COMPUTER TRAINING COURSE- DB2

Source:- Freshersworld

What is DB2 ?

DB2 is a family of relational database management system (RDBMS) products from IBM that serve a number of different operating system platforms. According to IBM, DB2 leads in terms of database market share and performance. Although DB2 products are offered for UNIX-based systems and personal computer operating systems, DB2 trails Oracle's database products in UNIX-based systems and Microsoft's Access in Windows systems.

DB2 is an abbreviation for IBM Database 2 and was launched in June 1983 as a subsystem on MVS that allowed MVS users to build, access, and maintain relational databases using the well-known Structured Query language (SQL).

Why DB2?

The ability to manage many concurrent users, very large databases, high transaction rates and deliver consistent rapid response is fundamental and delivered by DB2 through the wide range of platforms and the exploitation of platform-specific features. Beyond this, DB2 meets the requirements for high availability, low planned maintenance, wide connectivity, open standards and effective manageability.

Since then, DB2 has come a long way and provides facilities to exploit the latest hardware and software technologies, accommodating a majority of user requirements. The latest versions are available on almost all platforms, including Windows, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, Unix, AIX, NUMAQ, Linux, AS/400 and OS/390.

As the name suggests, DB2 "Universal Database" provides universal data types, universal integration, universal access from clients of all types, universal applicability (for all types of applications), universal scalability (across all types of platforms), universal reliability (for non-stop 24/7 processing) and universal manageability.

Technical information

DB2 can be administered from either the command-line or a GUI. The command-line interface requires more knowledge of the product but can be more easily scripted and automated. The GUI is a multi-platform Java client that contains a variety of wizards suitable for novice users. DB2 supports both SQL and XQuery. DB2 has native implementation of XML data storage, where XML data is stored as XML (not as relational data or CLOB data) for faster access using XQuery.