Discovery of administration servers, instances, and databases

To configure connections to a remote computer, you can use an existing directory service such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Known Discovery allows you to discover instances and databases on systems that are known to your client, and add new systems so that their instances and databases can be discovered. Search Discovery provides all of the facilities of Known Discovery and adds the option to allow your local network to be searched for other Db2® database servers.

To have a system support Known Discovery, set the discover parameter in the DAS configuration file to KNOWN. To have the system support both Known and Search Discovery, set the discover parameter in the DAS configuration file to SEARCH (this is the default). To prevent discovery of a system, and all of its instances and databases, set this parameter to DISABLE. Setting the discover parameter to DISABLE in the DAS configuration file, prevents discovery of the system.

Note: The TCP/IP host name returned to a client by Search Discovery is the same host name that is returned by your Db2 server system when you enter the hostname command. On the client, the IP address that this host name maps to is determined by either the TCP/IP domain name server (DNS) configured on your client computer or, if no DNS is configured, a mapping entry in the client's hosts file. If you have multiple adapter cards configured on your Db2 server system, you must ensure that TCP/IP is configured on the server to return the correct hostname, and that the DNS or local client's hosts file, maps the hostname to the IP address desired.

On the client, enabling Discovery is also done using the discover parameter; however, in this case, the discover parameter is set in the client instance (or server acting as a client) as follows:

  • KNOWN

    KNOWN discovery is used to retrieve instance and database information associated with systems that are already known to your local system. New systems can be added using the Add Systems functionality provided in the tools. When the discover parameter is set to KNOWN, you will not be able to search the network.

  • SEARCH

    Enables all of the facilities of Known Discovery, and enables local network searching. This means that any searching is limited to the local network.

    The Other Systems (Search the network) icon only appears if this choice is made. This is the default setting.

  • DISABLE

    Disables Discovery. In this case, the Search the network option is not available in the Add Database Wizard.

Note: The discover parameter defaults to SEARCH on all client and server instances. The discover parameter defaults to SEARCH on all Db2 administration servers (DAS).