Find out how Remote DBA works! We have produced a series of videos to show exactly what DB2 support from Triton is all about. The below video gives an outline of the service and an overview of the performance monitoring and reporting tools we use. You can see further videos on our youtube channel www.youtube.com/tritonconsulting
Triton have released a series of product demos showing the industry leading database performance monitoring and tuning software from DBI Software.
Our Remote DBA team use these tools to proactively monitor customer databases. Triton Consulting are partners with Texas based DBI Software. This partnership combines DBI’s revolutionary database monitoring tools with Triton’s Remote DBA service to bring a truly powerful DB2 database support solution to the market.
Visit www.youtube.com/tritonconsulting for more DBI demos.
Traditionally DB2 for z/OS was considered to be primarily an OLTP data server, with the DB2 for Linux, Unix and Windows variant being a more common choice for analytics and data warehousing duties. This approach is often dictated by cost concerns or historical inertia, but the superior resilience and scalability of the System z platform, combined with the increasing popularity of real-time warehousing, is leading many customers to re-examine this decision.
DB2 9 delivered some significant new functionality to support business analytics workloads, including improvements to indexing, query optimisation and SQL extensions. This emphasis continues within DB2 10, with a large number of new and enhanced features.
IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer
As DB2 for z/OS becomes more attractive as a host for large-scale analytics and analytics workloads, the requirement to deliver high performance with minimal administration and tuning overheads increases accordingly.
In recognition of this trend, IBM has developed an innovative solution that combines DB2 for z/OS and a dedicated blade server capable of executing the complex queries typically found in analytics with fast and predictable response times. Known as the IBM Smart Analytics Optimiser, this solution is deeply integrated with DB2 10 and allows DB2 to offload eligible query components to the locally attached blade.
This architecture is able to deliver up to 10x performance gains for qualifying queries when compared to traditional DB2 processing. As the DB2 optimiser decides what work to offload to the appliance, no application changes are required in order to take advantage of the Smart Analytics Optimizer once it is made available.
To find out more about migrating to DB2 10 visit http://www.triton.co.uk/migration/
This week Julian Stuhler appeared on the ever popular DB2Night Show and presented on DB2 z/OS and Java – What’s New?
If you missed this episode you catch download it from the DB2Night Show website and below is a copy of the presentation. 98% of attendees said they learnt something new!
IDUG (International DB2 User Group) have been running a worldwide survey to measure DB2 10 upgrade intentions across the IDUG community. Julian Stuhler of Triton Consulting and former IDUG President, has been managing the survey and has posted the early results in the IDUG Community Form – http://www.idug.org/p/fo/si/topic=169
Some top stats include:
Any IDUG members who haven’t already completed the survey can do so here:
http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=9526985a-d3c5-427a-9075-ad7c64101b17
We’ve been huge fans of DB2 pureScale ever since it was first announced back in October 2009 and we’ve done a lot of reasearch and work on our own DB2 pureScale installation. So, we’re delighted to see that there are some interesting sessions on DB2 pureScale coming up at IDUG EMEA in November:
For more information take a look at the full IDUG EMEA agenda.
If you’re not able to attend IDUG but would like to hear about DB2 pureScale from IBM and Triton experts we have several webcasts available to view on demand:
DB2 pureScale Overview – view now
DB2 pureScale – Installation, Instance Management & Monitoring – view now
DB2 pureScale – Availability & Data Recovery – view now
DB2 pureScale – Performance & Tuning – view now
DB2 pureScale Vs Oracle RAC – view now
Or visit our youtube channel to view our DB2 pureScale live demo videos.
There are some great one day seminars coming up at IDUG EMEA. Highlights include;
- DB2 10 for z/OS - In Depth, Phil Grainger, Cogito/Grainger Database Solutions
- DB2 Intermediate and Advanced SQL, Daniel Luksetich, Yevich Lawson & Assoc Inc.
- I Didn’t Know DB2 did THAT!, Bonnie Baker, Bonnie Baker Corporation
- Optimising DB2 for z/OS System Performance Using DB2 Statistics Trace, John Campbell, IBM Corporation
- Rocket Science: DB2 for LUW Performance Analysis and Tuning Workshop, Scott Hayes, DBI
IDUG One Day Seminars are an opportunity to take a deep dive into specific aspects of DB2 with some of the most renowned speakers in our industry. You will not only have the opportunity to listen to these speakers but will have the opportunity to ask them specific questions as well. This year the seminars will be held on Friday, 18 November 2011 and the full day experience includes breakfast, lunch as well as hard copies of the course materials.
Visit the IDUG website for more information http://bit.ly/IDUGEMEA
DB2 10 for z/OS has been GA since October 2010, but one or two features weren’t quite ready at that time. One of the more eagerly awaited enhancements extend the access path management capabilities of DB2 10, via the APREUSE and APCOMPARE options of the BIND command.
With APREUSE, DB2 attempts to keep the same access paths that existed prior to the BIND/REBIND. So, while the package structures are created afresh, if the reuse is successful, the new and old access paths are structurally identical in terms of the EXPLAIN information exposed in PLAN_TABLE. The APCOMPARE option instructs DB2 to compare the new access path with the old one and take action (either issue a warning or cancel the bind process) if they are different.
These new options can be enabled via APAR PM25679, which closed on 28th July 2011. See https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?crawler=1&uid=swg1PM25679 for more details.
As part of the DB2 Support team at Triton I’ve been working with DBI tools for the last 6 months when we began using them to help manage and support our DB2 Remote DBA clients. Things have been going well.
