DB2 10 for z/OS Database Administration: Certification Study Guide

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DB2 10 for z/OS Database Administration

Certification Study Guide

MC Press

DB2 Product Fundamentals

In This Chapter

[check] DB2 for z/OS

[check] DB2 for Linux®, UNIX® and Windows®

[check] DB2 middleware, connectivity, and information integration

[check] DB2 application development

[check] DB2 administration

This chapter introduces you to IBM's DB2 family of products for System z®, System i®, Linux, UNIX, and Intel® platforms. DB2 has the ability to store all types of electronic information — traditional relational data and Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as structured, semi-structured, and unstructured information; documents and text in many languages; graphics, images, and multimedia (audio and video); and application-related objects, such as engineering drawings, maps, insurance claims forms, and numerical control streams. In this chapter, we introduce IBM's DB2 and related Information Management products and describe some of the features and functions of each offering.

The DB2 product family is an important part of IBM's Information Management software portfolio, which integrates data and enterprise content to leverage information on demand. Popular Information Management tools include Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere® for developing Java programs or components; Rational Developer for zEnterprise™ for developing traditional C/C++, COBOL, Java, and PL/1 programs; Rational Data and Application Modeling for data and applications development; and Tivoli® software for distributed systems management.

As for application server software, IBM offers several types of servers depending on the business requirement, from message queuing with WebSphere MQ to Java-based transaction processing with WebSphere Application Server. The most popular IBM software servers are its data servers, specifically the DB2 family.

The DB2 family executes on pervasive devices and on mainframe, midrange, Linux, UNIX, and Intel servers. Supported operating environments include z/OS, VSE/VM, IBM i, OS/400®, AIX®, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows. To ensure maximum performance, the DB2 code base is optimized for each platform. Common to all platforms is the SQL API, permitting applications written on one platform to access data on any platform. Internally, DB2 on z/OS, VSE/VM, and IBM i differs from DB2 on the Linux, UNIX, and Intel platforms, but the common SQL API enables applications to work together. The DB2 code base on Linux, UNIX, and Intel platforms is the same. DB2 provides seamless database connectivity using the most popular network communications protocols.

DB2 and the On Demand Business

The DB2 family of database products is part of the IBM DB2 software brand. With respect to leveraging IBM information assets, this group of products has expanded to include Cognos®, Information Management System (IMS™), Informix®, InfoSphere® Optim™, Netezza®, and SolidDB® database products; a variety of tools; and products in the areas of business analytics, information integration, and content management. In addition, DB2 incorporates an optimized management of both relational and XML data.

As a core component of IBM's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) direction, DB2 is a catalyst for delivering applications that directly impact a company's operations. SOA technology enables organizations to quickly develop solutions based on loosely coupled software services that can use independent technologies. Common applications in this area include electronic commerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and content management (CM). DB2 as the database is an integral part of this service.

Today's companies face several major business challenges, including continuous change, rigorous competition, financial pressures, security and compliance issues, and unpredictable risks. Information integration involves business modeling, process transformation, application and information integration, access, collaboration, security, compliance, and business process management. Implementing these elements lets companies further integrate their people, processes, and information. Infrastructure management, another challenge, includes areas such as availability, security, optimization, business service management, and resource virtualization. Addressing these areas of the business lets companies optimize and simplify their infrastructure.

Focusing on the database, we see business challenges manifested through unpredictable workloads with reduced problem tolerance, business partners of all types with evolving language standards, increased real-time decision making, continuous growth in size and form of data, and skyrocketing systems complexity. Successful management of the integration and infrastructure is critical. Successful application development and the ability to thrive in today's on-demand world will, to a significant degree, be determined by how well the organization is able to meet information challenges at the database level. Using IBM's mainframe and DB2 for z/OS, you can reduce cost and complexity in your IT infrastructure, simplify compliance, and leverage your core asset: your data.

The DB2 Product Family

The DB2 family of products spans many platforms that can coexist in a distributed environment.

