Communication options for data sharing groups

Applications can communicate with a data sharing group by using either Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocol.

TCP/IP is a set of communication protocols that support peer-to-peer connectivity functions for both local and wide area networks. TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication to enable communication between computers and computer networks of the same or different types. For more information about configuring your Db2 environment for TCP/IP communication, see TCP/IP access methods for Db2 data sharing.

Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is a proprietary IBM® architecture that describes the logical structure, formats, protocols, and operational sequences for transmitting information units through, and controlling the configuration and operation of, networks. SNA access for Db2 for z/OS® is deprecated, which means that it is supported but not recommended, and support might be removed eventually.

Tip: TCP/IP is the recommended communication protocol for communication with Db2. Although SNA communication remains supported in Db2 12, SNA communication (including the VTAM interface) is deprecated, and support might be removed in the future. You can disable SNA communication by setting the value of the DB2 TCP/IP IPNAME setting. See DB2 TCP/IP IPNAME field.

Distributed data applications connect to a data sharing group by specifying a Db2 location name. The group provides a single-system image to requesting applications. For more information, see Communicating with data sharing groups.