I'm still catching up on work after being away for my summer vacation... so forgive me for the lack of posts I've made!
I saw this from Leon and would like to simply repeat it:
A replay of this free webinar http://www.channeldb2.com/events/webinar-getting-started-with is now available. This is about FREE IBM Data Studio that naturally works with the FREE DB2 Express-C.
One really important point. Recently we released "lite" versions of DB2 Express-C. These versions are faster to download but they are missing some of the components. One of those components is ... drum roll ... Control Center. Yes, you know Control Center is going away and is being replaced by the IBM Data Studio. So, watch the replay of the webcast, grab Data Studio, DB2 Express-C and the free books on DB2 Express-C and Data Studio.
Susan
The DB2 Express-C database server is downloaded worldwide, but broadband internet is not yet universal. Because of this, we are releasing a light version of DB2 Express-C 9.7.2 for Windows. It's an amazing 44% smaller than the full download.The DB2 Express-C database server is downloaded worldwide, but broadband internet is not yet universal. Because of this, we are releasing a light version of DB2 Express-C 9.7.2 for Windows. It's an amazing 44% smaller than the full download.Today’s video is a comparison between the output of the db2mtrk command and the db2top Memory screen. It covers current allocations, high watermarks, and maximum allocations for the instance, database, and application groups of memory pools as well as the repeat mode of db2mtrk.
Watch “db2top: Memory screen and db2mtrk” directly on YouTube.
Related posts:db2top: Regular [...] Related posts:
Today’s video is a comparison between the output of the db2mtrk command and the db2top Memory screen. It covers current allocations, high watermarks, and maximum allocations for the instance, database, and application groups of memory pools as well as the repeat mode of db2mtrk.
Related posts:
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If you are currently a DBA, the title of this entry probably made you scoff. But not everyone knows what a DBA is, does, or why they are needed. Wouldn’t it be in your best interest as a DBA if your job were better understood and appreciated?
Every organization that manages data using a database management system (DBMS) requires a database administration group to oversee and assure the proper usage and deployment of the company’s data and databases. With the growing mountain of data and the need to organize that data effectively to deliver value to the business, most modern organizations use a DBMS for their most critical data. So, the need for database administrators (DBAs) is greater today than ever before. However, the discipline of database administration is not well understood or universally practiced in a coherent and easily replicated manner.
Implementing a DBA function in your organization requires careful thought and planning. A successful DBA must acquire a large number of skills — both technological and interpersonal. Let’s examine the skills required of an effective DBA.
General database management. The DBA is the central source of database knowledge in the organization. As such he must understand the basic rules of relational database technology and be able to accurately communicate them to others.
Data modeling and database design. The DBA must be skilled at collecting and analyzing user requirements to derive conceptual and logical data models. This is more difficult than it sounds. A conceptual data model outlines data requirements at a very high level; a logical data model provides in-depth details of data types, lengths, relationships, and cardinality. The DBA uses normalization techniques to deliver sound data models that accurately depict the data requirements of the business. (Of course, if your organization is large enough a completely separate group of data administrators may exist to handle logical database design and data modeling.)
Metadata management and repository usage. The DBA must understand the technical data requirements of the organization. But this is not a complete description of his duties. Metadata, or data about data, also must be maintained. The DBA must collect, store, manage, and provide the ability to query the organization’s metadata. Without metadata, the data stored in databases lacks true meaning. (Once again, if your company has a data administration group then this task will be handled by that group. Of course, that does not mean the DBA can ignore meta data management.)
Database schema creation and management. A DBA must be able to translate a data model or logical database design into an actual physical database implementation and to manage that database once it has been implemented. The physical database may not conform to the logical model 100 percent due to physical DBMS features, implementation factors, or performance requirements. The DBA must understand all of the physical nuances of each DBMS used by his organization in order to create efficient physical databases.
Capacity planning. Because data consumption and usage continues to grow, the DBA must be prepared to support more data, more users, and more connections. The ability to predict growth based on application and data usage patterns and to implement the necessary database changes to accommodate that growth is a core capability of the DBA.
Programming and development. Although the DBA typically is not coding new application programs, s/he does need to know how to write effective programs. Additionally, the DBA is a key participant in production turnover, program optimization (BIND/REBIND) and management, and other infrastructure management to enable application programs to operate effectively and efficiently.
