» Module 5 – Installing DB2 Connections 101.net

Our next step is to get a database server in place so we have somewhere to store our Connections application data. Connections 4.0 supports Oracle (10g and 11g), DB2 (9.7) as well as SQL |(2005 and 2008 R2) as database servers. Full details of database server system requirements are here

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24033179

If you already have an enterprise database server solution in place that meets the requirements then you may want to continue using that, however consider that Connections will create 12 separate databases to support all applications and as such will probably require its own dedicated resource. If you don’t have a solution already in place then IBM provide licensing for DB2 9.7 as part of your Connections licensing. You can download the DB2 install from the Connections eAssembly and you will also need to download the DB2 Quickstart and Activation key to apply a license.

Having downloaded and extracted the DB2 installer, you need to launch setup.ext from the ESE\image directory

The setup program start launchpad from which you would choose the menu “Install A Product” and click the button “Install Now”

Choose “Typical” Installation to install the standard DB2 server and settings

The installer will suggest c:\program files\ibm\sqllib. We recommend not installing into “program files”

Now we need to create a db2 admin account. This will be created as a local OS account under Windows by the installer. The account should not already exit. The password you specify here must meet the security settings for the local OS and often, especially with Windows 2008, this means a very strong password. That is a Windows, not DB2, requirement.

A single DB2 server can launch multiple “Instances” each of which contains specific databases. This helps with DB2 memory and resource allocation but in our model all databases are going to be installed in a single DB2 instance.

We don’t need the DB2 Tools and won’t be installing them

Defining a SMTP server here is purely for DB2 level notifications, not Connections notifications. Mostly this would be related to system problems or reports. Defining a SMTP server is an optional setting that you can also do later but that we strongly recommend you setup during initial install if you can.

Defining a SMTP server for DB2 notification can be very useful in Connections deployments since with 12 separate databases across each of the applications, it’s very common to hit memory resource limits. This is usually spotted in the Forums or Files applications not loading correctly or loading then failing as more memory is consumed. For troubleshooting, in the Connections logs you will see references to SQL errors but nothing that explicitly tells you DB2 has a memory issue, whereas DB2 will notify you directly of memory issues it is experiencing if you enable notifications.

DB2 wants to create standard groups to enable both User and Administrator access. These are the default group names that we suggest you maintain.

Once the install is complete you can check if the db2admin account you specified during install has been correctly created under a local Windows account and whether that account is assigned to a new group called DB2ADMINS. We would do this by going into Local Users and Groups in Windows Server Manager.

So now DB2 is installed but we haven’t yet licensed it. There’s still one final step before you can continue on with your Connections deployment. If you don’t complete this license step, on restart your Windows server will start throwing SQL errors.

The license file is called db2ese_0.lic. It is supplied in its own download specifically for your Connections software. Once you have extracted that file we would recommend copying it to another directory where it will be easier to type the URL for adding it to your DB2 install. The file needn’t stay in that location once the license install is complete.

To do the license install you need to log on as Administrator and log back in as your new db2admin account. Don’t be tempted to try doing this as Administrator, it’s always best to swap to the db2admin account when doing DB2 administrative work.

Logged in as DB2 we now need to go to a Command Window in order to type the command that adds our license to our new DB2 server.

The db2 command to add our license is

db2licm -a <filepathtolicense> e.g. db2licm -a c:\db2ese_o.lic. See screenshot below of our license being successfully added.

Now reboot your server, log back in as Administrator and use “netstat -an” from a command prompt to confirm DB2 is running on port 50000 successfully.

Now.. you need to patch it to FP6

You should have also downloaded FP6 for DB2. Run the v9.7fp6_ntx64_universal_fixpack.exeack.zip file as Administrator and extract to a location you can find on the machine.

Then run the setup file (again as Administrator)

A familiar DB2 setup screen will appear. This is the fixpack screen. Go to “Install a product” and scroll down the list to DB2 Enterprise Server 9.7 Fp6 and click on “work with existing”

The installer will find the existing DB2 installation. Make sure it is selected and click on “Launch Db2 Setup wizard”

You get brought to the install screen. Click on next.

Now, as you didn’t stop DB2 before installing the patch, it warns you that it will stop the processes for you. Click on YES. You shouldn’t be using DB2 for anything yet, so that is ok, but after the install just be good to yourself and reboot the box.