevin Yeung-Kuen See, Carmen Ka Man Wong, and Yuk-Kuen Henry Chan, attack it from several angles and with varying degrees of technical depth. You'll find a nut-and-bolts breakdown of LBAC and the DB2 audit facility, but there's also a good overview of how Kerberos and LDAP work as security plugins for DB2. If you find yourself a bit bewildered by the stacks of encryption, identification, and authentication protocols that used to be relegated to your network admins, this book aims to rescue you by discussing them from a DBA's perspective.

Once you get over the hokey metaphors of the DBA as a hero who wears a "super-invisible cape", I think you'll find that Mrs. Bond and her crack team of DB2 experts from the Toronto Lab have put together a terrific resource for DBAs who are looking (either by choice or by necessity) to improve the security and reliability of their DB2 databases.

Understanding DB2 9 Security is currently available in hardback edition and retails for USD$49.99. IBM is offering a 35% discount and free FedEx shipping when you use promotion code BOND5709 at the IBM Press store. It's also available as a downloadable eBook and as part of the online library service from Safari Bookshelf.

Neat example of XML and XSL with a DB2 twist

2007-01-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

datori.blog: HTML documentation for a database schema

And you probably thought that all of the DB2 enthusiasts in Toronto only worked for IBM. Nick Ivanov, a database consultant who has been posting helpful DB2 advice on various message boards for several years, is a recent and welcome addition to the community of DB2 bloggers. His latest post on his DB2 blog is a uniquely interesting approach to publishing DB2 data as XML, which is then transformed into HTML by an XSL style sheet, without any bulky content management system overhead.

With the help of XMLFOREST and other XML publishing functions within DB2, it's possible to build valid XML documents with sophisticated nesting and repeating elements, even from a single SQL SELECT. By employing the approach laid out in this article, you could take your XML data as is and publish it directly to the web.

The Toad's Riddle

2006-12-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

A real-life DB2 puzzler

A toad sat on a lily pad in the middle of a pond, waiting for a DBA to wander by. It didn't take long for one to arrive, and the toad wasted no time in launching into his riddle.

"Would you say you are a wise DBA?"

"I'm not sure," said the DBA, "but my users seem to think I'm fairly wise."

"Well, then. Let's say that one of them comes to you with a most perplexing problem. She wants to extract the DDL for an entire schema, but encounters an SQL1092N permissions error shortly after beginning the report."

"That's easy," replied the DBA. "I'd just ask her to tell me which SQL statement failed."

"If you had that answer, then this wouldn't be much of a riddle now, would it?", the toad asked rhetorically. "We all know that those programs never reveal anything meaningful in their error messages," the toad added. Sadly, the DBA knew the toad to be correct on that point.

The DBA was a bit annoyed by the toad's coyness, but continued anyway, unable to pass up a challenge. "I'd analyze the authorization views in the system catalog to see which permissions she's missing. Then I'd grant her whatever permissions she needed and send her on her way." The DBA was rather confident with his answer.

The toad's initial response was a little noise that must have been his version of a giggle. The DBA had never heard such a noise before, but he could tell it was condescending. "You find nothing in the authorization views that would explain the failure," said the toad. "Even if you granted permissions to everything in sight, the report would still fail in the same place. All you ever see of it is Unable to read tablespace parts". The toad waited for the next volley from the DBA.

"Then I'd grant DBADM to her user just to see if the problem went away", replied the DBA. He then wondered to himself if the toad in front of him was the type that chefs chopped up and served in fancy restaurants.

"DBADM will not help you," the toad said mockingly. "Nor will it help your user succeed in running her mysterious report."

The DBA was clearly irritated now. "That's impossible! Her report couldn't be anything other than a few SELECT statements. DBADM should give her access to everything there is."

"You're half right," taunted the toad. "I'll admit that her report only contains SELECT statements, but it still fails nonetheless. Just to be nice though, I'll give you a little hint: when you run her report as a user with SYSADM authority, it works just fine."

