2017-06 APPLCOMPAT in Db2 12: a little bit more agile?

How to set Collection Ids for a reopt 2, 3 or 4 (Runtime optimization) and avoid the default collection NULLID ?

Following on from my last newsletter, I have had to do some research about Collection Ids and how to set them.


Last newsletter:
2017-05 Db2 version 12: A little bit too agile?
How to handle APPLCOMPAT when it comes to Dynamic SQL. A support to manage Db2 12 “agile” release.

Driven to distraction?

The first thing you learn, is that the cli.ini file is now gone…all of the data is now found in the db2dsdriver.cfg file. OK, how does this all hang together?

First Contact

The very first thing that happens, is it looks up the name and the address of the desired Db2 on z/OS. This is just the TCP/IP data to initiate “first contact”. Once the first contact is done, the User Id and Password are required to validate the connection. All well and good.

If your CurrentPackageSet and your reopt are *not* set, you then get the default collection NULLID under which all of your dynamic SQL executes

Reoptimize this!

Then it gets ugly… If your CurrentPackageSet and your reopt are *not* set, you then get the default collection NULLID under which all of your dynamic SQL executes (Now please re-read my last newsletter to see why that is of major interest!).

But, what happens if you want to use reopt 2, 3 or 4 ?


Quick aside:

The reopt level determines what style of run time optimization to enable on the host. You can set:

  • Reopt 2 – No optimization (and this is the default),
  • Reopt 3 – To get REOPT(ONCE) behavior – so the first time that SQL comes in to execute, it gets optimized with the literal values in it, and then not again, or
  • Reopt 4 – To get REOPT(ALWAYS) behavior, so it drives a re-optimization every time that SQL comes in.

I have NULL idea what you are talking about…

So back to my question…

What happens if you wish to use reopt 2, 3 or 4? Well, you have a problem, as these must use the reserved collection ids NULLID, NULLIDR1 and NULLIDRA respectively, which (remember my last newsletter), all die horribly with APPLCOMPAT getting involved…

It gets worse

Naturally, there is a dark lining to this cloud! The use of reopt actually disallows the use of CurrentPackageSet, which was the only way of managing APPLCOMPAT. What on Earth can you do…I have no idea…

Help is on the way…

We are conducting a Design Council in Germany  (September 4-5th, 2017) about IBMs Continuous Delivery for Db2 in September, where we will discuss all of this with customers and DB2 users, but I would love to get some feedback from you all too!

 

As usual, if you have any comments or queries please feel free to drop me a line!

TTFN

 

Roy Boxwell

2017-05 Db2 version 12: A little bit too agile?

 

How to handle APPLCOMPAT when it comes to Dynamic SQL?

I have been involved in testing in Db2 version 12 for a while now, and I think we need a discussion about a few features that come in with this “agile” release.

APPLCOMPAT to the rescue?

First up, is the use of APPLCOMPAT – This is now available throughout the SQL, but comes with a few problems. If you have static SQL then all is fine and dandy, as the APPLCOMPAT used is stored in the Db2 Catalog. You can easily refer to it and check which package is using what APPLCOMPAT. The real trouble starts with Dynamic SQL.

Dynamic SQL intro

A quick discourse about Dynamic SQL is now required…

All Dynamic SQL that runs, must run “under the control” of a Package.

This means that we all have loads of empty packages that are just used to run Dynamic SQL. You all have the SYSLHxxx, SYSLNxxx style Packages and probably loads more. These Packages are used for authentication, tracing, and validation of requests from remote users.

Package is the Boss

This is all good, apart from when a new Db2 12 Function Level (from now on FL) is activated. Why? Because the “package is boss” – If the package was bound at FL500 and you activate FL501, then any SQL that executes in that package that attempts to use an FL501 statement fails. If the SQL attempts to SET CURRENT APPLCOMPAT = ‘V12R1M501’ it will, of course, also fail.

REBIND the world?

To “fix” this, you simply have to REBIND the package to the new FL level.

Sounds simple, huh?

Well, what that means is that *all* SQL that uses that package will get the ability to go to FL501 straightaway, unless they are coded with SET CURRENT APPLCOMPAT = ‘V12R1M500’ or which level you would prefer…

We all have that coded in our JAVA programs don’t we?

Dynamic Packages always allocated

So the problem now is – You have hundreds of Packages that you must rebind, but you dare not rebind them! Even worse, is that you probably *cannot* rebind them anyway, as they are permanently allocated and in use!

. Imagine how many Dynamic SQLs are running in your shop?
. Can you flush the DSC and rebind all of your “empty” Packages?
. When can you plan such an outage?

COLLECTIONs can help

One work-around is to have a new COLLECTION, which the empty packages are bound to again. This works great, apart from one tiny little problem… The COLLID must then be set/changed in all of the CLI.INI or API places where it is currently set, or just defaulted to, today! At one of my customer sites that would be over 8,000 files to update!

