When dealing with DB2 it is first important to understand which member of the DB2 “family” you are working with. While the DB2 brand is used on a variety of platforms the underlying infrastructure is somewhat different on each. There are 4 flavors of the DB2 product but most of the material written about DB2 addresses the first two flavors on the list.
- DB2 for z/OS (mainframe)
- DB2 for Linux, Unix and Windows (LUW)
- DB2 for iSeries (formerly AS/400)
- DB2 for VM/VSE
The code base for each of the 4 flavors is different and the internals work differently from one to the next. From the application’s perspective, the different platforms will behave in a similar way.
Most of the material delivered at IDUG and presented on this site will be related to the first two flavors of DB2. Look for tags on each blog entry that will clearly identify which platform is being discussed. Some material, particularly relating to SQL, will apply to multiple platforms.