2020-07 IDUG 2020 What I have learnt

As noted in my last newsletter, the virtual world is influencing us all now. The IDUG North America 2020 had to “go virtual” and here are a few points I picked up over the last weeks while manning our virtual booth and attending virtual sessions. These are just randomly sorted and there were a ton of other interesting IDUG presentations that I recommend you try and read!

Always on

IFCID 376 for incompatible changes should be on all the time in all systems. The reasoning behind this, is quite simple: The longer ahead you are seeing problems the more time you have to get an application fix. Naturally, you can and should use the APPLCOMPAT feature to lock down applications, but when you wish to use newer features you cannot rely on this anymore. This leads to the paradox of don’t go there yet, but go there as fast as you can! Judicious use of this IFCID could well save you an embarrassment or two!

PBGs forever

Well, only in small doses! The idea with these, is to use them as a plug-replacement for segmented and simple spaces, but only with MAXPARTITIONS set to 1 – A bit strange though, as that caps your maximum size quite a bit, but the reasoning here is to use the DSSIZE to actually control the size of your objects and not let them grow and grow and grow.

FTB switch off

Sadly, the use of FTB Fast Traversal Blocks is not recommended at this time due to ongoing issues. In fact, a Red Alert came during the IDUG noting that we should also switch off Insert Algorithm 2 (IAG2) – there is even an APAR out there to change the IAG2 default to “switch off by default”. This is a real shame, as these two features were always touted as the next best thing after sliced bread. Oh well…

New Db2 Version

Yes indeed! – Spotted in at least one IBM presentation were tantalizing hints about a new release coming out. Remember when Db2 12 came out, the list of reasons for a new version/release were just “Major control block changes or a New PL/X compile to take advantage of any new architecture level” – Well, a few months ago, a new reason appeared: “Changes to terms and conditions” which I quite liked, as that is pretty transparent! Now I have seen a new one: “Non-UTS Tablespaces will be retired in the future as part of a future function level or VNEXT“

Yep, VNEXT is back – Yoo-hoo!

RUNSTATS you like

Not really learnt by me, but a few people mentioned that when you REORG only collect stats at the TS level if things have really changed. If you REORG Indexes *never* collect inline stats. Why? These days the reasons for REORG can be for actioning DDL changes and, in these cases, spending all the CPU to re-get the stats data is probably pointless. On the other hand, with indexes you can get statistical data drift, and so it makes *no* sense to do inline stats with index reorgs at all.

RTS Time travel

In Db2 12 we got a whole bunch of SYSIBM.SYSxxxxx_H style tables. We got two for the RTS tables, and you must “activate” them as they are not active by default. There are also no indexes and no automatic deletion, so when you do the ALTERs make sure you have thought about, and created, performance indexes and a purge process for old, dead data. These tables can give very good insights into the overall performance and usage of all the objects in a Db2 system.

Distributed Level

For access Db2 12 we got a little update about exactly which levels are required:

Need V11.1 FP1 (JCC driver level 3.72 to 4.22) to exploit beyond V12R1M500 (or NFM mode), otherwise ANY supported level should work

• Need clientApplCompat driver parameter to exploit features in M501+

  • Made optional with APAR PH08482 for down-level clients and Db2 Connect Servers

This is still a major cause of confusion even today, nearly three years after Db2 12 was first released!

Buzzword Bingo

Then I started the Jenkins, Pipeline learning curve, but I must admit, as an old COBOL guy, all the new stuff is a bit strange. GiT is still a term of abuse for me! But the presentation went into near epic depth about how to actually get it all working… I added this to my bucket list! I especially liked the SCORCHING JIT compiler optimization setting.

REORG Rules

The use of REORGINSERTS is no longer recommended as a reason for a REORG. A few releases ago, the REORGUPDATES reason was also removed. Now we only have REORGDELETES from the classic counters in the RTS that should be used as a trigger for a TP/TS level REORG.

So, did you learn anything new at the IDUG? Is there anything I missed?

As always, any questions or comments would be most welcome and I would love to “virtually” meet you all soon!

TTFN,

Roy Boxwell