• DB2 for z/OS. This hybrid relational and XML database management system is the largest of the DB2 family, often serving as an enterprise server handling many transactional systems (including e-business), content management, enterprise resource management, business intelligence, and mission-critical systems. The DB2 for z/OS offering is most often used to support the very largest databases and the highest transaction rates. Utilizing IBM's latest hardware platforms — z990, z890, z9®, z10™, and z196 — with DB2 and today's innovative programming models, you can derive new value from mainframe data and applications. With the wealth of corporate data on the mainframe, you can leverage open standards and advanced virtualization capabilities in other IBM products to help position the platform as a data hub for the enterprise.

• DB2 for i. DB2 for i provides a common database architecture in that many of its features and capabilities are compatible and/or interchangeable with the other members of the DB2 product family. These features include a common SQL language, DB2 tools, and the ability to connect to other DB2 product family data servers and databases. As with the DB2 for z/OS product offering, the ability to connect to other DB2 data servers is built in to the DB2 for i product.

• DB2 for VSE & VM. DB2 Server for VSE & VM provides powerful relational database capabilities, distributed database access, automation of DBA tasks, and numerous backup and recovery options. This includes support for TCP/IP access, stored procedures, and the exploitation of VM Data Spaces Support for high performance.

• DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows (LUW). This DB2 offering is a hybrid data server with optimized management of both XML and relational data on UNIX and Intel platforms. This full-function database product is scalable from single processors to symmetric multiprocessors and to massively parallel clusters using IBM DB2 pureScale technology. DB2 for LUW comes in several editions, responding to different processing requirements and applications:

» DB2 Express Edition

» DB2 Express-C

» DB2 Workgroup Server Edition

» DB2 Enterprise Server Edition

» DB2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition

» DB2 Everyplace

» DB2 Personal

DB2 for z/OS

The DB2 for z/OS relational database management system (RDBMS) is the foundation of many e-business, BI, CRM, and ERP applications and numerous mission-critical systems. The primary focus of this certification guide, DB2 for z/OS, is the largest member of the DB2 family, often functioning as an enterprise server handling many of the biggest applications in the world. The operating environment furnished by z/OS is IBM's largest and most powerful, providing the most scalable and highly available platform.

DB2 for z/OS delivers large data capacity, high transaction performance, and extensive connectivity. It supports transactions arising from Web servers, Customer Information Control System (CICS®), IMS transaction management, and z/OS batch jobs as well as via distributed connections from remote clients on numerous platforms. In addition to being able to handle single tables up to 128 TB, use 64-bit addressability to take advantage of very large amounts of physical memory, process complex SQL (including multi-row operations), handle data storage in Unicode, and offer the highest level of availability, DB2 10 for z/OS expands the value delivered to your business by the industry-leading IBM mainframe data server through innovations in key areas:

• Rich hybrid data server support for both relational and pureXML storage, with the necessary services to support both data structures. This support enables direct XML access to and from the database.

• Vastly improved virtual storage.

• Continuous availability features, including the ability to change table spaces and indexes with the physical change deferred and implemented during an online reorganization.

• Increased concurrency and reduced catalog contention.

• Improved processing of XML and large object (LOB) data, including support for LOB and XML streaming, and reduced virtual storage consumption.

• Support for the storage of temporal data in the form of support for both system-period and application-period temporal tables. This includes system-time versioning in which data is moved automatically between a base table and a history table.

• Enhanced security and auditing, including more granular system-level privileges, row and column security, and the ability to create a variety of audit policies.

Among the highlights of the DB2 10 for z/OS offering are the following features:

"Out of the Box" performance improvement. DB2 10 delivers great value by reducing CPU usage. IBM's internal testing and early beta customer results revealed that, depending on the specific workload, customers could achieve out-of-the-box DB2 CPU savings of up to 5 percent to 10 percent for traditional workloads and up to 20 percent for specific workloads, compared with running the same workloads on DB2 9. DB2 reduces its CPU usage by optimizing processor times and memory access, leveraging the latest processor improvements, larger amounts of memory, and z/OS enhancements. Improved scalability and virtual storage constraint relief can add to the savings. Continued productivity improvements for database and systems administrators can drive even more savings.

