IBM Db2 12 for z/OS Function Level Activation and Management

This technical paper follows on from an IBM Gold Consultants survey of business strategies for handling CI/CD in Db2 for z/OS, and in particular for advancing Function Levels.

Subject: Advancing Db2 12 for z/OS Function Levels safely.

Target audience: Executive-level decision makers and Db2 for z/OS system administrators.

Db2 12…

Db2 12 for z/OS Continuous Delivery and Function Levels

The most significant change in the way new features and functions are delivered in Db2 12 for z/OS – and in future Db2 releases – is Continuous Delivery, where function levels can be activated to make new features available. Businesses have dealt with this in a variety of ways, from remaining at the lowest possible function level to…

Some time ago, John Campbell, Michael Dewert and I published a Db2 white paper on the support for the extended LRSN and RBA format introduced in Db2 11. This paper is no longer available on the internet, so we have decided to reproduce it here as it contains valuable information for safely implementing the extended format in both data sharing and non-data sharing environments, and in particular for avoiding pitfalls which can lead to unplanned outages. …

Previously I outlined the themes and highlights of DB2 12 for z/OS, including some high-level performance expectations. Let’s move on to look at a developing strategy to deliver performance and scalability improvements by the exploitation of large real memory, particularly the use of in-memory data structures optimised for performance.

The two…

IBM DB2 12 for z/OS became generally available on Oct. 21, 2016. It's perhaps sobering to reflect on the fact that DB2 was first announced in 1983 and released in 1985, but its roots—and the roots of all relational databases—go all the way back to mathematician and IBM Fellow Edgar F. Codd's ground-breaking 1970 paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks."

Many major…