"That's not much help," said the DBA. "I can't go around giving SYSADM to everyone just so they can run a couple of their reports." He was perturbed enough to taunt back at the toad. "You know, children in Australia use very sharp sticks to hunt toads, and the adults even pay them to do it..."

"That may be true, but we're not in Australia and I'm not that kind of toad." The toad was unflappable as he went in for the final blow. "Are you ready to admit defeat and fire up your precious event monitor?"

"Might as well," said the DBA. "It sure beats going around in circles with this silly puzzle."

"You're probably right," said the toad. "Especially since you look too tired to carry on. You lose. Thanks for playing."

The DBA, his pride wounded, would have made a move to grab the toad, but the lily pad was in the middle of a murky pond that hardly looked inviting. As the toad hopped victoriously off of the lily pad and vanished into the thicket near the far side of the pond, the DBA wondered how he could have solved the problem.

"What exactly can SYSADM do that DBADM can't do, and why would a read-only report require it?"

If you've stayed with me all the way up to this point in the story, then you definitely deserve the answer, which - believe it or not - is SYSMON. The event monitor I ultimately ran (as a last resort) revealed attempts by Toad For DB2's schema compare routine to call SYSPROC.SNAP_GET_TBSP(). Not even DBADM authority allows a user to run the snapshot UDFs, so GRANTs are not going to help you with this particular problem. As tools like Toad become more widely used in your shop, you may find the need to extend SYSMON authority to more users. If you don't have SYSMON_GROUP set on your DB2 instances already, set it now while you're thinking about it, and then it will be enabled after the next instance restart.

Thanks for reading my blog, and Happy New Year.

...and thanks to Mark for the excellent toad photo.

Give the gift of DB2 FixPaks this holiday season

2006-12-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

IBM DB2 Support: FixPak 14 for DB2 V8 and Fix Pack 1 for DB2 9

Not sure if IBM gave you what you wanted? Peeking at this present is quite easy. Just check the fixed APAR list (8, 9) and the release notes for your specific platform. Be sure to test first!

DB2 licensing summaries refreshed for PVU pricing

2006-12-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

developerWorks article: DB2 and IBM's Processor Value Unit pricing

IBM is in the unenviable position of reworking their entire software licensing scheme to address the issues presented by various multi-core processors, so Paul Zikopoulos stepped up and wrote a developerWorks article to explain how these changes affect DB2 9. He also provides a bit of background on the factors that led up to this change. The good news is that dual-core processors from Intel and AMD get a bit of a break, since they count for the same number of PVUs as their single-core relatives.

At the moment, Passport Advantage still shows per-processor prices for DB2 add-ons such as pureXML, which leaves the potential buyer with the question of whether the feature is actually licensed by processor or by core. I look forward that issue being cleared up soon as well. UPDATE: The processor-based prices for DB2 9's add-on features have been replaced with PVU and user-based pricing.

2006 fourth quarter issue of DB2 magazine available online

2006-11-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

Tracking the Truth is the cover story on 2006 Q4 issue of DB2 Magazine

Just in case you were expecting a dissertation on Kant, Hegel, and other long-dead philosophers who debated the meaning of truth, the cover story in the latest DB2 Magazine is actually about the Genographic Project a fascinating endeavor from the folks at National Geographic. Their DB2 data warehouse will store data regarding the mitochondrial DNA of thousands of human participants in order to shed some insight on the migration patterns of different groups of people over the past 50,000 years.

These and other features make this issue another excellent read for DB2 DBAs of all stripes.

Roger Sanders, a longtime contributor to the DB2 LUW community, gives some pointers on cloning an entire database for testing. There may be more prolific DB2 columnists out there, but - unlike Roger - they all work for IBM.

Feeling lucky? DB2 V8 FixPak 13 hits the streets

2006-08-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

IBM support and downloads: DB2 UDB Version 8.1 FixPak 13 (also known as Version 8.2 FixPak 6)

The platform list on this FixPak announcement serves as a reminder of the interesting fact that nearly half of all DB2 LUW versions are some form of Linux. Test first, and have fun.