High availability. The highest levels of availability are obtained with DB2 10 for z/OS and the Parallel Sysplex® on the System z architecture with DB2 data sharing. Additional features — such as workload-managed stored procedure address spaces; online utilities (reorganization, load, copy, and so on); and table space, disk volume, and system-level online backup and recovery options — allow for continuous, reliable, and secure operations. This release delivers the ability to support up to five to ten times more concurrent active users in a single DB2 subsystem than in DB2 9, letting customers scale up or scale out simply, and with less system management. Schema evolution or data definition on demand as well as query performance manageability enhancements support improved availability and performance manageability.

Data sharing. Data sharing enables multiple DB2 subsystems to operate against a single data source. By exploiting the Parallel Sysplex clustering technology, this functionality makes continuous operations possible across outages of a single DB2 subsystem, z/OS operating system, or System z server. This capability enables automated handling of planned and unplanned outages as well as near linear scalability across single servers or clusters of servers. Critical data sets and logs are duplexed, and the server can automatically direct workloads to various members for workload balancing or during outages. SQL queries can be executed across members.

Large tables. DB2 10 for z/OS can manage the storage of very large tables (up to 128 TB) in variety of ways. Tables can be partitioned by ranges or can grow automatically based on demand. Management of these tables can be automated or can be performed manually according to the application design. Multiple indexing options for tables adapt to the needs of high availability, fast access to data, and ease of database management. The physical storage of the tables is tightly coupled with the operating system's physical storage architecture, enabling the exploitation of advanced storage and I/O features from within the data server.

Advanced workload management. DB2 10 for z/OS is designed to work cooperatively with IBM's z/OS Workload Manager. A typical z/OS configuration supports a variety of applications running batch jobs, online transaction processing (OLTP), ERP applications, business analytics, and distributed applications. In these complex environments, automated workload management is a necessity. DB2 is fully incorporated into the automated workload management of applications using batch, CICS, IMS, Time-Sharing Option (TSO), UNIX System Services, and Web servers. Workload priorities are managed at the transaction or application level, across the Parallel Sysplex.

Compression. The quantity of data that businesses are storing today is growing exponentially. To satisfy analytical needs, regulatory requirements, and historical analysis, we need more and more data. DB2 10 for z/OS takes advantage of System z hardware compression to effectively compress data in the most cost-effective way possible. This compression, combined with the table partitioning options and 128 TB table size, provides the ability to store and quickly retrieve extremely large quantities of data. Compression of indexes and inline LOBs is also available, extending the ability to efficiently utilize storage.

Security. DB2 10 for z/OS provides a robust set of built-in security features that are tightly coupled with the z/OS operating system software. These additional security features of DB2 and z/OS include Kerberos, multilevel security, SSL, and trusted contexts (which allow a trusted relationship between DB2 and an external entity). Row and column access control is a DB2 data security solution that enables you to manage access to a table at the level of a row, a column, or both.

Encryption. With many organizations paying more attention to the security of their data as well as striving to comply with regulatory requirements, the need to protect data goes beyond security. DB2 10 for z/OS uses InfoSphere Guardium® Data Encryption for DB2 and IMS Databases to further secure data.

PureXML®. The DB2 pureXML Feature provides simple, efficient access to XML data while furnishing the same levels of security, integrity, and resilience that are available for relational data. DB2 10 for z/OS stores XML data in a hierarchical format that naturally reflects the structure of XML. This storage approach, along with innovative XML indexing techniques, lets DB2 efficiently manage XML data while eliminating the complex and time-consuming parsing typically required when storing XML data in a relational database.

DB2 for i

DB2 for i is an advanced, 64-bit RDBMS that leverages the On-Demand features of IBM's System i. A member of IBM's leading-edge family of DB2 products, DB2 for i supports a broad range of applications and development environments at a lower cost of ownership due to its unique autonomic computing (self-managing) features. DB2 for i is built into System i's operating system. Because of the tight integration between DB2 and System i, and the operating system's unique architecture, many of the traditional database-specific administration requirements found on other DBMSs either aren't necessary with DB2 for i or are administered through System i facilities.

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Excerpted from DB2 10 for z/OS Database Administration by Susan Lawson, Daniel Luksetich. Copyright © 2012 Susan Lawson and Daniel Luksetich. Excerpted by permission of MC Press.
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