SQL code reviews and walk-throughs. Although application programmers usually write SQL, DBAs are likely to be blamed for poor performance. Therefore, DBAs must possess in-depth SQL knowledge so they can understand and review SQL and host language programs in order to recommend changes for optimization.
Performance management and tuning. Dealing with performance problems is usually the biggest post-implementation nightmare faced by DBAs. As such, the DBA must be able to proactively monitor the database environment and to make changes to data structures, SQL, application logic and the DBMS subsystem itself in order to optimize performance.
Ensuring availability. Applications and data are more and more required to be up and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Globalization and e-business are driving many organizations to implement no-downtime, around-the-clock systems. To manage in such an environment, the DBA must ensure data availability using non-disruptive administration tactics.
Data movement. Data, once stored in a database, is not static. The data may need to move from one database to another, from the DBMS into an external data set, or from the transaction processing system into the data warehouse. The DBA is responsible for efficiently and accurately moving data from place to place as dictated by organizational needs.
Backup and recovery. The DBA must implement an appropriate database backup and recovery strategy for each database file based on data volatility and application availability requirements. Without a backup and recovery strategy, system and user errors could render a database inoperable and useless. Furthermore, the backup strategy must be developed with recovery time objectives in mind, so that data is not unavailable for long periods when problems inevitably occur. This is probably one of the, if not the absolute, most important database administration task.
Ensuring data integrity. DBAs must be able to design databases so that only accurate and appropriate data is entered and maintained. To do so, the DBA can deploy multiple types of database integrity including entity integrity, referential integrity, check constraints, and database triggers. Furthermore, the DBA must ensure the structural integrity of the database. Data integrity is right up there with backup and recovery in importance level.
Procedural skills. Modern databases are comprised of more than just data – they also contain program code. The DBA must possess procedural skills to help design, debug, implement, and maintain stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions that are stored in the DBMS and used by application systems.
Extensible data type administration. The functionality of a modern DBMS can be extended using user-defined data types. The DBA must understand how these extended data types are implemented by the DBMS vendor and be able to implement and administer any extended data types implemented in their databases.
Data security. The DBA is charged with the responsibility to ensure that only authorized users have access to data. This requires the implementation of a rigorous security infrastructure for production and test databases. Data security comprises both DBMS security (revoke/grant) and security on external resources (file structures, userids, and so on).
Database auditing. Being able to report on who did what to which data when, along with how they acted upon that data, is a requirement for many governmental and industry standards and compliance specifications. DBAs need to be involved in terms of setting up and enabling the DBMS for database auditing capabilities.
General systems management and networking skills. After a database is implemented it will be accessed throughout the organization and interact with other technologies. Therefore, the DBA has to be able to function as a jack of all trades in order to integrate database administration requirements and tasks with general systems management requirements and tasks (like job scheduling, network management, transaction processing, and so on).
Business knowledge. DBAs must understand the requirements of the application users and be able to administer their databases to avoid interruption of business. Without a firm understanding of the value provided to the business by their databases and data the DBA is not likely to be able to implement strategies that optimize the business’s use of that data.
Data archiving. When data is no longer needed for business purposes, but must be maintained for legal purposes, the data needs to be removed from the operational database, but stored in such a way that is remains accessible for e-discovery and legal requirements. This is database archiving.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software packages place additional burdens on the DBA. Most ERP applications (SAP, Peoplesoft, etc.) use databases differently than homegrown applications, requiring DBAs to know how the ERP applications impact the business and how the databases used by those packages differ from traditional relational databases.
Web-specific technology expertise. For e-businesses, DBAs are required to have knowledge of Internet and Web technologies to enable databases to participate in Web-based applications. Examples of this type of technology include HTTP, FTP, XML, CGI, Java, TCP/IP, Web servers, firewalls and SSL. Other DBMS-specific technologies include IBM’s Net.Data for DB2 and Oracle Portal (formerly WebDB).
Storage management techniques. The data stored in every database resides on disk somewhere (unless it is stored on one of the new Main Memory DBMS products). The DBA must understand the storage hardware and software available for use, and how it interacts with the DBMS being used. As such, DBAs must be able to allocate, monitor, and manage the storage used by databases.
