 | Level: Introductory Felix Lee (felix@ca.ibm.com), DB2 Install Architect, IBM
21 Sep 2006 With IBM® DB2® 9 for Linux® and UNIX®, you can now run DB2 from NFS mounted code. While there are clear advantages to this configuration, such as simplified maintenance and decreased overall disk usage, there are a number of issues and potential problems to consider. This article takes you through the considerations and walks you through the manual steps that are necessary to properly set up DB2 9 to run from NFS mounted code.
In this article
- Performance and availablity impact
- Licensing considerations
- Issues with diagnosing NFS errors
- Issues that require attention for DB2 setup and maintenance
- Deploying a database container across NFS
Overview
On supported UNIX and Linux platforms, DB2 deployment can be divided into three fairly distinct parts:
- The installed code
- The instances (working environment) created against the installed code. There can be multiple instances associated with each installed copy of DB2.
- The database containers. This is where the data for the database is stored.
In most installations, all three are set up and configured to reside locally on a machine. With multiple database partition instances (for example, multi-node Enterprise Server Edition), DB2 supports the physical creation of an instance on one machine and sharing the home directory of the instance owner via NFS to all participating nodes. In this case, the installed code and database files and containers are still local to all machines involved.
Previous to V9, DB2 did not support running off NFS mounted code. That is, for earlier versions, there is no support for the following:
- Putting installation code on machine A
- Exporting the file system where DB2 has been installed
- NFS mounting this file system from machine B
- Creating and running instances on machine B from this mounted copy of DB2
There have been a number of customers who have indicated great interest in having this configuration supported. The advantages to this configuration include simplified maintenance and a decrease in the overall disk usage requirement. However, there are a number of issues and potential problems that must be considered and addressed. In addition, there are a number of manual steps that are necessary to properly set up DB2 9 in such a configuration
This article focuses on setting up DB2 9 by accessing code installed remotely via NFS. Also included at the end is an Appendix that discusses NFS mounting of the database container.
Download | Description | Name | Size | Download method |
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| Article in PDF format | DB2_on_NFS.pdf | 180 KB | FTP|HTTP |
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About the author | | | Felix Lee is currently the DB2 Install Architect. He has been part of the DB2 Install Team since Version 5. Previous to moving to his current role, Felix managed the UNIX/Linux DB2 Install Team for DB2 9. Felix has written a number of articles previously on various install topics. |
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