Estimate MDC table size with free alphaWorks software tool

2006-08-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

IBM alphaWorks: Multi-Dimensional Clustering Table Size Estimator for DB2

Thanks to freshmeat.net and LinuxQuestions.org for pointing out this promising little tool, which is currently available for Windows and AIX. Perhaps if it gets enough interest, the author will release a Linux version as well.

IDUG presentation abstracts due by September 1

2006-08-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

IDUG conference PDF document: IDUG 2007 North America Call for Presentations

The conference planning committee doesn't ask for much in an abstract - just a few bullet points and a short paragraph - but you'd be surprised how daunting that can be when you've waited until the final hour to type them up. This little reminder can help you get organized sooner and with less stress, but only if you act on it now. Even if you spend an entire week just mulling over your presentation ideas, you'll still have one more week to work it down to a concise proposal that will blow everyone away.

2006Q3 issue of DB2 Magazine available

2006-08-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

DB2 Magazine: Volume 11 Number 3 - Quarter 3, 2006

The latest issue of DB2 Magazine, devoted almost entirely to pureXML, is available as pixels and on paper. If you've been waiting to get your feet wet with DB2 9's native XML engine, this issue has plenty of helpful articles to get you started.

I am guessing that the decision to obscure half of Thor Thomassen's face on the cover was an artistic one and not done to hide some sort of disfiguring injury.

To clarify - MDC and MQTs can be used in DB2 Express-C

2006-08-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

You'll thank me for not coming up with some cutesy title for this post. It's been a bit frustrating to see such a powerful DBMS hit the market for free, only to get murky, contradictory coverage regarding important details. If you are among the many who are utterly confused about what can and cannot be done with DB2 Express-C, you are apparently in good company, and are now in for some straight answers.

The biggest questions concern multi-dimensional clustering and materialized query tables, both of which can add tremendous analytical power to databases that are otherwise designed for an OLTP workload. The answer is yes - absolutely - you can exploit MDC and MQT in DB2 Express-C, even though it may sound too good to be true. Just in case you don't believe me either, I am posting the proof here:

$ db2licm -l Product name: "DB2 Express Edition" License type: "Unwarranted" Expiry date: "Permanent" Product identifier: "db2exp" Version information: "9.1" Max number of CPUs: "2" Annotation: "6;(_uw)"
So we're using Express-C. Believe me?
$ db2level DB21085I Instance "db29exc1" uses "64" bits and DB2 code release "SQL09010" with level identifier "02010107". Informational tokens are "DB2 v9.1.0.0", "s060629", "LINUXAMD64", and Fix Pack "0". Product is installed at "/opt/ibm/db2expressc/V9.1".
...the GA version - not an open or closed beta.
$ db2 "CREATE TABLE mdctest (store_id INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, area_region INTEGER NOT NULL, area_salesrep INTEGER NOT NULL) ORGANIZE BY DIMENSIONS (area_region,area_salesrep)" DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully. $ db2 "DESCRIBE INDEXES FOR TABLE mdctest SHOW DETAIL" Index Index Unique Number of schema name rule columns Column names ------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- -------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ SYSIBM SQL060814215526560 D 2 +AREA_REGION+AREA_SALESREP SYSIBM SQL060814215526680 D 1 +AREA_SALESREP SYSIBM SQL060814215526700 D 1 +AREA_REGION SYSIBM SQL060814215526720 P 1 +STORE_ID 4 record(s) selected.

The Ds in the DESCRIBE INDEXES output show that there really are multi-dimensional block indexes on our silly example table, proving that MDC is really being used here.

Now, on to MQTs:
$ db2 "CREATE TABLE mqttest AS (SELECT area_region, area_salesrep, COUNT(*) AS store_count FROM mdctest GROUP BY ROLLUP(area_region, area_salesrep)) DATA INITIALLY DEFERRED REFRESH IMMEDIATE" DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully. $ db2 set integrity for mqttest immediate checked not incremental DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully.
Hopefully this helps you out a bit. Have fun.