So what does a Remote DBA service use these tools for? Well, in order to proactively manage our customers’ DB2 systems we use tools, as an in-house DBA would, to continually monitor, analyse and report on findings. This is good for our customers because it means that they don’t have to purchase their own monitoring tools as these come as part of the DB2 support service. Over the years Triton has tried a couple of different monitoring tools and we’ve decided to work with DBI as we’ve found them to be the best in terms of the range of products available to the DBA, the functionality that each product provides and the level of support provided by the DBI team.
A typical day for Remote DBA
Well there’s no such thing really. Our customers’ support requirements range from 24/7 to office hours, to out of ours only so the team is always on call one way or another! Each customer is different and will have quiet periods where things tick along nicely and busier periods they have Triton on speed dial! Not that it makes any difference to their contract because Triton customers have no limit on the number of calls they can make.
The phone vibrates, only two vibrations so it must be an email coming through. I look down to see that the email concerns a client of ours and is referencing an alert that has been breached for one of the production databases. It suggests that the database score has dropped below the threshold value of ‘5000’, reaching levels that would be of concern as the performance of the production database will be poor. This alert system is down to Brother Hawk, a product, which is configured on initial install with 140+ alerts at the DBA’s disposal and allows the DBA to create his/her own alerts.
I open up Brother Panther to look into why the database score has dropped so much, Brother Panther being the main performance tool. It shows every database that has been configured and provides numerous performance metrics that measure the workloads running against each and every database. It also allows the DBA to check on bufferpool, tablespace, table and statement performance and providing the functionality to run explains and the design advisor. I right click on the database in question and scroll down to analyse database score. The report shows me that the current workload running against the database has caused the score to drop so much, specifically the lack of indexes or sub-optimal index created for the database. This requires further analysis.
I navigate out of this window and right-click and open up a statement performance window, ah ha! A sea of red, the index read efficiency column is highlighting some poor values for a series of SQL. Anything above the threshold of 100 is highlighted in red and surely requires analysing. I look to run explain against the first SQL I encounter, table scans, as expected. I click the design advisor button and away goes Brother Panther, a series of recommended indexes are retunred along with runstats that may be required. By clicking on the ‘pdf’ button I am able to create a report for the explain and recommended indexes and send it off to the customer. So that’s what I do and then moving back to the main page for all SQL I place a flag next to the analysed SQL and make an entry, something along the lines of ‘SQL analysed, recommendations made and 30% improvement’. This will be beneficial to anyone running Brother Panther later and not wasting time analysing the same SQL as it has been flagged. This is now a recurring process for all SQL believed to be performing badly.
I need a clearer picture here, I need to know what percentage of this workload is CPU intensive. I load up Brother Thoroughbred, this provides a pie-chart of the current workload and reports on I/O, Sorts, CPU etc. by clicking into the pie-chart, I am able to see the SQL that is causing the excessive CPU usage. A statement performance screen appears with all SQL currently causing the increased CPU usage. I can continue with analysing this SQL in the same way I did previously.
The phone vibrates once more, another threshold breached. This time I am not happy with the alert as it should not be alerting me. The threshold has been set too low for this configuration parameter. I open up the administration console and navigate to Brother Hawk alerts, scroll down to the alert in question and edit it so that the threshold is increased and will only alert me when there is a real issue.
A typical day working as a remote DBA, and made a lot easier working with the DBI performance tools.
This release of DB2 10 for z/OS should make IT executives sit up and listen when their technical teams come to them with their upgrade justifications and this is why….
At the end of October 2010 IBM launched the latest version of it’s flagship database product – DB2 10 for z/OS. A lot of work went into publicising the launch, I was asked to present at the launch webcast which attracted over 1300 registrations!
Having been involved in the early beta testing and in my role working with large DB2 z/OS users I’ve been able to really get to grips with some of the new technical features. However, as innovative as these may be and no matter how excited techies get about DB2 10 the bottom line is…..well….what difference is it going to make to the bottom line?! The business benefits of DB2 10 are what really matter to IT executives.
Even in the most favourable economic climate, businesses need to control costs and increase efficiency in order to improve their bottom line. In today’s more challenging business environment this has become a key factor for the survival and success of enterprises of all sizes.
I’m pleased to report that DB2 10 delivers significant “out of the box” benefits that many customers will be able to exploit with little or no additional effort. These include the most aggressive performance and CPU improvements of any DB2 release in the last 20 years, scalability enhancements to support ever-increasing workloads and productivity improvements to allow DB2 developers and support staff to respond more rapidly to the demands of the business.
Collectively, these features deliver real and quantifiable business benefit and I believe that customers will be considering upgrading to DB2 10 much more quickly than they may have done for previous releases.
DB2 10 delivers a number of significant business benefits, many of which require little or no database, application or system changes. These can be summarised as follows:
Without getting into technical detail, there is one new addition which is worth mentioning. This version of DB2 10 supports skip migration which means that those currently running DB2 V8 can migrate directly to version 10. Just to note, version 8 officially goes out of support on April 30th 2012 which gives version 8 users 9 months to justify, plan and implement their next migration so timescales are tight for those who are at the beginning of that process. Those running version 8 are likely to be missing out on some fairly significant business benefits that DB2 9 could provide including CPU reductions.
As with any migration project it’s worth making sure you get some good advice on the pros and cons and go in to the migration project with your eyes open. Don’t underestimate the effort involved in a skip migration, or the “culture shock” for developers and support staff asked to take on two releases worth of new function in a single, large, indigestible lump.
That being said, with most customers being on usage based pricing the lure of CPU reduction makes a migration to DB2 10 highly appealing. Those customers that do decide to make the leap directly from Version 8 to Version 10 may see even bigger potential savings, as they will benefit from the cumulative CPU reduction of both V9 and V10 in one hit.
Download the white paper on the Business Benefits of DB2 v10 for z/OS
See what the beta customers think http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/zos/testimonials.html