Configuring remote IBM Db2 database storage

You can deploy i2 Analyze with Db2 database storage that is remote from the i2 Analyze server. When i2 Analyze is configured to deploy to a remote instance of Db2, the databases are created and updated remotely without the i2 Analyze deployment toolkit present on the server that hosts the Db2 instance.

Before you begin

To deploy i2 Analyze that uses remote Db2 database storage, you must install Db2 on your database server, and Db2 or IBM Data Server Client on the application server. Both instances of Db2 must be installed according to the specifications defined in the i2 Analyze software prerequisites. For more information about installing the prerequisites, see Software prerequisites.

About this task

To deploy with remote storage, the i2 Analyze configuration must contain certain information about your Db2 instances. After you update the configuration, the specified databases can be created and updated by the deployment toolkit on the remote server.

Note: You can complete the steps that are performed by the catalogRemoteDB2Nodes task manually. For example, if you are deploying a system that uses Transport Layer Security (TLS).

To catalog the remote nodes manually, you can run the CATALOG TCPIP NODE instead of using the setup -t catalogRemoteDB2Nodes command. For more information about the command, see CATALOG TCPIP/TCPIP4/TCPIP6 NODE command.

The following table shows how the CATALOG command parameters map to the values in the topology.xml file:

CATALOG TCPIP NODE command parameters	`<database>` element attributes
TCPIP NODE `nodename`	`node-name`
REMOTE `hostname`	`host-name`
SERVER `port number`	`port-number`
REMOTE_INSTANCE `instance-name`	`instance-name`

Procedure

Edit the configuration\environment\topology.xml file to specify your remote Db2 databases:
1. Update the host-name and port-number attribute values of the <database> element to match the values of your remote Db2 instance.
  
  Note: The value of the instance-name attribute must match the instance name of the local Db2 instance.
  You can use the db2level command to get the name of your local instance. For more information, see db2level - Show Db2 service level command.
2. Add the node-name attribute to the <database> element of the databases to be hosted remotely.
  For example:
```
<database dialect="db2" xa="false" instance-name="DB2"
    database-name="WriteSto" database-type="WriteStore" id="write1"
    host-name="hostname" port-number="50000" node-name="node1" />
```
  Where the value for node-name is the name of the node to create in the Db2 node directory. The value of the node-name attribute must start with a letter, and have fewer than 8 characters. For more information about naming in Db2, see Naming conventions.
  Note: If the Analysis Repository and Information Store are using the same Db2 instance, they can use the same node.
3. If you are deploying the Information Store database, add the os-type attribute to the <database> element for the Information Store database. The value of the os-type is used to support the search functions for the Information Store.
  For example:
```
<database database-type="InfoStore" dialect="db2" instance-name="DB2" 
    database-name="ISTORE" xa="false" id="infostore" 
    host-name="hostname" port-number="50000" 
    node-name="node1" os-type="WIN" />
```
  Where the value for os-type is the operating system of the remote Db2 server.
  Note: The value of the os-type attribute must be one of the following values: AIX, UNIX, or WIN.
Edit the configuration\environment\server-name\environment.properties file, to specify the details of your remote and local instance of Db2.

Where server-name is the name of your application server.
1. Ensure that the value of the db.installation.dir property is set for the local instance of Db2 or Data Server Client on the Liberty server.
  
  If you are using a non-root installation, set the value for this property to the sqllib directory in the installation user's home directory. For example, /home/db2admin/sqllib.
2. Set the value of the db.database.location.dir property for the remote instance of Db2 on the database server.
Ensure that the users that are specified for your databases in the configuration\environment\credentials.properties file are valid for your remote instance of Db2 on the database server.

Results

When i2 Analyze is deployed, the Information Store database is created or updated on the remote database management system. A remote node is created with the name that is specified for the node-name attribute, and the database is cataloged against that node.

To check that the remote nodes and databases are cataloged, you can use the listDB2NodeDirectory and listDB2SystemDatabaseDirectory tasks after you deploy i2 Analyze:

The listDB2NodeDirectory task lists the contents of the Db2 node directory.
The listDB2SystemDatabaseDirectory task lists the contents of the local Db2 system database directory.