db2Dean’s Favorite Links
21 January 2007
Updated 19 December 2022
There are a lot of useful tools for the DB2/LUW DBA on www.ibm.com and other web sites, but finding what you need can be frustrating and time consuming. Therefore, I have created a catalog of links that I frequently use to answer customer questions. If there are any that you like that I have not included, please send me a note at dean@db2dean.com and I’ll try to include it. Also please let me know if any of my links have stopped working.
Web Pages |
Manuals and Reference Material |
Fix Pack, DB2 Client and Driver Downloads All Fix Packs for All Versions on One Page Down load all DB2 fix packs, clients including Admin and Runtime, and for v9 you can get JDBC, SQLJ, ODBC and CLI drivers and also Federation and DB2 Connect fixes. To use this site first pick “Information Management” in the Product Group drop down and then “DB2” from the Product drop down. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The Fix Pack Links below may stop working after July 10, 2009.
See the last of known security Vulnerabilities and available patches at this link. These are the newest security patches and may not be in the latest fix pak or mod pak.
DB2 Clients and Drivers (Most Up to Date) Down load any of the most recent DB2 clients including the Data Server Client (Includes Control Center) and the Data Server Runtime Client, plus get packages for JDBC and ODBC drivers along with Visual Studio plug-ins and driver packages for several other languages including C++.
We finally have a central location for down loading all available trial and other free software. So if you want to tryout DB2/LUW ESE, for example, this is the site for you. Unfortunately they did not put the link for DB2 Connect Developer’s Edition for Windows or DB2 Connect Developer’s Edition for Linux there, so click this link for those.
Get a free, permanent copy of DB2 for your laptop or development server. Want to try out the pureXML feature before buying? Then this is the site for you. It has lots of great information and links to down load the software.
Get a free, permanent copy of the IBM Data Studio for your workstation. This client will be replacing control center sooner or later, so you might as well get started. It works for ALL DB2 platforms including LUW, Z and I.
This page contains a very easy to use chart showing which major features are included in each edition (Workgroup, ESE, etc.) of DB2
Which edition --Express, Workgroup, ESE, etc.-- is right for you? Compare and contrast them in these great articles by Paul Zikopoulos.
Operating System Levels For DB2/LUW Shows the OS level, patch level and other prerequisites for Db2.. For Linux it also shows which distributions/architectures are recommended and validated for DB2. Use the drop down to change versions if you are not using 11.5
Did you ever need to know the maximum length of a table, column or other object name? What about needing to know the size limit for a CHAR column or the biggest number that you can put in an integer field? All of these maximums and more are listed on this link for v11.5.
APARS are, shall we say, the less desirable features of DB2/UDB. This page shows the APARS by DB2 Version. Just click the tab relating to the version that interests you and you can see the APARS. There is no longer a page that provides just one long list of all of them DB2.
Every version of software eventually goes out of support. Review this page periodically to make sure that you don’t get a nasty little surprise in the middle of the night when you call for support for DB2/LUW.
This page contains links to many DB2 Version upgrade resources.
Check out the Db2 Learning Journey.
To get support for problems and questions 24X7 you can open a PMR or ESR. Call 800-426-7378 to open a PMR, but make sure to have your CUSTOMER NUMBER handy. An ESR is a PMR opened on the web. I prefer this method because I can paste detailed error messages right into the ticket and attach supporting files. See my ESR page to learn about registering for the ESR site and how to open them.
Subscribe for Fix Notifications Get automatically notified about mods, fixes, security bulletins and other important updates by subscribing at this link.
NOTE: The following links only have older fix packs: Please use Fix Central instead! V9.5 Fix Pack, DB2 Client and Driver Down Loads V9.1 Fix Pack, DB2 Client and Driver Down Loads V8 Fix Pack and DB2 Client Down Loads V7 Fix Pack and DB2 Client Down Loads
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All Products Knowledge Center Selection V11.5 DB2 Knowledge Center Center Search V11.1 DB2 Knowledge Center Center Search V10.5 DB2 Information Center Search V10.1 DB2 Information Center Search V9.7 DB2 Information Center Search V9.5 DB2 Information Center Search V9.1 DB2 Information Center Search V8 DB2 Information Center Search Search for information about DB2. I frequently access the information centers, now called knowledge centers to answer customer questions.
Book mark these links for the DB2 versions that you are using. I use these manual as my primary reference for answering customer questions. It is well worth reviewing the list of manuals to see what is available. You should note that the Information Centers are updated with the latest information more regularly and should be consulted if you need the most current information. If you want one book mark for all manuals, then this is the page for you.
These links show a nice summary of the new features of DB2 with enough detail to make them useful. These are links to the announcement letters.
DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v11.5 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v11.1 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v10.5 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v10.1 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v9.7 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v9.5 Servers DB2 Clients Compatible w/ DB2 v9.1 Servers These links show which DB2 Client versions work with which each DB2 Database Server and DB2 Connect Servers.
This is a great page with links to a variety of “best practices” papers. Topics include. Physical Database Design, Database Storage, Virtualization, Performance and several others.
This is a great site for learning about how to do things in DB2 and joining discussion forums. Click the “DBAs” or “Developers” tab depending on the content that you want to see.
Search for practical guides for implementing solutions such as DB2 on Linux or implementing a Data Warehouse.
An awesome source of practical how-to information by Ember Crooks, IBM Gold Conslutant.
An excellent source of information about the newest features of DB2 v9. I know the author personally and I know that he really knows his stuff.
These guys are doing a good job of pulling together a single place to get all the current DB2 information.
This is the home page for all of the major DB2 Products including DB2/LUW, DB2/zOS, tools, DB2 connect, etc.
Site has a lot of good links for DB2 related down loads, technical articles, APAR listings, fix packs and allows you to search support documentation.
What does a guy out of the Toronto Lab think about DB2 features?
Processor Type vs. Processor Value Unit (PVU) Tables DB2 and many other software brands can be licensed by Processor Value Unit (PVU) This page shows a number of tables that show how many PVUs you have to license for each core of a particular processor type.
JDBC Version by DB2 Version and Fix Pack Most new DB2 versions and even most new DB2 fix packs contain newer versions of JDBC drivers. See this link to see which version of the JDBC driver ships with which fix pack or version.
Java Application Deployment Considerations Overview of JDBC programming with DB2 and descriptions of the JDBC types 1-4 with DB2.
Connectivity Cheat Sheet for z/OS Summary of DB2 Client Connections This summary lists the various types of client connections, both Java and non-Java and provides examples.
International DB2 User Group home page. They have lots of great information from other users and IBM and they have an awesome conference every year.
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