IBM Db2 Database Reviews

The simplicity of installation/setup and the ability to run without requiring constant maintenance.

For applications, we have Oracle and Microsoft SQL deployed for application systems, but I prefer DB2 for my “systems” usage primarily due to its limited requirement for administration.

Not one that is relevant, it is used purely in a “systems infrastructure” setting rather than as a “business application system”.

In my limited use case, the only major thing would be improved reporting capability.

The first time was in 1989/1990.

Recently, from 2007 to the present day.

No, I had a DB2 instance running on an old IBM x3650 with Windows 2003, which ran continuously for eight years.

It was a performance data repository for our storage and fabric switches, with an average insert activity of several 1,000 per minute (had automatic record pruning setup).

No, but we never had it greater than 100TiB.

Can’t rate it as we never had to use it.

No, I selected DB2 based on previous experience with Oracle and after a brief look at MS SQL.

It was very simple to get up and running. The documentation is very good and the user forums, including IBM wikis, make it very easy to find out most things we did to it as far as setup/tuning are concerned.

As we already use Oracle and MS SQL for applications, I looked at the latest version of Oracle (at the time v9) to examine any differences pertinent to the last time I had looked at it.

MS SQL: I only briefly looked at it. IMHO, it was no match for DB2 or Oracle, as far as what I consider “Enterprise Databases” to be.

Define their use cases as exactly as they can, then look at what DB fits them.
I have seen the app/database team deploy Oracle/MS-SQL when something really simple like MySQL would have been a better option.

Also, before installing DB2 make sure full planning is done regarding scalability and performance requirements.

Definitely, use the planning worksheets and search the DB2 wiki’s and user forums to ensure the setup is optimal from the start, especially as far as layout is concerned.

I have found in the x86 world that products seem to be installed with very little pre-installation planning. With my mainframe background, you don’t install anything until you have examined all available documentation, so you are aware of all the key decision points in the install/setup/layout.

Scalability, the IBM i Logical views, journaling.

DB2 was always there, so I can't answer that. Know that I've used MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server extensively as well, and always missed DB2 for i.

Not sure.

Since before it was called DB2, back on the System/38, so twenty years or so.

Hah! You kidding. DB2 for i? No. Never.

Hah! You kidding. DB2 for i? No. Never. Would you like a description of the IBM i Single-level Store. Add a new drive and you are good to go.

Good to excellent. It can get expensive but third party is very good.

I did not use a different solution prior to IBM DB2.

It was integrated with the IBM i OS.

If you want horizontal scaling and reliability, DB2 for i is absolutely the way to go.

No, I did not evaluate other options before choosing this product.

If you don't know IBM i OS, just use it for DB2 for i, and scalability, reliability, and security. Then consider using partitions for Linux for your business logic.

A4: Automatic storage. Disk space management is one of the biggest pain points for a DBA. Even Oracle 11g R2 cannot do better than IBM DB2 when it comes to this feature.

The old system (Wealth Management) was on Microsoft SQL Server platform, however, the performance and stability couldn't meet our requirements. After migrating to DB2, it's much better.

Absolutely -- centralized management tools with UI interface, like Oracle EM .

Three years.

Yes. We even encountered DB2 bug on the Version 9.7.0.9 and it's the reason why we upgraded to Version 9.7.0.11 .

Yes. Many tables or indexes can't be scaled up without reorg step. As an unbreakable system, it's a very bad design.

8 out of 10. IBM Lab is quite strong. The site technical support is good, too.

See my answer to the 'Stability' question.

It's quite complex. It cannot be done without reference.

The reference documents and education resources in the market might not offer as much as Oracle Database or Microsoft SQL Server.

It's still much more than open source databases such as PostgreSQL, but much less than Oracle and Microsoft.

Calculating the license fee is always very complicated and only the IBM sales can get the final answer. It's not a transparent way.

Yes. Oracle Database.

We use it to provide for back-end DB for many proprietary applications. The most valuable features are reliability, performance, and portability across different platforms.

