Remote LOB columns and transparent DDL

Some data sources, such as Oracle and Informix®, do not store the lengths of LOB columns in their system catalogs. When you create a nickname on a table, information from the data source system catalog is retrieved including column length. Since no length exists for the LOB columns, the federated database assumes that the length is the maximum length of a LOB column in Db2®. The federated database stores the maximum length in the federated database catalog as the length of the nickname column.

However, when you create a remote table using transparent DDL you must specify the length of the LOB column. When the federated server creates a nickname on the remote table, it stores the length you specify in the federated database catalog as the length of the nickname column. The maximum length of a LOB column is 2 gigabytes.