Overall Satisfaction with DB2
I will be writing about DB2 for i. That is the name for the DB2 version that is tightly integrated with the IBM i operating system. Not to be confused with DB2 LUW (Linux Unix Windows) or DB2 for z/OS. That those three DB products share the name leads to confusion regarding syntaxis, capabilities, and interoperability.
Customers that use IBM i leverage all the features of the DB even when they don't realize it. Since the DB is part of the OS, everything lives there.
A tape drive? an object in a library. A customer record? an object in another library.
This DB engine has decades of code behind it but it still manages to keep up and innovate with new features at each release.
DB2 for i doesn't require as much administration as the other kind of databases since the system has some leeway to auto-tune itself. Even then, what IBM recommends is a Database Engineer and not a DBA, since they don't really administer the DB but work with the developers to ensure optimal performance out of the system.
Customers that use IBM i leverage all the features of the DB even when they don't realize it. Since the DB is part of the OS, everything lives there.
A tape drive? an object in a library. A customer record? an object in another library.
This DB engine has decades of code behind it but it still manages to keep up and innovate with new features at each release.
DB2 for i doesn't require as much administration as the other kind of databases since the system has some leeway to auto-tune itself. Even then, what IBM recommends is a Database Engineer and not a DBA, since they don't really administer the DB but work with the developers to ensure optimal performance out of the system.
- Extremely stable, DB2 for i on POWER Systems has superb uptimes.
- Great HA/DR capabilities, integrated in the OS and provided by IBM and other vendors.
- The toolboxes for managing the system via SQL are great.
- SQL Index Advisor and other tools help you tune the system with automatic reporting.
- Marketing. Sharing the DB2 name between LUW, z/OS and i (which is a product for another review) is a search engine nightmare.
- ROI on DB2 for i is hard to calculate since it's integrated into IBM i but having the ability to micro-partition the machine and spin up additional LPARs without licensing issues (within the entitled capacity, of course) brings flexibility.
- A lot of great tools are bundled with IBM i, and most of them are DB2 related. DBEs have most of the tools they need to monitor and tune the database right from the start.