We have moved a lot of our applications off zOS to distributed platforms and IBM UDB DB2 has been extremely critical in our solution to provide for a scale-able, cost-effective and reliable DBMS solution on distributed platform.

The other advantage is we don't have to make lot of changes in the application DB2 access layer in order for it to work with IBM DB2 UDB. These applications have been originally designed to work with the host database (IBM DB2 zOS).

I would definitely like to see a better interface to interact with the database. Performance monitoring tools which come out of the box don't need to come along with all the bells and whistles. They need to be effective and intuitive. There are ways to do that out-of-box even today, but it can be improved

We have used this solution for over 15 years.

There were no issues with stability.

There were no issues with scalability.

The IBM Technical Support model is satisfactory.

We used XDB (Micro Focus RDBMS equivalent to DB2) which used to have scalability and reliability issues in our development environments. We switched to IBM UDB DB2 in our DEV environments on account of its reliability and scalability.

The setup was straightforward. However, the Linux setup can be improved.

I love the way the product is licensed on zOS and zLinux (core-based). However, IBM needs to improve their licensing for cloud environment, as we are planning to leverage that platform extensively in the future. Right now, the setup for AWS/Azure licensing is very confusing and not cost-effective.

We evaluated Oracle, but the ease of application re-hosting with IBM DB2, as well as its comparable reliability and scalability tilted it in favor of IBM DB2 UDB.

For folks looking to re-host applications that are using zOS DB2, our advice is to strictly go with IBM UDB DB2. Do not consider other options, as they usually require extensive changes in the application layer.

HADR/TSAMP: It makes planned downtime very manageable, and allows us to handle unplanned outages with very little user impact.

We use IBM DB2 as part of a SAP implementation. DB2's performance and stability has been a key factor in the success of the SAP rollout.

The diagnostic log (db2diag.log file) could be a little bit more user-friendly.

I have used this solution for 16 years.

There were no stability issues.

This is not relevant for me, we have rarely needed to build on the initial server footprint.

Right now, I deal directly with SAP support for DB2 issues. But, when I previously worked for IBM, I found the DB2 support staff to be very helpful and knowledgeable. Due to the size of the company, there was a huge breadth of knowledge and experience.

The installation process and setup is fairly straightforward (assuming that you have a good working knowledge of the underlying OS and basic DB2 concepts).

Take advantage of the dedicated IBM teams that are in place to help with the migration process from other DBMS.

We use DB2 HADR to replicate data on LAN to another site. It is easy to takeover to the other site. There is easy integration with TSM.

We replicate TSM servers' databases to the other sites with the HADR feature. We use HADR takeover to switch the TSM service to the other site.

• Automatic upgrade process (e.g., from v9.7 to v10.5) often fails.
• Error messages are rarely unusable (e.g., I/O error -> instance upgrade was unsuccessful. You must issue an instance upgrade manually).
• The same issue with the dialog messages, independent from LOGLEVEL.
• A lot of irrelevant information (hexdumps, etc.)

There were no issues with stability.

There were no issues with scalability.

Technical support, works, but they are slow to get to the real experts, Level-2, who can really help. Level-1 support often asks for irrelevant data.

The initial setup was complex. There are InfoCenter Pages and TechNotes, but these only cover the "usual" cases. You need a lot of experience and/or support.

It depends on the customers. Often, DB2 is more expensive than Oracle on the same environment. There are those with more experience with Oracle, and it is hard to find DB2 DBAs, engineers, and experts.

We did not evaluate other options from a TSM server point of view, as there was no other way. From other way, we evaluated Oracle, which is cheaper and there are more people with Oracle-experience.

Use InfoCenter, then DeveloperWorks, and the TechNotes. :) Do this in order to get experience.