DB2 9 goes GA today

2006-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

Official IBM website: IBM DB2 9

As announced last month, IBM has officially released DB2 9 today for download. The pureXML features alone make it a compelling download, even if it's just an installation of DB2 9 Express-C running inside VMware or MS Virtual PC. Release the hounds!

Generate excellent test data quickly and cheaply

2006-06-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Website: Fake Name Generator

When I saw this site mentioned on BoingBoing, I probably did not have the same initial reaction as most of its readers, who are usually looking for a convenient way to feed gibberish to the countless websites that require some sort of registration. When I saw the Fake Name Generator, I immediately saw a handy way to generate plausible test data for database applications. From the site's main page, you can pull off fake people one at a time for free, or you can buy addresses in bulk for as little as one twentieth of a penny each. Even the credit card numbers it generates pass validation. Since 2000 plausible addresses can be had for only a buck, this service is a compelling alternative to coding your own data generator.

Webcast about DB2 9 compression this Thursday

2006-06-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

June 15th webcast: DB2 Chat with the Lab - Using Data Compression to Cut Costs

It's difficult to overstate the impact of this one feature on DB2's overall performance. Simply put, compression means more rows per page, and therefore reduced page I/O cost for a given workload. The technology behind it is pretty slick, so you may want to read up on it a bit beforehand.

Also, I'd like to thank IBM for offering free transcripts of their previous DB2 9 webcasts. It is nice to see so much effort going into educating people about this release.

No Viper, no V, just 9, and it's coming soon

2006-06-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

ZDNet article: IBM plays XML card in effort to beat Oracle

It was good to see the UDB letters dropped a couple months ago, and now there won't even be a V to deal with anymore. The next version of DB2 will simply be called DB2 9. The article mentions a release date of next month and reveals the new pricing as well.

Last minute reminder for May 24th DB2 Chat with the Lab

2006-05-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

DB2 Viper Early Community Website DB2 Chat with the Lab - DB2 Viper

If you're up late at night looking at blogs when you should be asleep, you might see this recommendation before it's too late. This talk, cheduled to begin at 8am PDT, will cover exciting new features in Viper, including range table partioning and large RID support. If you do end up missing it, you can always look up the transcript after the call.

DB2 FixPak 12 available for download

2006-05-23T23:48:00.000-07:00

IBM Support: DB2 Universal Database Version 8 FixPak 12 (also known as Version 8.2 FixPak 5)

It's been out for a couple weeks, and IBM hasn't had to rush out a FixPak 12a already, so perhaps it's ready for you to play with on some of your servers. As always, the typical warnings apply: drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen, and always try out a new FixPak on a test system first. Have fun...

Influence the future of IDUG and win prizes

2006-05-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

IDUG website: IDUG Survey for DB2 LUW and z/OS Users

The folks at IDUG are surveying the opinions and needs of all types of DB2 users in order to adjust IDUG's current services as well as create new offerings. All survey participants are eligible to win either a 50" plasma screen television or one of two dozen iPods, so be sure to fill one out and recommend the survey to your colleagues if they also use DB2.

Just how much of a liability is DB2's GUI?

2006-05-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

InfoWorld Database Underground blog: What is the Future of DB2?

This InfoWorld blog post does have some undisputed facts: Sean McCown has written about MS SQL Server in the past, and his spell checker is broken. The rest is a bit more speculative and debatable.

So, DB2 has impressive features, but its marketing strategy and clunky GUI are holding it back. Is it as simple as that? Is the release of Express-C of any help in increasing DB2's market share? Does Gartner's recent forecast of strong growth for DB2 take its allegedly meager GUI tools into account?

