Creating a network-mounted client

To create a network-mounted client environment, you must set up the client configurations on a sample client first. Then you can move the environment to a shared network path. When the client is available on your network, each user must configure their client workstation to use the network-mounted client.

Before you begin

As mentioned in the procedure, you must build the network-mounted client environment on a staging client workstation first. Then you can put the client files on a shared network path. The staging client workstation that you use to create your client files and the clients that are part of the network-mounted client environment, must have the same operating system.

About this task

Network-mounted client environments are supported on Linux® and UNIX operating systems with the IBM® Data Server Client or the IBM Data Server Runtime Client packages.

Note: For C shell (csh) environments, use the setenv command instead of the export command to set environment variables. For more information about other command shells, see the topic "Setting environment variables outside the profile registries on Linux and UNIX operating systems" in the Db2® Information Center.

Note: Do not run any instance commands in this instance-less client environment.

Procedure

To deploy a network mounted client:

On the staging client workstation, perform the following steps:
1. Log in with a user ID that does not have root authority, but does have write access to the network directory.
2. Install the client to the $HOME/sqllib path.
3. Strip all setuid bits from the client installation by using the chmod command:
```
chmod -R -s $HOME/sqllib
```
  For HP-UX, you must enable the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and SHLIB_PATH variables to search for executable files. Enable the variables by running the following chatr commands against the files in the $HOME/sqllib/adm, $HOME/sqllib/bin, and $HOME/sqllib/security directories:
```
chmod u+w $HOME/sqllib/adm/* 
chatr +s enable $HOME/sqllib/adm/* 
chmod u-w $HOME/sqllib/adm/*

chmod u+w $HOME/sqllib/bin/* 
chatr +s enable $HOME/sqllib/bin/* 
chmod u-w $HOME/sqllib/bin/*

chmod u+w $HOME/sqllib/security/* 
chatr +s enable $HOME/sqllib/security/* 
chmod u-w $HOME/sqllib/security/*
```
4. Configure the client environment, such as CLI parameters in the db2cli.ini file, the LDAP directory, updating the db2dsdriver.cfg file, registry variables, and database manager configuration parameters.
5. Test your client configuration to ensure that it is working as you expect.
6. Copy the $HOME/sqllib directory and its contents to a shared network location on the code server. This location must be accessible to all client workstations in the network mounted client environment. You must use the -R and -L options with the cp command to copy all files in subdirectories to the network path and materialize all links as real files and directories:
```
cp -R -L $HOME/sqllib <network_dir>/sqllib
```
7. (Optional) Change ownership of the sqllib network directory, by using the chown command.
```
chown -R owner:group <network_dir>/sqllib
```
  Where owner is the userid and group is the group that is known to all client hosts that share this sqllib directory.
For each user account that uses the network-mounted client:
1. Set the DB2_NET_CLIENT_PATH environment variable to the shared network location where you copied the sqllib directory by using the following command:
```
export DB2_NET_CLIENT_PATH=<network_dir>/sqllib
```
2. Use the db2profile and db2cshrc files in the path that is specified by DB2_NET_CLIENT_PATH to configure system environment variables that are used by the local client. You can access these files by using the following command:
```
. $DB2_NET_CLIENT_PATH/db2profile
```
  Or on C shell, enter:
```
source $DB2_NET_CLIENT_PATH/db2cshrc
```
3. Set the DB2_APPL_DATA_PATH environment variable to a local directory to store user-specific data and diagnostic files. For example, to set the application data path to the local directory $HOME/db2, run the following commands:
```
mkdir $HOME/db2
```
```
export DB2_APPL_DATA_PATH=$HOME/db2
```
  Attention: When DB2_APPL_DATA_PATH is set to an invalid or non-writeable path, a SQL1042C error might occur.
4. (Optional) To apply all the environment variable settings detailed above automatically, define them in the .profile file.

What to do next

You can create a user-specific client configuration that is based on the network mounted client environment configuration by performing the following steps:

Copy the shared client configuration on the network to a local directory by using the db2ccprf command. For example, to copy the client configuration to a local directory $HOME/db2, run the following command:
```
db2ccprf -t $HOME/db2
```
Set the DB2_APPL_CFG_PATH environment variable to this local directory. For example, to set the client configuration path to the local directory $HOME/db2, run the following command:
```
export DB2_APPL_CFG_PATH=$HOME/db2
```

Log entries, such as those in the db2diag.log file, are labeled with the user name of the installer. They are not labeled with the user name that is associated with the process that is running the client.

If you change the client configuration to use a local directory, any reads or updates to the client configuration changes files in the local directory. Any changes that you make to the global client configurations do not affect the clients that use a local client configuration directory.