Managing and tracking DB2 tables just got a lot easier, with metrics such as table size and number of rows at your fingertips.

Written by Kent Milligan

On other database servers, database administrators have to keep a close watch on the size and number of rows in a table to make sure that enough disk space has been allocated for the table object. While DB2 for i automates the storage allocation administrative task, it's helpful for IBM i users to know the size of a table to estimate how long a query or copy operation might take. Typically, the more rows a table contains, the longer it takes perform operations against the table.

Access Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, and other databases with IBM i queries.

Written by Mike Stegeman

Where is your business data? Is it all in IBM i DB2, or do you have data in MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle databases? Do you need to consolidate this data across DB2 partitions? Does your current reporting and data access solution consolidate and provide instant access to this remote data? Do your developers need to move or modify data from one database to another?

Faster, faster, faster! Use large memory pools to boost your SQL performance.

Written by Kent Milligan

More companies are creating and running queries to help their business leaders make better decisions, ones that are based on data facts instead of educated guesses. As users see the business value provided by these reports, it's only a matter of time before they'll ask for the reports to run faster.

Learn how a recent enhancement to DB2 Web Query provides a way to customize a granular yet secure reporting environment.

Written by Gene Cobb

V1R1M2 of IBM DB2 Web Query for i was a significant version, one that offered new features such as the InfoAssist development tool as well as the Oracle JD Edwards Application Adapter. One feature that has flown a bit under the radar is a security enhancement named DBA (short for Database Administrator). This new feature is found in the synonym editor in DB2 Web Query Developer Workbench. It provides a way to configure a secure reporting environment that is both granular and flexible.

Give DB2 new functionality with the ability to CAST from binary data.

Written by Michael Sansoterra

Whether it be a hash value, raw data from another system, or something else, every once in a while, I find myself manipulating binary data within an application. However, in SQL, it's a royal pain to convert binary data to another built-in data type.

Help is available! Learn about the handy Function Assist feature available in the DB2 Web Query Developer Workbench tool.

Written by Gene Cobb

DB2 Web Query is loaded with built-in functions to help you transform your raw DB2 for i data into something more meaningful and useful for use in your reports, graphs, dashboards, and compound documents. Some of these functions have multiple parameters and a limited number of acceptable values, so unless you have been working with the product for some time, it may not be obvious how to implement the correct format, syntax, and values to make them work. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an interface complete with help text and examples to guide you through the process of defining these functions?

Take advantage of record block size special values to boost application performance during sequential data processing.

Written by Kent Milligan

One of the most common recommendations to improve the performance of database-intensive applications is to increase the amount of database blocking. This performance advice especially holds true when the application program is performing sequential data processing.

IBM's open-source OmniFind search engine easily turns intranets into a searchable format for employees and customers.

Written by Max Hetrick

One of the biggest problems that I faced recently was trying to come up with a good solution to create an indexed search database across multiple intranet formats. Along with static HTML pages, we use WordPress to host intranet news and some content management, wikis are used to hold frequently changing information that users can edit themselves, and network shares are utilized in some cases. Although each of these technologies often presents a tool to search their own implementation, I wanted something to index all of them with one interface to search from. Otherwise, a user has to know which Web site or format the material is in and then go search using each individual search feature.