Although vague on details, I still consider the opinions in the InfoWorld blog post to be food for thought. Many DB2 DBAs I have talked to proudly claim they shunned most if not all of the GUI tools long ago. Would this stance be less common if DB2 had better GUI tools? If so, perhaps it's time more people participated in IBM's user feedback opportunities, either at DB2 conferences or right at an IBM lab.

IBM's Bob Picciano kicks off IDUG 2006 conference in Tampa

2006-05-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Robert J. Picciano, VP of Information Management Sales at IBM, delivered an optimistic keynote address today at the 2006 IDUG/IIUG North America conference in Tampa, FL. Here are some of the happy numbers he mentioned during his talk:

150+ IBM products use IBM Cloudscape as their embedded SQL database

2x growth of XML database investment over SQL databases industrywide

$1B committed by IBM toward various new software investments

40% of all corporate data is stored as XML (at least temporarily)

150 business partners participated in the Viper closed beta

1.5x to 8.7x performance improvement realized in tests of Viper's compression features

70% of data management costs are for storage, which bodes well for Viper compression

19% of all respondents in a March 2006 Gartner survey intend to move to DB2 in the immediate future

35000 copies of DB2 Express-C have been downloaded from IBM's site

10000 copies of the PHP driver for DB2 have been downloaded

Informix (also referred to as IBM IDS) is still going strong, with solid market penetration in the retail sector and the US 911 phone system, among others. Picciano also introduced Arvind Krishna, a long-time IBMer who would be moving into the position held by Picciano prior to his recent promotion.

I thought I should also mention that IDUG is keeping a conference blog as well.

March 2006 Gartner report predicts strong growth for DB2

2006-04-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

Gartner: Gartner Study on DBMS Identifies Spending and Deployment Trends

The IDUG website linked to this optimistic report from Gartner, which sees over two thirds of the world's companies increasing DBMS spending in 2006, and "DB2 will show strong growth during the next 12 months – this is greater than all other DBMSs". Even z/OS is continuing to pick up steam. It's encouraging to see IBM's hard work and careful attention to DBMS user needs paying off with a better suite of products and increasing market share.

SQL maven Joe Celko starts a weblog

2006-04-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

Blogspot: Joe Celko - The SQL Apprentice

Despite its misleading title, Joe Celko is not actually the apprentice, but he does take SQL questions from them in a blog he started earlier this month on Blogger. As he has been known to say, if you don't know who Joe Celko is, just as any SQL programmer. Hopefully, most of the answers he gives in this blog won't be news to you, but it may still be worth reading for a chuckle or a groan as he attempts to guide new SQL apprentices (smarties to be?) toward a better path. If not for morbid entertainment, the disturbingly ignorant questions, followed by his diligent responses, will at least make for a quick cut-and-paste shortcut when your own SQL programmers inevitably ask you the very same questions.

IBM releases Viper release candidate of DB2 Express-C

2006-04-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

IBM DB2 Viper website: Download Viper release of DB2 Express-C

If you've been interested in Viper, but wanted to stay within the feature set of DB2 Express-C, you are in luck. By playing with the Express-C version of Viper Release Candidate 1, you'll be able to see exactly which Viper features will soon be available for free.

There are also some VMware images of DB2 Express-C on Linux available for quick and easy testing with the free VMware Player. Now that VMware takes the risk and disruption out of testing Viper, there's practically no excuse for not checking it out.

Use Google Calendar to plan your IDUG conference schedule

2006-04-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

IDUG conference schedule on Google Calendar

I am an enthusiastic fan of Google's new calendar application, and decided to use it to manage my schedule for the upcoming IDUG conference in Tampa. I entered the 130 sessions for DB2 into a few Google calendars and am sharing them so others can benefit from my caffeine-induced typing session.

If you are a Google Calendar user, or you use some other iCal-compliant program, you can import each of these public calendars into your personal calendar and choose which sessions you want to attend. The nice part is that you'll be able to add other private events into your calendar, like those sales-y parties that database tool vendors throw in their booze-soaked hotel suites. Google Calendar will allow you to manage all that in one place. Isn't that neat?