The bottom line is that the DBA must be a well-rounded staff member capable of understanding multiple facets of the business and technology. The DBMS is at the center of today’s IT organization — so as the one tasked with keeping the DBMS performing as desired, the DBA will be involved in most IT initiatives.
Did I forget anything?
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Getting Started with IBM Data Studio
Time: 11:30 AM (GMT -04:00) Eastern Time
Duration: 1h 30m
This webinar will discuss Data Studio packaging, installation, and will walk you through its features. Topics to be discussed include DB2 instance administration (instance configuration, instance stop/start), DB2 database administration (bac…
Getting Started with IBM Data Studio
Time: 11:30 AM (GMT -04:00) Eastern Time
Duration: 1h 30m
This webinar will discuss Data Studio packaging, installation, and will walk you through its features. Topics to be discussed include DB2 instance administration (instance configuration, instance stop/start), DB2 database administration (bac…
Today’s video is a demonstration of buffer pool hit ratio in the Bufferpools screen of db2top. To produce a hit ratio of 100%, we query a single row repeatedly to perform logical reads with no corresponding physical reads. To reduce the hit ratio, we query more data than can fit in the buffer pool, resulting [...] Related posts:
Today’s video is a demonstration of buffer pool hit ratio in the Bufferpools screen of db2top. To produce a hit ratio of 100%, we query a single row repeatedly to perform logical reads with no corresponding physical reads. To reduce the hit ratio, we query more data than can fit in the buffer pool, resulting in physical reads.
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I attended IBM’s zEnterprise announcement in New York yesterday. IBM Senior VP Steve Mills said it was the most important announcement IBM had ever made in its impact on saving customers money. He also said IBM spent US$1.5 billion dollars on the zEnterprise research and development effort over the past several years. So, as movie reviewers ask about the latest blockbuster: “Can you see the money up on the screen?”. The answer comes in a few loosely coupled parts.
The Online Travel Portal One well-known travel reservation site front-ends their expensive Oracle transaction servers with MySQL running on cheap x86 hardware. While you’re noodling around trying to figure out the best intinerary, all you’re seeing is data replicated from Oracle to MySQL on a near-real-time basis. When you enter your credit card number and hit “Purchase”, you’re routed to the Oracle OLTP server. This is called “database tiering”. I can now architect the same topology on System z with DB2 for z/OS on the back-end and x86 blades running the DB2 Express-C freeware database. On the zEnterprise platform, these databases will communicate over a 10Gb private, secure network with extraordinarily low latency. Ever get the “That seat is no longer available” message? It might be a thing of the past with zEnterprise.
The Hospitality Company This organization runs their centralized reservation systems on DB2 for z/OS already. In order to support their frequent-guest affinity program portal, they have WebSphere Application Server running on a separate System p AIX server. The only problem is that sometimes transactions hang to the point that the JVMs have to be recycled. The Java programmers say their code is tightly written and the DB2 for z/OS database administrations say that the incoming SQL requests are satisfied sub-second. While zEnterprise alone would not resolve this problem - see pureQuery and the lyrically named Optim Performance Manager Extended Edition - the application and the database servers will be as tightly coupled as possible while each runs on the optimal platform. Since the transfer points and the servers themselves are under unified management, an entire layer of complexity (and potential breakage) will be eliminated.
The real buzz in the announcement for me is the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer (ISAO). For a generation as a DB2 database administrator, I’ve told my clients that OLTP and ad hoc query workloads should not be intermingled. The solution has been to make copies of the data using replication technologies - InfoSphere Change Data Capture and Q Replication among them. This approach has been a boon to DBAs, and software, storage, and server salesmen everywhere. When it achieves its full promise, ISAO will evaluate incoming database requests and dispatch them along with the data needed to satisfy the request to the appropriate platform server. DB2 for z/OS will serve as a centralized front-end for all workloads: OLTP, OLAP, ad hoc query, etc. ISAO will transparently run the workload on the optimal platform and return the result set to the requesting application. Organizations will be able to dismantle the miasma of extracts, FTPs, and other artifices now necessary to keep analytic workloads from bogging down OLTP. And they’ll reduce complexity. And save a ton of cash.
