Highlights of Db2 11.5.7

Db2 11.5.7 offers database efficiency, simplicity, and reliability in the form of new features and enhancements that address a wide variety of business requirements. Enhancements include improved resiliency through control file mirroring and improved support for cloud object storage.

Attention: This mod pack release is currently available for the following Db2 products:

Db2 on-premises
The single container deployments of Db2 Warehouse and IBM Integrated Analytics System (IIAS).
The container micro-service deployment of Db2 on Red Hat OpenShift.

Db2 on Cloud and Db2 Warehouse on Cloud will be updated to version 11.5.7 early in 2022.

Improved resilience through control file mirroring

The Db2 database engine stores internal state and control information within internal control files in the database path. The information in these control files is required for operation. Starting in 11.5.7, it is possible to specify a redundancy path where a copy of these files is maintained, which may aid recovery in the event that the control files are inadvertently deleted, corrupted, or no longer accessible within the database path. For more information, see ctrl_file_recov_path - Database control file recovery path configuration parameter.

Remote storage (Cloud Object Storage) improvements and lifted restrictions

Starting in Db2 11.5.7, remote storage communication with cloud object storage is facilitated through an embedded vendor COS SDK, instead of the legacy libcurl method previously used. Use of the COS SDK removes several limitations of the legacy libcurl method, such as removing the maximum file size restriction (see MULTIPARTSIZEMB dbm config parameter for details); and support for streaming multipart uploads (which removes the need to stage files in a local staging path on the database server). For more information, see DB2_ENABLE_COS_SDK.

Remote storage support for log archiving and retrieving operations

Starting in Db2 11.5.7, remote storage, such as IBM Cloud Object Storage or Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), can be used to archive and retrieve log files. The database configuration parameters logarchmeth1 and logarchmeth2 now accept a new log archive method type of DB2REMOTE. You must follow this value with a colon (:) and specify a remote storage location by using a storage access alias. For more information, see Configuration parameters for database logging