IBM Db2 connection

To access your data in an IBM Db2 database, create a connection asset for it.

IBM Db2 is a database that contains relational data.

Supported versions

IBM Db2 10.1 and later

Create a connection to Db2

To create the connection asset, you need the following connection details:

  • Username and password
  • SSL certificate (if required by your database server)
    • For SSL, the Db2 connection does not support chained certificates. Only the certificate returned from the Db2 server, which is the first certificate, will work.
    • To configure Db2 with TLS and SSL, see Setting up a Db2 connection that uses TLS and SSL.

Credentials

If you select Shared, enter your username and password for the server.

If you select Personal, you have one of three choices:

  • Enter your username and password for the server manually.
  • Use secrets from a vault.
  • Select platform login credentials. This option is available only if the Db2 service is deployed on the instance of Cloud Pak for Data where you are creating the connection.

For Credentials and Certificates, you can use secrets if a vault is configured for the platform and the service supports vaults. For information, see Using secrets from vaults in connections.

Choose the method for creating a connection based on where you are in the platform

In a project
Click Assets > New asset > Data access tools > Connection. See Adding a connection to a project.
In a catalog
Click Add to catalog > Connection. See Adding a connection asset to a catalog.
In a deployment space
Click Add to space > Connection. See Adding connections to a deployment space.
In the Platform assets catalog
Click New connection. For more information, see Adding platform connections.

Next step: Add data assets from the connection

Where you can use this connection

You can use Db2 connections in the following workspaces and tools:

Projects

  • AutoAI (Watson Machine Learning)

  • Cognos Dashboards (Cognos Dashboards service)

  • Data quality rules (Watson Knowledge Catalog)

  • Data Refinery (Watson Studio or Watson Knowledge Catalog)

  • DataStage (DataStage service). For more information, see Connecting to a data source in DataStage. The Db2 (optimized) connection for DataStage gives you increased performance and more features such as before and after SQL statements and reject links. However, you cannot use the "(optimized)" connection outside of the DataStage service.

  • Decision Optimization (Watson Studio and Watson Machine Learning)

  • Metadata enrichment (Watson Knowledge Catalog)

  • Metadata import (Watson Knowledge Catalog). For information about the supported product versions and other prerequisites when connections are based on MANTA Automated Data Lineage for IBM Cloud Pak for Data scanners, see the Lineage Scanner Configuration section in the MANTA Automated Data Lineage on IBM Cloud Pak for Data Installation and Usage Manual. This documentation is available at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6597457.

    For metadata import (lineage), advanced metadata import must be enabled and a MANTA Automated Data Lineage license key must be installed. See Installing Watson Knowledge Catalog, Installing MANTA Automated Data Lineage, and Enabling lineage import.

  • Notebooks (Watson Studio). Click Read data on the Code snippets pane to get the connection credentials and load the data into a data structure. For more information, see Load data from data source connections.

  • SPSS Modeler (SPSS Modeler service)

Catalogs

  • Platform assets catalog

  • Other catalogs (Watson Knowledge Catalog)

Watson Query service
You can connect to this data source from Watson Query.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance

The IBM Db2 connection is compliant with FIPS with these exceptions:

  • Only Clear text is supported for the Username and Password Security Mechanism.
  • SSL certificates that you paste into the SSL certificate field are not supported. As a workaround, you can add the certificate to the OpenShift secret named connection-ca-certs. For more information, see Using a CA certificate to connect to internal servers from the platform for the procedure.

Running SQL statements

To ensure that your SQL statements run correctly, refer to the Structured Query Language (SQL) topic in the IBM Db2 product documentation for the correct syntax.

Cloud Pak for Data credentials setup (Optional)

To use Cloud Pak for Data credentials, you must set up JWT token authentication on the Db2 server. For instructions, see Token configuration file.

Learn more

IBM Db2 product documentation

Parent topic: Supported connections