DB2 Text Search

DB2® Text Search allows you to search text columns by issuing SQL and XQuery statements to perform text search queries on data stored in a DB2 database.

DB2 Text Search provides extensive capabilities for searching data in text columns stored in a DB2 table. The search system provides fast query response times and a consolidated, ranked result set that enables you to quickly and easily locate the information that you need. By incorporating the functions of DB2 Text Search in your SQL and XQuery statements, you can create powerful and versatile text-retrieval programs. Furthermore, the search engine uses linguistic analysis to ensure that it returns only relevant search query results. By enabling text search support, you can use the CONTAINS, SCORE, and xmlcolumn-contains functions, which are built into the DB2 engine, to search text search indexes based on the search arguments that you specify.

DB2 Text Search achieves high performance and scalability by employing data streaming to avoid high resource consumption during search.

You can install the DB2 Text Search server and DB2 database servers on the same system for an integrated text search server setup. You can also install DB2 Text Search server and the DB2 database server on different systems for a stand-alone setup. The DB2 Text Search server runs in its own Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM). You explicitly start and stop the DB2 Text Search services after starting the DB2 instance.

Figure 1. Deployment diagram for an integrated DB2 Text Search server

DB2 Text Search does not have a graphical user interface. Instead, command-line tools are available for tasks such as configuring and administering the DB2 Text Search server, creating a synonym dictionary for a collection, and diagnosing problems. In addition, you can use a stored-procedure interface for various common administrative tasks.

You can migrate from Net Search Extender to DB2 Text Search by creating and updating DB2 Text Search indexes and then toggling the index status when the indexes are ready for use. For details, see the topic about migration from Net Search Extender to DB2 Text Search.