Thanks to all who attended the Optim Virtual Briefing on DB2 Connect.  If you were not one of the 250 attendees last Thursday, the replay and materials are available here.

For more in-depth training, consider the following IBM authorized training classes.

• CF602 “DB2 Connect 9 to DB2 for z/OS DRDA Implementation with TCP/IP” December 6, 2010
• CF632 “DB2 Connect 9 for DB2 for z/OS Problem Determination and Performance” September 20, 2010

Kimberly Madia’s IBM/Optim team is hosting a Virtual Tech Briefing this Thursday:

DB2 Connect for DBAs: A Primer and Look Ahead

Whether you are a DB2 for LUW DBA who would like to access enterprise information or a z/OS DBA wondering how all those Java and .NET programmers are getting to your data, DB2 Connect is the solution.   Frank Fillmore, A DB2 Gold Consultant with an extensive history in training and consulting, will step you through a DB2 Connect primer from end-to-end, including platform architecture, DB2 Connect configuration parameters, and more. Case studies from large scale DB2 Connect health checks will be included.   IBM’s Kevin Foster, who manages the development of the product, will be on hand to discuss licensing, new packaging options such as the DB2 Connect Advanced Edition, which provides pureQuery acceleration in the box, and upcoming changes to the product.

Date: 19 August 2010
Time:  10:00-11:00AM Pacific, 1:00-2:00PM Eastern
Register here: http://ow.ly/2iAlr

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. 

Read More…

If you will be in Baltimore on May 6th please join us!

Do you know the cost of capturing a change in your production database systems?  Does it cost an extra $100,000 per month to capture that change - and then is the change moved to a data warehouse that’s left many users dissatisfied?  We have a solution, InfoSphere Change Data Capture.

The Fillmore Group is teaming with IBM for a *free* lunch session at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, from 11am to 1pm, where we will explain how InfoSphere Change Data Capture can do an intelligent capture on heterogeneous databases to:  1) create an audit trail detailing who did what and when, 2) replace inefficient staging of changes on your mainframe, 3) eliminate the overhead and instability of ad hoc queries, 4) remove the inefficiency of triggers and message queues, and 5) reduce mainframe costs by $1 million per year - reliably feed downstream ETL, MDM, or SOA applications.

If you are interested in attending, click here for more information.  See you at the Yard!

I’ve been seeing a lot of an old friend lately: DB2 Connect.  This is the software which enables Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) Application Requestor (AR) or “client” applications running on Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms to access DB2 ”host” databases on System z and System i.  More precisely, DB2 Connect accesses an Application Server (AS) which can be DB2 for z/OS, DB2 Server for VSE&VM, or DB2 for i (Wait, shouldn’t that be DB2 for “me”?)

What we know today as DB2 Connect started out almost 20 years ago as Distributed Database Connection Services (DDCS).  Then it was amazing to access host DB2 data using a spreadsheet.  Of course it took an experienced consultant a few weeks to install and configure DDCS and it’s supporting software which relied on the Systems Network Architecture (SNA) communications protocol.  It was so difficult, The Fillmore Group had a services offering called “Client/Server in 10 Days” where we guaranteed to get DDCS working in your shop in two weeks.  Now you can install and configure DB2 Connect using TCP/IP in about an hour.

So what does DB2 Connect actually do?  At its most basic, DB2 Connect is a protocol converter that changes the character coding on the host (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code or EBCDIC) into the equivalent used on Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms (American Standard Code for Information Interchange or ASCII).  It does lots of other things and can be a source of lots of troubleshooting and performance tuning, but EBCDIC to ASCII translation is a core function.

So what’s happening lately?  First, after a few years of no publicly available training in DB2 Connect, The Fillmore Group is holding classes: CF602 “DB2 Connect 9 to DB2 for z/OS DRDA Implementation with TCP/IP” and CF632 “DB2 Connect 9 for DB2 for z/OS Problem Determination and Performance”.  The CF602 beginning June 21 is actually nearing capacity, so if this is something you need, sign up to attend now.  CF632 starts May 17.

As a bonus, I’ve attached a DB2 Connect configuration worksheet.  If you know what it all means and can use it right away, great!  Have at it.  If not, we’ll see you in class.

Second, on the consulting side of the house we’re seeing lots of DB2 Connect activity - especially with DB2 for i.  Having a relational database directly integrated into the i5/OS operating system, System i always has been a bit of a land unto itself.  Now we’re seeing lots of activity integrating System i data into eCommerce and Business Intelligence applications.  If this is what you’re doing, let us know how we can help.

I am happy to announce the return of distance learning to The Fillmore Group.  Our team developed and implemented a proprietary distance learning tool, built using a combination of WebSphere and DB2, with the free RealPlayer plug-in providing the ability to deliver streaming instructor audio and video, after the events of 9/11 made traveling for DB2 training a challenge.  Over the years we perfected the distance learning tool’s use and used it to deliver training to hundreds of people around the world - who would otherwise not have been able to attend classes.

A couple years ago IBM’s Information Management training group began evaluating distance learning technologies and limiting their use as they have been trying to find a methodology they can use consistently.   But progress hasn’t been as fast as anyone hoped, so the training team has given us the approval to again offer the public classes we deliver for IBM via distance learning.  Starting with the three classes below students can enroll in the IBM classes, use the same curriculum and lab exercise portal as the students in class, and “see and hear” the instructor lecture on the materials.  If you don’t have a travel budget, you can still join us for class!

Coming up soon are the following courses:

CE821, Using InfoSphere Data Architect, starting March 1

CF602, DB2 Connect for z/OS with DRDA, starting March 8

DW352, InfoSphere Warehouse Components, starting March 15

For course outlines and registration information go to www.ibm.com/training

DB2 Connect for DBA’s

We had a great meeting yesterday with both z/OS and LUW users in attendance, as well as a group of IBM’ers and our board members.  LUW sessions were delivered by Frank Fillmore, Dave Beulke and Chris Eaton (who flew in from Toronto for the day to present - many thanks!) 

Frank’s presentation on DB2 Connect was well attended.  The group selected the topic as most everyone in the group uses DB2 Connect, and few people know it well (although some have some very strong feelings about it!).  As Frank recently delivered both the Intro to DB2 Connect and the Tuning and Troubleshooting courses for IBM, he had ideas and suggestions gathered from the students that attended his classes on their most common issues.  If you use DB2 Connect, please take a few minutes and go through Frank’s presentation and see if it doesn’t give you an idea or two to improve DB2 Connect performance in your organization.