Each track can be imported as a separate calendar, and I also made calendars for the LUW and Cross-Platform groupings as well. Sorry Informix people, I would have put your sessions in too, but my hands were still sore from the first batch.

Thread A: DB2 Technology Fundamentals
Thread B: DB2 UDB for z/OS
Thread C: DB2 UDB for z/OS "Cutting Edge"
Thread D: DB2 UDB for LUW
Thread E: DB2 UDB for LUW "Cutting Edge"
Thread F: DB2 Application Development 1
Thread G: DB2 Application Development 2
Thread H: DB2 eXtra On Demand
Thread I: Technical Product Presentations
Thread J: DB2 In-Depth

DB2 for LUW sessions
DB2 for Cross-Platform sessions

The typical caveats apply. These sessions could change at any time, despite my waiting until the last minute to enter them. If anyone from SmithBucklin or IDUG wishes to take control of these calendars, I'll happily give them up to the appropriate person.

Get your Viper on today

2006-04-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

DB2 Viper Early Community website: DB2 Viper test drive

After months of closed beta testing and teaser articles, IBM is offering a publicly available test drive in Viper Release Candidate 1. In addition to the database engine, downloads are also available for Viper client software, development tools, and documentation. If you have some time to play with Viper and have any questions, IBM has opened an online forum just for Viper, manned by some very dedicated DB2 experts from IBM. The business partners who have been participating in the Viper closed beta since December will also be there now that Viper is open for public testing.

IBM schedules Viper online chat for April 6

2006-04-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

IBM Viper site: DB2 Chat with the Lab

On Thursday, April 6 at 11am EDT, IBM is hosting a webcast with Viper experts from IBM's Toronto Lab. I recently participated in a DB2 webcast like this one, and I can say it is an excellent way to exchange a lot of useful, detailed information very quickly. Outside of individually cornering these people at a DB2 conference (good luck with that), there are not many other ways to get this level of access to the masterminds behind this exciting new release. Even though the entire webcast will be archived for on-demand viewing later on, I still recommend reserving a spot and sitting in on the live session on 4/6 in order to submit any questions you have about Viper.

dW article comparing DB2 editions updated for Express-C

2006-03-23T23:57:00.000-08:00

developerWorks: Compare the distributed DB2 UDB servers

IBM's Paul Zikopoulos just submitted a revison to his comprehensive article on the features that are enabled in each edition of DB2 for Linux, Unix, and Windows. Once you understand what Express-C and the other editions do and do not offer, it should be easier to find the appropriate DB2 edition that suits your needs.

IBM launches DB2 Viper website

2006-03-23T23:23:00.000-08:00

Official site: DB2 Viper Early Community

IBM insider and award-winning blogger Chris Eaton got the jump on this story in his DB2 blog.

After two releases as a closed beta, IBM is gearing up to bring Viper out to a larger community of users. The site promises to be a hub of DB2 Viper news and technical articles, with new items added on a regular basis. If you're interested in getting your hands on the beta code, or just learning more about Viper's breakthrough features, bookmark this site and you'll definitely be among the first to know.

An old DB2 blog finds a new home

2006-03-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

After months of frustration with writing a blog on Bloglines, I have decided to pull up stakes and make the move to Blogger, where keeping and publicizing a blog seems to be much less hassle. I expect the next few months to bring about many exciting revelations about DB2 Viper, so I wanted to make sure I had a solid platform for writing about it. Unless I come across a great big stretch of free time, I don't see myself copying my old posts from Bloglines over here.

My goal for this blog is to keep you all informed about new and interesting items about DB2 for LUW, since that is, in my opinion, one of the few topics on this earth that deserves a bit more coverage than it already gets. As for any other subject, you should have no problem finding plenty of blogs about it elsewhere, published by bloggers who write better and are more dedicated than I.

If you read my old blog, thanks. If you didn't, then I hope you'll stay and check out this one. Something interesting is bound to show up here sooner or later.