DB2 Universal Database

The DB2 UDB family consists of many platforms that can coexist in a distributed environment.

• DB2 UDB for z/OS. This relational database management system, the largest of the DB2 family, often serves as an enterprise server handling many e-business, business intelligence, and mission-critical systems. This offering is used most often to support the very largest databases. The zSeries is IBM's largest hardware platform.

• DB2 UDB for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. This full-function database offering is scalable from single processors to symmetric multiprocessors and to massively parallel clusters. The Enterprise Server Edition is often used to build e-business applications and to support large departmental applications. This offering has many connectivity options and can share data with third-party databases and DB2 on heterogeneous platforms. It is used most often to support very large databases. Popular applications include supporting large data warehouses and Internet applications. DB2 UDB Enterprise Server Edition Database Partitioning Feature (DPF) can exploit clusters or massively parallel hardware architectures. The Workgroup Server Edition and Workgroup Server Unlimited Edition is often used for small business and departmental computing or for applications that do not need access to remote databases on the OS/400, VSE/VM, or z/OS platforms. The Personal Edition, a full-function database offering, is for standalone use and will not accept remote database requests. Personal Edition is available on Windows and Linux. Personal Developer's Edition is a full-function database for standalone use, primarily by application developers. Finally, Express Edition, a full-function database offering, is specifically for the support of small to medium-size businesses, with the database running on one or two processors.

• DB2 Everyplace. This mobile computing offering can be embedded into devices and appliances and used as a local independent database, or it can give mobile workers access to DB2 data sources in the enterprise through handheld devices when a connection is available. The database runs on a variety of mobile and embedded platforms, including Palm OS, Microsoft Windows CE/Pocket PC, Symbian, embedded Linux, QNX Neutrino, Microsoft Win32, and Linux.

DB2 UDB for z/OS

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

DB2 for z/OS delivers large data capacity, high transaction performance, and extensive connectivity. DB2 supports transactions arising from Web servers, CICS (Customer Information Control System), IMS (Information Management System) transaction management, MVS (Multiple Virtual System) batch jobs, and via distributed connections from remote clients on numerous platforms.

Significant enhancements in SQL (Structured Query Language) and optimization permit DB2 UDB for z/OS to remain a premiere choice for application development. Leading Java and XML technologies provide the infrastructure for Web-based applications. The following are examples of recent enhancements.

• Breaking the limits in virtually all dimensions of database management, virtual-storage addressing has expanded from 31-bit to full 64-bit addressing. Table name sizes have expanded from 18 to 128 characters; VIEW and ALIAS names, from 18 to 128 characters; column name sizes, from 18 to 30 characters; SQL statement length, from 32KB to 2MB; and tables in a join, from 15 to 225.

• Enhanced SQL for DB2 UDB for z/OS includes support for common table expressions, Multirow INSERT and FETCH, GET DIAGNOSTICS, dynamic scrollable cursors, CURRENT PACKAGE PATH, materialized query tables, XML (Extensible Markup Language) publishing and Unicode SQL, and multiple CCSIDs in a single SQL statement.

• Unicode enhancements deliver globalization capability and also enhance Java applications, including catalog data conversion to Unicode format and Unicode within SQL statements and literals.

• Enhancements for continuous availability include online schema evolution, system-level point in time recovery, and partitioning.

• Version 8 delivers the new Universal Java Drivers, providing a consistent Java interface across the DB2 family. The Java drivers support the JDBC/SQLJ 3.0 standard, savepoints, and connection-pooling enhancements.

DB2 UDB for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

The DB2 database is used for the development and deployment of critical e-business, business intelligence, content management, enterprise resource planning, and customer relationship management. To improve manageability, DB2 greatly reduces the complexity of data management by eliminating, simplifying, and automating many tasks traditionally associated with maintaining a database. Some of these advances are the first implementation of the Self-Managing and Resource Tuning (SMART) project and the first steps toward making full autonomic computing a reality for database implementations.

DB2 provides a strong foundation of information-integration technologies, including federation, replication, Web services, and XML. With DB2's built-in capabilities, you can query, update, and replicate data across DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server data sources. DB2 provides rich type support for spatial data, text data, and flat files via DB2 Spatial Extender, DB2 Net Search Extender, and DB2 Data Links Manager, respectively.

The connection concentrator reduces memory consumption on the database server by allowing transactions from remote clients to be concentrated, or multiplexed, across a small number of persistent database connections. DB2 also has improved performance of databases with multiple partitions, multidimensional data clustering, faster page cleaners, user-maintained MQTs (materialized query tables), support for 64-bit Windows and 64-bit Linux, and new, streamlined application drivers (ODBC, OLE DB, JDBC, and SQLJ) and new client architecture.

