Connect to IBM's DB2/MVS from HP-UX

[Olaf Stransky]

Hi all database gurus,

how can I connect to a DB2 Datebase (running on an IBM Host) from a HP-UX Server (K200, HP-UX 10.20).
For Oracle all I need is for free (SqlNet, sqlplus, proC...), all I found in the internet for DB2 was the "DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition" and it costs a lot of money (not to talk about things like oracle's "transparent gateway")!
Are there any cheaper ways?

[Steve Slade]

Hi Olaf,

I think the quick answer, is that there is no cheap answer.

The project I work on uses Oracle's Procedural Gateway to connect MVS. It is a three-tier system, with Oracle as the mid tier connecting to MVS (CICS) and DB2. It was a bit of beast to get started with, but works quite well once you get to know it.

We did start using the Transparent gateway, but the powers that be, back about 4-5 years ago, decided that the procedural gateway was the better option. This might not be the case now.

With regards to Oracle's gateways the things we have found worth looking at are :

1. UNIX to MVS is 'interesting'. Finding a team to manage the SNA configuration is worthwhile. We found that as teams changed, we became the experts and now manage it ourself.

2. The gateway products are quite 'obscure', and so not many people know much about them.

3. Performance. This is our biggest bug bear with the procedural gateway. As MVS uses the EBCDIC character set and UNIX uses ASCII, there is obviously a conversion. This takes place on the Oracle database, and is coded in internal PLSQL packages. This can mean quite long retrieval times when extracting large amounts of data. (Well, longer than Oracle -> Oracle anyway)

I know of other projects within my company that have used c, c++ and other bespoke methods to connect to MVS to gain a better performance. However, the devlopment times were longer too!

[Olaf Stransky]

Hi Steve,

this was not really the answer that I wanted to get, but it was the answer I expected.

Thanks

Olaf