I have benefitted from many features including:

1. Product is built on RDBMS principles and principles of Normalization. Have benefitted by the normalization capabilities built into the product;
2. SQL Query capabilities, Tools such as SPUFI, QMF, BMC Catalog Manager,DB2 File-Aid make it easy to query the data,
3. Programming capabilities (such as host variables, cursors ) provided by languages such as COBOL to invoke DB2 DML statements to query, modify the DB2 Tables;
4. Ability of DB2 rows to be presented to CICS screens, Batch Jobs, Web Programs;
5. Entire 4 GL Tools such as Cool:Gen, Advantage Gen Encyclopedias implemented as DB2 tables;
6. Entire Advantage Gen / Cool:Gen / IEF components viz. programs, program components are modeled as DB2 tables. Thousands of programs, program components built, accessed by thousands of programmers are stored as DB2 table entries. These are easily queried, extracted, modified, loaded to other regions by customized programs. Entire models can be created by copying DB2 tables. These are done reliably, consistently, and scalability is provided. This speaks about the power and capability of DB2;
7. Entire Cool:Gen components / DB2 entries can be queried by IBM Websphere with ODBC connection and the results can be web enabled. This means DB2 is programmable for the web as well;
8. DB2 entries can be extracted, modified and loaded to other regions and datawarehouses. IBM DB2 Unload, Load Utilities, products such as IBM Optim, IBM Websphere Datastage, IBM Websphere all enhance the capabilities and features of IBM DB2.

The product has improved our organization in many ways. IBM DB2 has been used in many client projects. These projects are used for a number of years (more than 20-30). Entire Enterprise Applications in the IBM Mainframes have been built with the capability of IBM DB2. Many applications have thousands of DB2 tables and millions of rows. These are accessed for Batch Programming via COBOL, for online / CICS programming via COBOL. Some entries can be accessed by IBM Websphere for Web Programming. This has provided the organization the ability to implement millions of business functions through online / batch / web programs.

It should be easier for web enablement. It is currently easy, but the more web products use the tool, the better it is.

I have been using IBM DB2 (Mainframe Version) for more than ten years.

No. Occasional bind problems would occur, but were resolved through proper configuration management tools, such as ENDEAVOR or CHANGEMAN.

No

No

Customer Service: We didn't have to contact customer service. Our DBAs would contact customer service if and when needed. However, the near-100% availability of DB2 and Advantage Gen Encyclopedia that was housed in IBM DB2 speaks of the reliability of the product and its customer service.Technical Support: Very Good. When I contacted my DBAs, they were able to resolve the binding errors, authorizations etc. quickly and efficiently.

We switched from VSAM to DB2. DB2 is much more sophisticated and advanced than VSAM and provides a number of features which make it easier to access the data and present it, as well as use it.

It was straightforward and easy. Many of the utilities provided by the vendor functioned very well. We were able to upgrade the Gen Encyclopedia easily.

Through an in-house expertise.

It is enormous. We were able to implement many business projects on an ongoing basis without any issues.

I was not involved in the pricing negotiations. I would say it was cost effective based on the number of successful projects.

No, IBM DB2 has been used by the clients for a number of years; in some cases more than 20-30 years.

I would say that IBM DB2 is one of the topmost Database products. It has very high availability and scalability just like the other products from IBM, such as IBM Websphere server, IBM Websphere MQ Server, and IBM Websphere Datastage. IBM is the king of servers and infrastructure. You will do well going with IBM products such as DB2, Websphere. I would say that these are very stable and scalable and available products and provide much needed reliability for businesses.

- For me an advantage was that it uses Java technology - It has reduced administration costs, autonomic features reduce the time needed to tune and administer the database system - I noticed that DB2 provides a secure and safe environment - It has IBM support, when I had a question, I just asked the IBM support and they responded me in a short time

- For me and the company that I work for was expensive - When I bought it, it required complicated licensing

DB2 is a very good, reliable and solid database server with many functionalities. It may be overpriced, compared to MySQL, if the user is not using a lot of its functionalities. I believe functionality may be the primary differentiator. In my opinion, DB2 is comparable to Oracle or MSSQL in terms of features and performance.