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Database, Heal Thyself!

  September 2, 2002
  By Mike Lee


With IBM's release of DB2 version 8, the company has added features intended to reduce stress for database administrators. At first glance, it sounds too good to be true (see www.ibm.com/news/us/2002/07/221.html). For DBAs with control issues, it's probably also creating some fear and trepidation. A closer look verifies that everything isn't quite what IBM wants you to believe, despite the addition of some useful features.

The main additions to the administration package are Configuration Advisor, Design Advisor and Health Center. The Configuration and Design advisors come closest to doing those jobs automatically, but much of their functionality was available in earlier versions of DB2. Based on your basic database design, these advisors will suggest the most efficient and best performing configuration.

The Configuration Advisor, based on version 7's Configure Performance Wizard, will guide you through database-configuration parameters, such as heap size and buffer pool size. The Design Advisor, which started as the Index Wizard, will help with the actual data -- materialized query tables, indexes and partitioning. The Health Center, new to version 8, works like most network monitoring and management packages. It monitors thresholds for database server parameters. When the threshold is crossed, a trigger is tripped.

For the control freaks, DB2 doesn't do things automatically unless you tell it to, and it gives you better access to server parameters through the Health Center. For those who don't need to know the inner workings of the database -- just that it runs well enough -- the new team of advisors should get you there.


--Mike Lee, mlee@nwc.com


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