Thoughts on DB2
Hear Matt Huras from the IBM Labs and Clair Ross from Triton Consulting talk about IBM DB2 pureScale.
Click here to download the webcast.
In this presentation we look at why DB2 pureScale is the ideal solution for the retail sector and give an in-depth look at this exciting new technology.
March 2010- Unintended Consequences
We’ve all done it. You see a great new feature in DB2 and jump headling into using it without fully appreciating all of the implications. Here’s a case in point:
One of our clients is a large SAP customer running on DB2 for z/OS V9. With a huge number of subsystems to support and over 35,000 tables in each, taking traditional image copies would be a bit of a nightmare. Luckily, DB2 9 for z/OS contains the BACKUP/RESTORE SYSTEM function, which uses Flashcopy technology to rapidly backup and restore an entire system with a single utility. That means no messing with the traditional tablespace-level COPY utility, except when it’s needed for other reasons (such as when taking an inline image copy during an online REORG, to avoid putting the tablespace into COPY PENDING).
So far, so good. However, a couple of weeks ago the DBAs came in one morning to find a lot of SAP users complaining about database errors, and dozens of tablespaces unable to be updated due to being in a COPY PENDING state. What the heck happened?
UK DB2 customers. This services will involve one of our DB2 experts spending the day “getting under the covers” of your DB2 systemsto look at the following:
You will then receive a summary of findings outlining any areas for improvement with expected benefits and estimates of the associated effort involved.
Email us today if you would like to take advantage of this amazing offer.
Get the lowdown on data sharing! Click here to download the podcast.
With the launch of pureScale at the end of 2009, IBM announced to the world that they were bringing mainframe style data sharing to the AIX platform - with other platforms to follow. Given that z/OS is the gold standard for reliability this is an excitinv prospect.
At Triton our resident DB2 geeks have got a wealth of expertise in DB2 both on and off the mainframe. In this podcast James Gill, am mainframe data sharing expert chats to Clair Ross, a DB2 LUW expert about what lessons can be learned from the mainframe data sharing world and how pureScale can bring this to the midrange market.
On the 9th February we let you know that the DB2 10 for z/OS Beta Release had been announced. The coundown is now on till the 12th March when the beta programme will be released - see announcement letter.
“With DB2 for z/OS, IBM has once again redefined the benchmark for large-scale database systems. I’m particularly impressed by the potential for significant productivity improvements through the new temporal data support, enhanced automatic functions and SQL and XML extentions. These enhancements will help our customers to directly drive competitive advantage through more rapid deployment of application and warehouse workloads.” Julian Stuhler
Join the community! DB2 10 for z/OS on LinkedIn
If you make use of RTS and DEFINE NO, you might want to review your processes to ensure that you’re picking up all of the tablespaces you should be……
Since V7 of DB2 for z/OS, IBM has provided a Real Time Statistics (RTS) feature, which is a set of tables that DB2 keeps (more or less) up to date with recent activity against all tables and indexes in the system. In particular, the RTS tables provide detailed information on the amount of update activity that has happened since a given object was last REORGed or had RUNSTATS executed against it. That information is obviously very useful when determining when those utilities need to be run next, so many sites base their housekeeping schedules on this information (either using their own bespoke code and procedures, or a vendor tool such as IBM’s DB2 Automation Tool). In particular, looking at the number of INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE operations as a proportion of the total rows in the table (using the TOTALROWS column) is useful, so you can reorg a table when more than 10% of the rows have been changed, for example.
We came across a problem recently, where one of our customers was using this feature in a DB2 9 for z/OS subsystem that had lots of DEFINE NO tablespaces (which instructs DB2 to defer creating the underlying VSAM dataset until the table is actually referenced - very handy for ERP systems such as SAP that create a large number of tables that are never used in a given environment).
For normal DEFINE YES tablespaces, a row is created in the RTS tables as soon as the tablespace is created, with the statistics initially set to zero values and updated in real time to reflect activity against the underlying table. Unfortunately, the situation is different for DEFINE NO tablespaces: the row isn’t created until the VSAM dataset is defined on first use (no problem there) but instead of zeroes some fields (including the number of rows in the TOTALROWS column) are set to null instead. That null value isn’t updated until the first REORG or LOAD is run against the table, so if the table is populated via INSERT rather than LOAD, your nice RTS monitoring routines may never trigger that first REORG!
This “feature” has been reported to IBM, but in the meantime if you make use of RTS and DEFINE NO, you might want to review your processes to ensure that you’re picking up all of the tablespaces you should be……
In an intersting post on CIO.com entitled “Geek Pride: Soft Skills Are for Weenies” Meridith Levinson discusses whether IT professionals are fighting against pressure to demonstrate soft skills and reclaiming their inner geek. Click here to read the full article and have your say.
Want to reclaim your inner geek? Join us at Confessions of a DB2 Geek.
In our first Confessions of a DB2 Geek podcast we chat to two of our DB2 experts about pureScale and what this important new release means for organisations running DB2 on midrange platforms.
An ideal fit for the retail sector, pureScale is going to allow organisations to increase capacity when they need it at the really busy times like Christmas and the January sales and scale back at times of less demand. Our DB2 LUW expert Clair says “If you’re a retailer with a high volume online transaction environment then pureScale is going to be absolutely ideal for you”
Just how important is this release to the midrange market?
“For those needing true 24/7 availability this is an enormous release and has plugged a gaping hole that has been in the architecture of DB2 on midrange for some time.” James Gill, DB2 z/OS Expert
It’s finally arrived! Confessions of a DB2 Geek is here to bring you all the latest facts, updates and insight into the world of DB2.
Our resident DB2 Geeks will be regularly sharing their thoughts on the latest trends in DB2. Click here to find out what our geeks are up to.
In our first installment we bring you - Pure Genius - Mainframe style data sharing comes to AIX.
Get the lowdown on data sharing! Download the podcast.
With the launch of pureScale at the end of 2009 IBM announced to the world that they were bringing mainframe style data sharing to the AIX platform - with other platforms to follow. Given that z/OS is the gold standard for reliability this is an exciting prospect.
At Triton our resident DB2 Geeks have got a wealth of expertise in DB2 both on and off the mainframe. In this podcast James Gill - a mainframe data sharing expert - chats to Clair Ross - a DB2 LUW expert - about what lessons can be learned from the mainframe data sharing world and how pureScale can bring this to the midrange market.
The 2010 Arcati mainframe yearbook is now available to download here.
This year’s topics include:
