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DB2 Perl Database Interface for LUW

Question & Answer


Question

How can my application written in Perl access my IBM DB2 Version 9.5 and above database for LUW?

Answer

Perl applications can access IBM DB2 data servers via the Perl DBI driver for DB2, DBD::DB2.
This document provides step-by-step instructions to install the DBD::DB2 Perl module and access data from DB2 data server.


Setting up the DBD::DB2 environment to access data in IBM DB2 data servers

Pre-requisites

  • Linux: Perl version 5.8 or above
  • Windows: ActivePerl version 5.8 or above
  • DBI version 1.53 and above
  • IBM DB2 client version 9 fp2 and above

Getting pre-requisites

  • Perl: Download the latest perl for your respective platform from http://www.perl.org/get.html and install Perl

  • DBI: Install the DBI module issuing the following command

    Perl 5.6: cpan install DBI

    Perl 5.10: cpan DBI

    On windows with Activestate perl you can install the binary version by issuing the following command

    ppm install DBI

  • Note: Installing DBI requires internet access so it can download additional files.
  • DB2 Client: DB2 client version v9fp2 or above is needed. Note: In further sections when referring to the installation location of the DB2 client,
    • In case of DS Driver this will be the directory where you have untarred the odbc_cli driver in the package. for eg: $HOME/dsdriver/odbc_cli_driver/linuxamd64/clidriver
    • In case of other type of DB2 clients this will be the location where DB2 is installed. For eg: /opt/ibm/db2/v97

Installing DBD::DB2 Driver

Windows - ActiveState Perl
Install the binary version of DBD::DB2 module by issuing the following commands

  • 32-bit ppm install <a href="http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/DBD-DB2.ppd">http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/DBD-DB2.ppd</a>
  • 64-bit ppm install <a href="http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm64/DBD-DB2.ppd">http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm64/DBD-DB2.ppd</a>
Linux - CPAN installation
As for any cpan module issue the cpan command specifying DBD::DB2 as the module name, after setting the necessary environment variables as below
  • $ export DB2_HOME=<location where db2 is installed>
  • $ export DB2LIB=<location where db2 is installed>/lib[64/32]
    • Based on your perl is 32-bit or 64-bit set the DB2LIB accordingly to lib32 or lib64 respectively
    • Example, assuming DB2 is installed in /opt/ibm/db2/v105 and we are using 64-bit Perl use:
      $ export DB2_HOME=/opt/ibm/db2/v105
      $ export DB2LIB=/opt/ibm/db2/v105/lib64
    • If you are using DS Driver then make sure you have selected and untarred the correct libraries (32 or 64 bit ) as per you perl's architecture and set DB2LIB to the lib directory
  • $ cpan DBD::DB2
Refer to the section Architectural consideration for setting Environment variables for details on architectural considerations to note while setting necessary environment variables for successful installation and running of the perl DBD::DB2 driver
Installation from source - Applicable to all platforms
Pre-requisites
C compiler
  • Windows: MingW compiler and the dmake utility or the VC compiler
  • Linux: gcc compiler
  • AIX:xlc compiler
Downloading the source
Download the latest DBD::DB2 driver source from http://search.cpan.org/~ibmtordb2/
Compiling and Installing the Driver
Untar the archive and issue the following commands
  • $ export DB2_HOME=<location where db2 is installed>
  • $ export DB2LIB=<location where db2 is installed>/lib[64/32]
    • Based on your perl is 32-bit or 64-bit set the DB2LIB accordingly to lib32 or lib64 respectively
    • If you are using DS Driver then make sure you have selected and untarred the correct libraries (32 or 64 bit ) as per you perl's architecture and set DB2LIB to the lib directory
  • $ perl Makefile.PL
  • $ make
  • $ make install

    Note:

With this the perl environment to access data in DB2 is ready.

Architectural consideration for setting Environment variables


Depending on the architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) for which your Perl is compiled and installed you will need to accordingly set the environment variables DB2LIB and LD_LIBRARY_PATH or LIBPATH variables to the 32-bit or 64-bit library of DB2 client.
In case of these variables not being set correctly
  • During compilation you will see an error message complaining cannot link to the db2 library due to architecture mismatch
  • During Run-time you will see an error complaining cannot load module DB2.so due to wrong ELF class
To know your Perl's architecture run the following command

perl -V

If the variable use64bitall, under the info on Platform, is define then your perl is 64-bit else if it is undef your perl is 32-bit

Running a sample Perl script to connect to DB2


For any Perl script to connect to DB2 you need to ensure that the DBD::DB2 driver can access the DB2 CLI driver libdb2.so, which is part of your DB2 client. Failing to do so will result in a missing libraries - libdb2.so.1 or db2cli.ddl error when you run your program. You do this by adding the folder where the libdb2.so/ db2cli.dll file resides to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH or LIBPATH or PATH environment variable on Linux or AIX or Windows platform respectively for the userid under which program will be run. For eg: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<location where db2 is installed>/lib64>

Refer to the section Architectural consideration for setting Environment variables for details on architectural considerations to note while setting necessary environment variables for successful installation and running of the perl DBD::DB2 driver

Refer to Infocentre for a sample Perl script that connects to sample database and fetches results from the Employee table

Latest Release of DBD::DB2


The latest release of DBD::DB2 is 1.85

Download details for getting DB2


Related Information

Additional Sample Perl Programs

[{"Product":{"code":"SSEPGG","label":"Db2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Component":"Programming Interface - Other","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"9.7;9.5;9.1;10.1;10.5","Edition":"Enterprise Server;Express;Express-C;Personal","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21297335

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