Benefits

DB2 Administration Tool provides the following benefits:

Change management

The Change Management function in DB2 Administration Tool simplifies the process of recording and tracking the changes that you make to your DB2 objects, which can be complex, especially when other individuals have defined changes that must be run.

Change Management batch interface enables you to create, customize, and reuse batch jobs when managing changes in DB2 Administration Tool change management. You can import, analyze, and run changes by submitting batch jobs, and without using the change management ISPF panels.

Explore databases

DB2 Administration Tool lets you quickly navigate the DB2 catalog and display tables, table columns, and indexes. If you are authorized by DB2, you can also display the content of tables either by doing a simple list of the table or by building SQL statements and running them against a table.

You can use the DB2 Administration Tool functions to explore unknown databases rapidly or get a quick overview of a database. None of these uses require that you remember the exact syntax of DB2 commands or SQL statements.

Determine and correct problems

You can use DB2 Administration Tool to identify and fix problems with your databases. With its ability to navigate the catalog and use DB2 commands and utilities on objects, DB2 Administration Tool can help you discover, analyze, and fix database problems in a more user-friendly fashion than is available with native DB2.

Develop small applications

You can use DB2 Administration Tool to rapidly develop small applications. As you become familiar with the tool, you might find that you can develop small DB2 Administration Tool dialogs quickly and easily. For example:

• If you have a tool at your installation that manipulates DB2 tables, you can develop your own line command to access it from DB2 Administration Tool panel that displays tables (implementing the line command as an SMP/E USERMOD). Then, you can start the table tool as a natural follow-on to using DB2 Administration Tool.
• Perhaps you want to generate more DECLARE statements for a PL/I table than is possible with the DB2 DCLGEN tool. You can write an application to start DCLGEN directly from the DB2 Administration Tool panel that displays tables. You can also modify the output that you receive from DCLGEN to meet your installation's standards and requirements.
• You might want to build prototypes of SQL SELECT statements. You can build the statements, test them, and then copy them to a data set to include in your application program.
• DB2 Administration Tool can help you maintain any DB2 tables that you use for installation standards and special requirements. You can use DB2 Administration Tool to develop a small application that describes all of the applications that you have in the system. Or you can use it to display existing tables that, for example, contain information about DB2 plan performance or batch job execution statistics.

Copy tables from one DB2 system to another

You can use the table utilities that DB2 Administration Tool generates to copy tables from one DB2 system to another. You need to make a few modifications to the generated JCL.

Start DB2 Tools

You can start installed IBM® DB2 tools that have an ISPF interface directly from DB2 Administration Tool. DB2 Administration Tool guides you through the process of creating a launchpad with the names of your DB2 tools. After this table is created, you can simply select an entry in it to start one of the DB2 tools.

DB2 Object Comparison Tool provides the following benefits:

Helps you keep your production system a mirror image of your test and development systems

New applications, application modifications, or mistakes can cause DB2 objects in one system to have different attributes from objects in other systems. DB2 Object Comparison Tool lets you compare objects (and dependent objects) between one DB2 catalog and another. DB2 Object Comparison Tool creates a file of the differences that it finds. DB2 Object Comparison Tool can then generate batch jobs to synchronize the catalogs.

Supports the use of compare masks so that you can compare objects with different names

You can use compare masks to convert the names of objects so that you are comparing only for actual differences, not for differences in the names of objects. For example, you can specify that all owner IDs that begin with ABC* in the source be converted to DEF* in the target (the asterisk is a wildcard).

Provides an option to specify fields to ignore when objects are compared

You can specify ignore fields to handle intentional differences between the objects that you are comparing. When you do not want to build test objects the same as production objects, you might specify ignores for size, or buffer pools.

Uses DDL files, DB2 catalog, or version files to get the definition of DB2 objects that are to be compared

DB2 object comparison definitions can come from the following sources:

A DDL file

A file that contains SQL statements (for example, a SPUFI file). The file should contain data definitions (object definitions).

An extract from the DB2 catalog

An extract of one or more databases, table spaces, or tables and all the dependent objects

A previously created version file

An internal representation of a set of objects. A version file represents a snapshot at a particular point in time. DB2 Object Comparison Tool creates a version file for each source and target. Version files can be used to perform all comparisons.

Produces a report about the objects compared

DB2 Object Comparison Tool produces different reports depending on the reporting options that were in effect or chosen by the user.

