V5R3 Advances DB2 UDB for iSeries

June 16, 2004 David Morris

When you look at reliability, security, and ease of use, DB2 Universal Database for iSeries is ahead of any other database and is the main reason to have an iSeries. The V5R3 enhancements to DB2 UDB for iSeries keep it ahead and add lots of neat new features. Along with SQL enhancements, V5R3 delivers all kinds of other improvements. For example, you can reorganize a file while it is being used, automatically set up journaling of all tables in a library, or set up partitioned tables.

With V5R1, IBM began rewriting the underlying support for DB2 UDB on the iSeries

Effective Messaging, IBM’s Way

June 16, 2004 Hey, Ted

There is a major problem with using global Monitor Message (MONMSG) commands. If no one reads the job logs, the problem goes unnoticed and will not get fixed. Let me give you an example.

We had a standard date-handling program that had a global monitor message. During Y2K conversion, I removed the global MONMSG command, because I don’t believe in them. Guess what? We found a bug in this program that had gone unnoticed for years! Luckily there was no damage, because the buggy code was rarely executed.

My opinion of global monitor messages is that you should not

Vincent’s Standards

June 16, 2004 Dear Readers

As I mentioned in “Effective Messaging, IBM’s Way,” a reader named Vincent had some good ideas that are standards in his shop. All of them are simple, common-sense tips that can make life run a little smoother. I offer them to you for your consideration, along with a few comments and examples of my own that follow in italic type.

–Ted

1. If you call QCMDEXC, use SNDPGMMSG MSGTYPE(*INFO) to display the command to be run in the job logs for later debugging.

The job log shows a call to QCMDEXC, but not the parameter values. Instead, there is