Db2 Automation Tool overview

IBM® Db2 Automation Tool for z/OS® (also referred to as Db2 Automation Tool) automates the running of utilities against a specified set of objects.

Using Db2 Automation Tool, database administrators can oversee the most routine database administration tasks, without time-consuming manual interventions. With Db2 Automation Tool, you can set up reoccurring utility jobs for conditional and routine Db2 maintenance tasks.

Db2 Automation Tool can help you reduce manual routine tasks and focus on more complex job responsibilities that add more value to your company. It can automate common Db2 maintenance tasks as well as generate JCL for more complex tasks on one or more objects.

Using an online ISPF interface, you select the objects you want and place them into an object profile. You then select utilities to run and place them into a utility profile. Once you create the object profile and the utility profile, you combine the two into a job profile. When you build the job profile, it produces an z/OS batch job containing the JCL to execute the utilities. The job that is produced that can be executed immediately or inserted into a job scheduler.

An object profile simply lists the objects you want to be processed. You can include table spaces and indexes in an object profile, or a combination of both. You can use wild cards to include similarly named objects in a profile.

A utility profile contains the name of the utility you want to run, and contains the options for that utility. You can have more than one utility in a profile. For example, if you always want to take image copies before performing a REORG, then you could include both the COPY and REORG in the same profile.

You can optionally include exception profiles in the job profile. An exception profile allows you to select certain conditions under which a utility should be performed. For example, Db2 Automation Tool can generate a REORG utility if a table space has too much embedded fragmented space.

If you purchased Db2 Automation Tool as part of a Db2 for z/OS solutions pack, you can further automate ongoing database monitoring and maintenance tasks for your applications by using Autonomics Director for Db2 for z/OS. Db2 Autonomics Director allows you to schedule your utilities to run autonomically in a maintenance window, instead of generating JCL.

You can use Db2 Automation Tool to add batch builds and utility execution jobs to the Db2 administrative task scheduler. Db2 Automation Tool interfaces with the Db2 administrative task scheduler to create new tasks, update and view existing tasks, delete tasks, and view the status and output of executed tasks.

In addition, Db2 Automation Tool works with Db2 10's autonomic statistics feature, allows you to ensure that statistics are up to date, so that Db2 can effectively optimize queries and so that statistics are not recollected unnecessarily.