So now my questions to the readers out there


How do you plan to manage this?

How do you plan to roll-out FL levels?

If using a new collection, how many CLI.INIs etc. must be changed?


 

As usual, if you have any comments or queries please feel free to drop me a line!

TTFN

Roy Boxwell

2015-01 BIFCIDS – Where’s the BIF?

How will you deal with loop-hole usage in production code?

 

 

The IFCIDs 366 and 376

DB2 provides many and varied IFCIDs. But for today, I’m most interested in the 366 and 376. The 366 is available in DB2 10 and the 376 in DB2 11. Now I like to call these “BIFCIDs” because they are triggered whenever a BIF is used that will behave differently than it is currently used when moving to the next release of DB2. (It’s also triggered when changing Application Compatibility settings in DB2 11 and higher).

 

So where’s the BIF?

BIF Usage Video (11min:)       Presentation

Well, a BIF is a Built-In Function such as CHAR, DECIMAL, etc. There are hundreds of them these days. In the last few DB2 releases, IBM has changed a few to make DB2 more compatible with SQL standards. They have actually closed a couple of loop-holes, where “bad” data could be accepted and processed.

 

 

Loop-hole user?

What happens is: someone somewhere found this loop-hole and used it in production code. Now when you upgrade your DB2, this code will either fail or give erroneous results – which is never good. Hence IBM created the IFCID 366. This is output every time an SQL statement is PREPARED, or executed, that contains a candidate BIF. There were so many of these, that IBM introduced a sort of condensed version so it only triggered one for the first execution, or prepare, but sadly that IFCID—376—is only for DB2 11.

Where can, or will, this really hurt?

 

Looking into the documentation for these IFCIDs you will see a long list of when they are written:

