Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) support

Db2 database uses self signed certificate for SSL communication. You can download the certificate from the web console to trust your clients.

Attention: TLS was developed in 1999 as the successor to the popular encryption protocol Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Because of the popularity of SSL, the acronym is now synonymous with encryption technology and by association, TLS. As a result, some Db2 commands and database objects that are related to TLS encryption still contain 'ssl' in their names. However, Db2 does not use the SSL protocol for data encryption. Any references to SSL in this guide can be interpreted as TLS.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a security protocol that provides communication privacy. SSL enables client and server applications to communicate in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery. SSL-enabled client applications use standard encryption techniques to help ensure secure communication.

Configuring your applications to connect to the Db2 database with SSL depends on your company policy. Both the standard and the SSL protocols that you can use to connect to the database transmit user names and passwords as encrypted data. If you want to ensure complete end-to-end security, transmit all database information, including sensitive data and metadata, through an SSL connection.

Note: SSL connections to IBM® Db2 Warehouse as a Service are enforced by default on all new and recently deployed instances. To enable a non-SSL port on your IBM Cloud® system, open a support case to make that request. If you have an older instance, non-SSL connections might be enabled. To enforce SSL connections or to ask about the SSL status of your system, open a support case.

Connecting to your database

  1. [Optional] If you use Data Studio, you can now connect to the database by selecting port 50001 and sslConnection=true.
  2. Catalog the node and database:
    db2 catalog tcpip node ACICLD_S remote <IP_address_of_BLUDB_database_server> server 50001 security SSL
    db2 catalog db BLUDB as ACIBLU_S at node ACICLD_S
  3. Connect to your database with an SSL connection:
    db2 terminate
db2 connect to ACIBLU_S user <user_name> using <password>
For more information, see Configuring Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) support in non-Java Db2 clients.