Can generate jobs to apply to the target any changes that were found or, alternatively, generate a work statement list of the changes

The generate apply jobs function generates either jobs or a work statement list. The job or work statement list can be subsequently used to apply changes to the target object. You do not need to run the apply jobs until you are satisfied with the changes. Changes also can be imported as a change in the Change Management database.

Supports undoing of implemented changes

The undo capability uses a version file to restore application objects to a previous version, if you have made changes and need to revert to the original state of the objects.

DB2 Table Editor provides the following benefits:

Quick and easy manipulation of data

DB2 Table Editor helps you make the best use of your time. It reduces staff training time; enhances database administrator (DBA) productivity; increases the ability to respond to workforce's need for high-performance business applications; and enables the IT team to institute proactive database maintenance.

DB2 Table Editor makes quick and easy work of navigating IBM DB2 databases, tables, and views; finding related data; and updating, deleting, or creating data with full support for your existing DB2 security and logon IDs. It provides drag-and-drop functionality and wizards to rapidly create versatile, task-specific Java or Windows based table editing forms that contain built-in data validation and business rules.

Easy access to data

You can choose from various user entry points to edit DB2 tables: Java enabled web browsers, Java based interfaces that are started from the IBM DB2 Control Center, Microsoft Windows, or an ISPF interface. This variety of user interfaces allows users of all skill levels to interact with your database.

Administrators can browse database tables and views (even with no prior understanding of the database structure), or search and replace, filter data, and open tables that are related to selected data. Users at the front lines of your business, such as customer service personnel, can access your database through forms that contain business rules and command buttons that make it easy to retrieve data and quickly perform specific, important tasks with virtually no training. DB2 Table Editor offers all your users an environment that meets their needs. Employees who do not know SQL can perform inserts, updates, and deletes, which frees your SQL experts for more demanding tasks.

Control of data integrity

In today's competitive environment, data integrity is more important than ever. Whether your concern is as basic as accurate customer records or as complex as running applications that depend on hundreds of interdependent tables, DB2 Table Editor makes preserving data integrity easy to accomplish, no matter the level of experience of your employees. With DB2 Table Editor, all of your knowledge workers, both novice and expert, can use this single, powerful tool, to manipulate your data while maintaining tight control over data editing privileges.

Cross-platform support

DB2 Table Editor for z/OS supports DB2 for z/OS. DB2 Table Editor for Multiplatforms supports DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows and the Informix® (IDS).

DB2 Cloning Tool provides the following benefits:

Clone DB2 subsystems

Cloned DB2 subsystems can be accessed from the same z/OS system, which increases productivity in the following ways:

• Significantly reduces production online downtime and the costs associated with cloning a DB2 subsystem with traditional tools.
• Provides more availability and services to customers because DB2 no longer needs to be shut down or conditioned the long traditional way.
• Uses less personnel time to clone a DB2 subsystem. What used to take hours or days now takes just minutes.
• Allows management of larger storage environments with the same staff.
• Provides quicker throughput and faster turnaround time.
• Provides virtually 24x7 access to data.
• Creates fast quality assurance and test environments.

Clone DB2 table spaces

Cloned DB2 table spaces can be cloned within the same or different z/OS system, which increases productivity in several ways:

• Uses less personnel time to copy DB2 table spaces and associated manual tasks. Tasks that took hours now take just minutes.
• Provides quicker throughput and faster turnaround time.
• Provides virtually 24x7 access to data.
• Creates fast refreshes of quality assurance and/or test environments.

DB2 Configuration Manager provides the following benefits:

Record and analyze activity in your data systems and control your client applications

By using DB2 Configuration Manager, you can modify client configurations to meet the following objectives:

Isolate poorly performing client applications within a DB2 for z/OS data sharing group to meet performance and availability objectives.

Redirect client applications from one system to another to achieve high availability or to facilitate a staged migration of all clients.

Map application transactions to the appropriate DB2 for z/OS workload management service classes.

Tune the workload balancing properties of driver connection pooling on DB2 for z/OS and DB2 pureScale® (also known as DB2 application cluster transparency).

Reduce the maximum number of simultaneous connections to a driver and throttle an application.

Modify your client configuration by using dialogs to create client rules.

You determine which rules to define by analyzing your system. DB2 Configuration Manager provides multiple views for exploring system, database, client, and historical information that include drill-down and filtering capabilities. From these views, you can do the following tasks:

Show enterprise data assets by using information that is gathered from application clients and scheduled database server jobs.

Track changes to server and client configurations to quickly determine the root cause of performance degradation. The Configuration Changes page shows you the latest data and the history of configuration changes.

Centralize client connection definitions and server data models.