So on whose door will IBM knock first? Clearly the System z installed base will be getting lots of attention. But could Facebook or some other enterprise with orders-of-magnitude scaling issues (500 million Facebook users and counting) benefit from zEnterprise? Surprisingly, the answer is Yes! Facebook needs to manage lots of unstructured data (pictures, videos, et al) , but they also have the need for complex analytics. First, to target online advertising ever more precisely, but also to serve larger societal needs. Let’s say a man declares he needs a reduction in child support because he’s nearly broke. The local social services agency unleases a smart agent to run against social networking sites and comes up with pictures on Facebook from the man’s recent two-week vacation in Hawaii. Too big brother-ish? A topic for another day.
Today’s video is a demonstration of the regular expressions (regex) feature of db2top. In the video, I apply regular expressions to the Dynamic SQL screen to filter what SQL statements are shown. I demonstrate setting and clearing a regex, simple regular expressions, and POSIX extended regular expression metacharacters:
Watch “db2top: Regular expressions” directly on YouTube.
Related posts:db2top: [...] Related posts:
Today’s video is a demonstration of the regular expressions (regex) feature of db2top. In the video, I apply regular expressions to the Dynamic SQL screen to filter what SQL statements are shown. I demonstrate setting and clearing a regex, simple regular expressions, and POSIX extended regular expression metacharacters:
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Blue CRUSH uses IBM SPSS predictive analytics software to analyze past and present information and create multi-layer maps of crime "hot spots" based on various arrests and incidents. MPD is able to evaluate incident patterns throughout the city and connect the dots — such as outside of concert venues; or crime trends, such as increased car burglary on rainy nights. The software enables Blue CRUSH to analyze an array of data in areas as wide as the city's entire nine precincts or narrowed down to a single block.
As much as I dislike the relentless repetition that’s part of the nature of the world of blogs and twitter and listserves and email blasts, here I go with a shameless pitch for a TFG special services offering I emailed to several DB2 users earlier today. I am doing this because, at the end of the day, the rate disparity in today’s DB2 services market baffles me. Are the ridiculously high rates being charged eroding product adoption? I am afraid so, which is why we are offering a summer services special.
From now through Labor Day, September 6, 2010, DB2 customers are invited to send us competing vendor quotes for Information Management project services. In return, The Fillmore Group will provide a proposal to complete the same tasks with qualified consultants at savings of up to 50%.
The Fillmore Group has been delivering DB2 services to IBM customers since 1987. TFG’s consultants are IBM certified DB2 experts, recognized for their ability to help DB2 users make the most of their information assets. We want to help DB2 customers obtain services at reasonable prices.
The fine print: This offer does not include discounts on travel and lodging costs, but as always, when we can work remotely and save customers money, we will. The minimum engagement length for this special is 40 hours. Engagements of less than 120 hours require prepayment. The success of consulting engagements is largely dependent on the availability of the appropriately skilled resource at the time the project resources are ready. The Fillmore Group will make every effort to have the right consultant ready when you are, but if dates or requirements change The Fillmore Group reserves the right to modify their proposal to reflect the additional costs resulting from the changes.
As the open source faithful have gathered in Portland for the annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) Canonical, the company behind an ever popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, announced that it has paired up the latest version of the free DB2 Express-C v9.7 with the latest version of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to deliver a free enterprise-grade cloud database appliance.
Not that kind of an appliance
Database appliances, especially for data warehousing, …
As the open source faithful have gathered in Portland for the annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) Canonical, the company behind an ever popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, announced that it has paired up the latest version of the free DB2 Express-C v9.7 with the latest version of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to deliver a free enterprise-grade cloud database appliance.
Not that kind of an appliance
Database appliances, especially for data warehousing, …
"We've aimed to transform the company culture from a farming business where you 'grow and hope for the best' to one that uses information analytics to provide an accurate measurement of the business," said Sun World's Director of Budgets & Reporting Steve Greenwood. "Before, we didn't know until 30 days after the month how our harvest costs were trending. By that time, it was too late to start financial planning because the crops had already been harvested. We've turned raw data into business insight, improved our order fill rates, and have gone from being a reactive company to a proactive company."