db2top on windows - quick tip

I recently spoke with a customer who liked db2top alot and inquired if he could run it on Windows. I told him that while it couldn't be run directly, it could be launched from a machine that supports db2top (unix,linux,aix or a vmware running unix/linux/) and attach to the windows database remotely.

I told him I'd seen an article referencing these steps and that he would likely find the instructions if he googled this. After searching for the link to give that to him, I could no longer find that posting. So, here is a quick note on how to do this.

In my example a have a linux machine running redhat from which I'm launching db2top.

1) First, catalog the remote windows database using both the
db2 catalog tcpip and db2 catalog database commands.

These catalog commands are run on the linux machine.

Here is my example:

db2 catalog tcpip node W2003 remote 9.123.44.66 server 50000

(where 9.123.44.66 is the IP address of the Windows database server I'd like to monitor and 50000 is the port, W2003 is an arbitrary name I gave my node.)

db2 catalog database sample at node W2003

2) Then, launch db2top from your linux machine using the -n nodename -u userid -p password.

My example again:

db2top -d sample -n W2003 -u db2admin -p ibmdb2

And, your monitoring your Windows Db2 database using db2top. (remotely from your linux/unix machine.)



I hope you found this tip helpful. I'm sorry I can't give the original author credit for posting this.
If you'd like to learn more about db2top, I've found the following Blog postings from Keith McDonald quite helpful. http://www.thekguy.com/db2top

db2connectactivate for direct connections to Db2 z/OS

Many shops are using or have been using the JCC T4 drivers to establish a direct connection to DB2 z/OS. If your site does this or is headed towards this gate-less architecture for DB2 Connect, you might want to review the db2connectactivate utility.

db2connectactivate is a license key utility that can be run from the DB2 Connect Unlimited Edition CD or install image. Starting in version 9.7 Fix Pack 3, you can activate the license key for DB2CUE on any z/OS subsystem or data sharing group that you want to access directly.

To use the db2connectactivate utility :
1. First ensure that the Java Runtime Environment of 1.4.2 or later is available on the DB2 for Linux, Unix, Windows (LUW) workstation from which you want to run the activation utility.

2. Then from the activation_cd_root\consv_zs\db2\license directory, issue the command for your operating system with the appropriate options:

- On UNIX: db2connectactivate.sh [options]
- On Windows: db2connectactivate [options]

This process will install a SQL bodied stored procedure if connecting
to  a DB2 z/OS V9+ or a scalar function when using DB2 V8 z/OS
host systems.

Once the activation step is completed,  the stored procedure
will be invoked to validate the license.

Activating the license key on a z/OS subsystem can take less time than
activating the key on each client computer.
If your still leveraging a gateway you can still activate the license as
you did in previous versions. 

For more information,  refer to the documentation 
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v9r7/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.db2.luw.licensing.doc/doc/t0057375.html