DB2 Enterprise Server Edition

DB2 Enterprise Server Edition (DB2 ESE) is fully Web enabled, scalable from single processors to symmetric multiprocessors and to massively parallel clusters, and supports unstructured data, such as image, audio, video, text, spatial, and XML with its object-relational capabilities. Applications for DB2 Enterprise Server Edition can scale upward and execute on massively parallel clusters or can scale downward with applications executing on single-user database systems. The ESE scalability, reliability, and availability provide the ideal foundation for building data warehouses, transaction processing, or Web-based solutions, as well as a back end for packaged solutions, such as ERP, CRM, or SCM. Additionally, ESE offers connectivity and integration for other enterprise DB2 and Informix data sources. DB2 ESE is available on Windows NT/2000/2003/XP (test/development only), Linux, and UNIX (AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX). DB2 ESE is ideal for large or midsized servers and includes DB2 Connect, which allows for connections to iSeries- or zSeries-based DB2 databases.

DB2 ESE can be installed on any number of processors on a single symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) box or on multiple boxes. DB2 ESE also can have data partitioned within a single server, across multiple data servers, or within a large SMP machine with the DPF (database partitioning feature).

DB2 Workgroup Server Edition

DB2 Workgroup Server Edition (DB2 WSE) is designed for use in a LAN (local area network) environment, providing support for both remote and local clients. DB2 WSE includes DB2 Extenders, which provide the ability to manipulate data outside of conventional rows and columns; DB2 WSE is available on the Windows (NT/2000/2003/XP), AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, and Linux platforms. DB2 Workgroup Edition can also be installed on symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) machines with up to four processors. DB2 WSE is the database server designed for deployment in a departmental or small-business environment that involves a small number of internal users. The WSE licensing model provides an attractive price point for smaller installations while still providing a full-function database server.

Another option is the DB2 Workgroup Server Unlimited Edition (WSUE), which offers a simplified per-processor licensing model for deployment in a departmental or small-business environment that has Internet users or whose number of users makes per-processor licensing more attractive than the WSE licensing model.

DB2 Personal Edition and Personal Developer's Edition

DB2 Personal Edition (PE) is a full-function database that enables a single user to create databases on the workstation on which it is installed. DB2 PE can be used as a remote client to a DB2 server, as it also contains the DB2 client components. The DB2 PE product is often used by end users requiring access to local and remote DB2 databases or by developers' prototyping applications that will be accessing other DB2 databases.

DB2 PE includes graphical tools, as do all of the other products, via the DB2 Administration Client component, which enable a user to administer, tune for performance, access remote DB2 servers, process SQL queries, and manage other servers from a single workstation. Personal Edition is available on Windows (98/NT/2000/XP) and Linux.

DB2 Personal Developer's Edition provides an extensive toolkit for building DB2 applications. These tools focus on maximizing programmer productivity by providing support for major application frameworks popular with both Java and Microsoft application programmers. Enhancements include SQL enhancements, enhanced drivers for applications written to ADO, ODBC, OLE DB, DB2 CLI, JDBC, and SQLJ programming interfaces; enhanced support for XML, industry-leading Web Services support; the new Development Center; new plug-ins for WebSphere Studio integrated development environment; and new add-ins for Microsoft VisualStudio development products (VisualBasic, Visual C++, and InterDev).

DB2 UDB Express Edition

DB2 Universal Database Express Edition is the lowest-priced full-function relational database specifically designed to meet the needs of small and medium-size businesses. DB2 UDB Express Edition is available on Windows and Linux (32-bit Intel) platforms with one or two CPUs. Its self-tuning, self-managing, and self-configuring capabilities increase reliability while reducing complexity and required skills. The full-function DB2 Universal Database Express Edition allows seamless upgrades to other scalable DB2 UDB Editions as business needs grow. DB2 Express Edition is also configurable by business partners for transparent installation within their application

DB2 Everyplace

DB2 Everyplace is a tiny database of about 200K that can be embedded into devices and appliances or be used as a local independent database of the mobile device or query information on remote servers when a connection is available. DB2 Everyplace is also a complete development environment that includes the tools needed to build, deploy, and support applications. DB2 Everyplace includes security features, such as table encryption, secure data synchronization, and advanced indexing techniques for performance. This database can comfortably run, with multithreaded support, on a wide variety of handheld devices, with support for Palm OS, Microsoft Windows CE/Pocket PC, any Microsoft Windows 32-bit operating system, Symbian, QNX Neutrino, Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) devices, and embedded Linux distributions, such as BlueCat Linux.

DB2 Everyplace integrates with WebSphere Everyplace Access and WebSphere Everyplace Server. The DB2 Everyplace Sync Server provides the bidirectional or unidirectional synchronization of data and applications between DB2 Everyplace client devices and enterprise data sources.