***********************************************************************
**  IFCID 0366 is a serviceability trace.                            **
**  It can be used to identify applications that are affected        **
**  by incompatible changes.                                         **
**  The QW0366FN field indicates the type of incompatible Change:    **
**                                                                   **                                                      
**  QW0366FN = 1                                                     **
**  Indicates that the pre Version 10 CHAR built-in function has     **
**  been invoked. There is an incompatible change to the output of   **
**  the CHAR function for some decimal data. The zparm               **
**  BIF_COMPATIBILITY and/or the SYSCOMPAT_V9 schema have been used  **
**  by this application to get the old behavior. Please make the     **
**  appropriate changes and rebind with the SYSCURRENT schema to     **
**  use the Version 10 CHAR(decimal) built-in function.              **
**  (PM29124 V10 only, usermod V8/V9)                                **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 2                                                     **
**  Indicates that the pre Version 10 VARCHAR built-in function or   **
**  CAST(decimal AS CHAR or VARCHAR) has been invoked.               **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 3                                                     ** 
**  Indicates that an unsupported character representation of a      ** 
**  timestamp string was used. PM48741 V10 only.                     **
**                                                                   ** 
**  QW0366FN = 4                                                     ** 
**  A QW0366FN 4 record indicates that the statement uses the        **     
**  word ARRAY_EXISTS as an unqualified user-defined function Name   **   
**  in a context that may be incompatible with Version 11.           **     
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 5                                                     ** 
**  A QW0366FN 5 record indicates that the statement uses the        **
**  word CUBE as an unqualified user-defined function Name           **
**  in a context that may be incompatible with Version 11.           **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 6                                                     **
**  A QW0366FN 6 record indicates that the statement uses the        **
**  word ROLLUP as an unqualified user-defined function Name         **
**  in a context that may be incompatible with Version 11.           **
**                                                                   ** 
**  QW0366FN = 7                                                     **
**  A QW0366FN 7 record indicates that DB2 for z/OS server issued    **
**  a SQLCODE -301 for incompatible data type conversion from        **
**  string data type (e.g. CHAR, VARCHAR, GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC        **
**  etc.) to numeric data type in V10 CM mode when implicit          **
**  cast is not supported or V10 NFM mode when DDF_COMPATIBILITY     **
**  zparm is set to DISABLE_IMPCAST_NJV or SP_PARMS_NJV to           **
**  disable implicit cast, and the client is CLI Driver              **
**  or v11 NFM mode & APPLCOMPAT = V10R1 when DDF_COMPATIBILITY      **
**  is set to SP_PARMS_NJV or DISABLE_IMPCAST_NJV to disable         **
**  implicit cast either from string data type to numeric or         ** 
**  from numeric data type to string data type.                      **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 8                                                     **
**  A QW0366FN 8 record indicates that DB2 for z/OS server           **
**  returned output data match the data types of the                 **
**  corresponding CALL statement arguments when DDF_COMPATIBILITY    **
**  zparm is set to SP_PARMS_NJV.                                    **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 9                                                     **
**  A QW0366FN 9 record indicates a data type conversion from        **
**  a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE input to a TIMESTAMP data             **
**  during input host variable bind-in process on server when        **
**  DDF_COMPATIBILITY zparm is set to IGNORE_TZ to ignore the        **
**  time zone information sent by Java IBM Data Server Driver.       **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 10                                                    ** 
**  RTRIM, LTRIM or STRIP version 9 being used with mixed data       **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 1101                                                  ** 
**  Indicates that the INSERT statement that inserts into an XML     **
**  column without XMLDOCUMENT function has been processed (which    **
**  should result in SQLCODE -20345 when run on DB2 release prior    **
**  to V11). Starting with V11, SQL error will no longer be issued.  **
**  Application will no longer recieve SQLCODE for this Statement.   **
**                                                                   ** 
**  QW0366FN = 1102                                                  **
**  Indicates that V10 XPath evaluation behavior was in effect which **
**  resulted in an error. For instance, a data type conversion error **
**  could have occured for a predicate that would otherwise be       **
**  evaluated to false. Starting from V11, such "irrelevant" Errors  **
**  might be suppressed so an application might no longer recieve    **
**  the SQLCODE for this Statement.                                  **
**                                                                   **
**  QW0366FN = 1103                                                  **
**  Indicates that a dynamic SQL uses the ASUTime limit that has     **
**  been set for the entire thread for RLF reactive governing.       **
**  For instance, when a dynamic SQL is processed from package A,    **
** if the ASUTime limit is already set during other dynamic SQL      ** 
** processing from package B in the same thread, the SQL from        **
** package A will use the ASUTime limit set during the SQL           **
** processing from package B. Stating with v11, dynamic SQLs from    **
** multiple packages will use the ASUTime limit that is set          **
** considering its own package information.                          **
**                                                                   **
** QW0366FN = 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107                                 **
** Indicates that CLIENT special register (CLIENT_USERID,            **
** CLIENT_WRKSTNNAME, CLIENT_APPLNAME, CLIENT_ACCTNG) has been set   **
** to a value that is longer than what is supported prior to V11.    **
** A shorter value has been used instead.                            **
**                                                                   **
** QW0366FN = 1108                                                   **
** Indicates that CLIENT special register (CLIENT_USERID,            **
** CLIENT_WRKSTNNAME, CLIENT_APPLNAME, CLIENT_ACCTNG) has been set   **
** to a value that is longer than what is supported prior to V11.    **
** Truncated values upto the supported lengths prior to v11 have     **
** been used for RLF table search instead.                           **
**                                                                   **
** QW0366FN = 1109                                                   **
** Indicates that CAST(string AS TIMESTAMP) was processed for the    **
** input string of length 8 and input was treated as a store clock   **
** value (or input string was of length 13 and was treated as a      **
** GENERATE_UNIQUE value). This behavior is incorrect for a CAST     **
** and is valid for TIMESTAMP built-in function only. This behavior  **
** is being corrected in DB2 11 so that input to CAST is not         **
** treated as a store clock value nor GENERATE_UNIQUE.               **
**                                                                   **
** QW0366FN = 1110                                                   **
** Indicates the integer argument of SPACE function is greater       **
** than 32764.                                                       **
**                                                                   **
** QW0366FN = 1111                                                   **
** Indicates the optional integer argument of VARCHAR function       **
** has a value greater than 32764. *                                 **
***********************************************************************

 

Useful stuff indeed!

Phew! Not a bad list, huh? Now you see why these IFCIDs are so useful. It could well be, that you have none of these “alive” in your system today. Or, of course, it could be that you get millions of the things! Somehow you will have to work out a way to save the data, analyse it to get to the root cause, and then, finally, fix the problem(s).

 

Saved by APPLCOMPAT?

You could argue that the new DB2 11 parameter Application Compatibility will save you, but this is really a false economy. All it enables is the guarantee that the code will still “run”. However, in two more DB2 releases the code will fail and, in two more releases – so about six years – who will even know *how* to change which piece of source code and, perhaps even, where is that source code?

 

Saved by BIFCIDs

Personally, what I would do, is : to run our SQL WorkloadExpert tool to trap all the required [B]IFCIDs for a few hours (at first!).Then I would analyse the results, fix the code where it needs fixing – and repeat! I would keep doing this until no IFCID records are coming out and I would be set!

 

What is even better, is that our SQL WorkloadExpert will work correctly even when any new QW0366FN values appear – so when IBM decides to add another code (Like the new values 9 and 10 above for example) this BIF Usage still works correctly.

 

Of course, you may have another tool that you use at your site.

Can it see “Where’s the BIF?”

How will you deal with loop-hole usage in production code?

 

As usual, any question or comments gladly welcome!

 

TTFN

Roy Boxwell