IDUG NA 2026 Workshops & Hands-On Labs
Atlanta, Georgia | All sessions are BYOD (bring your own device)
2:00 - 3:30 PM | Thursday, October 29
This updated workshop will give you the education and information you need to use existing and new features of Amazon RDS for Db2. Some of the topics covered during this workshop will include provisioning, scaling, backup, monitoring, migration, and beyond. Each module will be introduced and presented, and then participants will be provided an environment they can use and go through a series of instructor-led exercises to practice what they have learned and explore. This will be a joint workshop between the IBM and AWS RDS teams.
Db2 delivers a wide range of tools for problem determination. Those tools range from the new Log Analysis Capability in IBM Db2 Genius Hub to classical tools that can and should be used for deeper analysis. As the Db2 community constantly welcomes new database administrators and application developers, efficient tooling and its use are required for those new community members. The session will share tools and best practices for the first occurrence data capture (FODC) tools available for DBAs and developers. This session will cover the first steps in the process of problem determination and problem source identification (PD/PSI). It provides hands-on and practical examples for the strategy and process to encircle and find problems by asking the right questions.
As AI capabilities expand on IBM Z, database operations are evolving from manual, expertise-driven practices to more automated, simpler, and faster management. This hands-on lab session provides experience with Database Assistant capabilities which transform Db2 administration through agent-assisted intelligence.
Experience how the solution combines AI-driven system insights, context-aware dashboards, and AI agents to enable:
- Faster understanding of system behavior
- Accelerated troubleshooting
- Clearer assessments of operational impact
- More confident decision-making
The benefit is reduced manual effort, improved consistency, faster issue resolution, and enhanced operational efficiency across complex enterprise environments.
Make sure to bring your laptop!
Db2&You is designed to bring customer-centric Db2 13 for z/OS information and practices to you. Continuous delivery brings significant features throughout the life of the version, with Db2 13 now containing over 78% more features than delivered at GA. This requires a good understanding of what is delivered within, and separately from function levels, along with the activation requirements of function levels. Db2&You is continually updated to provide you with the latest information.
- Customer attendees gain access to continually updated materials via the Db2&You community.
- A Db2&You workbook is provided in advance, which includes space for your notes.
- The community includes additional checklists, project framework assets, and a platform for collaboration.
- Attending Db2&You and completing the session evaluation provides opt-in access to all this information.
- Db2&You badging for those that attend all sessions and complete the evaluation.
Efficient data extraction is critical for analytics, migrations, and modern application integration. Optim High Performance Unload (HPU) provides a powerful, flexible, and lightning-fast way to unload Db2 data without impacting production workloads. This session will explore how HPU can be used for faster unloading and migrating data by using direct access methods to deliver unmatched performance compared to traditional unload utilities. In addition, we will demonstrate how HPU can recover data directly from backup images in the event of table loss, ensuring business continuity and minimizing downtime. Attendees will learn best practices for optimizing unload tasks, and handling large-scale migrations to cloud or hybrid environments. Real-world case studies will highlight performance gains, reduced disk space consumption, and simplified operations. Whether you are a DBA, or architect, this session will equip you with practical strategies to maximize the value of HPU in your enterprise.
3:45 - 5:15 PM | Thursday, October 29
IBM Db2 offers a wide range of AI features, both built-in and external tools, for creating AI systems and solutions. These include over 200 built-in AI stored procedures and tools that work seamlessly with open-source AI ecosystems. In this workshop, participants will explore Db2’s AI support and use a selection of these features to implement practical AI models. The workshop consists of two parts. In the first module, participants will learn how to develop a supervised AI model using Db2’s built-in AI stored procedures. The entire model development and usage will be done using SQL within the database. In the second module, participants will learn how to create a Python model using popular Python packages outside of the database, and then deploy that model back into a Db2 database. By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained fundamental skills and hands-on experience in utilizing these AI capabilities. They will be able to apply these skills to their future AI projects. This workshop is designed to be beginner-friendly and does not require participants to have extensive knowledge in AI. Basic SQL skills and some Python programming skills are sufficient for attending and benefiting from this workshop.
Since 2012, the ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE stored procedure has stood for versatility. Whether you're facing extraordinary challenges or handling everyday tasks, ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE has you covered as a DBA. ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE, or AMT for short, has been continually expanded and new application areas have been added. Today, it's important to understand the architecture and design principles of AMT to understand the best use cases and avoid pitfalls. This workshop will guide you through the AMT functionality, starting with the initial intended use cases, and the most used scenarios. But even more importantly, the instructors will discuss and show pitfalls and will guide trough the problem analysis process for AMT.
Even well‑written SQL can slow Db2 for z/OS when subtle mistakes slip through. In this hands‑on lab, attendees will work with preloaded queries that showcase common pitfalls—over‑indexing, missing or stale statistics, inefficient joins, unnecessary sorting, and predicate mismatches. You’ll identify the issues, apply targeted fixes, and validate improvements using metrics, access path analysis, and supporting tools.
Beyond immediate speedups, this lab reinforces a repeatable diagnostic approach that strengthens day‑to‑day tuning and sets the stage for AI‑assisted operations—where consistent, high‑quality data enables smarter automation and more reliable outcomes.
In the world of Db2 for z/OS, "set it and forget it" is a recipe for performance degradation and wasted storage. As data volumes explode and batch windows shrink, traditional housekeeping—REORG, RUNSTATS, and IMAGE COPY—must evolve from manual chores into a streamlined, automated strategy.
This deep-dive workshop provides a comprehensive blueprint for modern Db2 maintenance. We will move past the basics to explore how to balance object availability with optimal performance. Attendees will learn how to leverage the latest utility enhancements to reduce CPU consumption, manage multi-terabyte objects, and ensure that the optimizer always has the "ground truth" through intelligent statistics collection.
Are you ready to move beyond managing infrastructure and start innovating with your data? This hands-on workshop provides a deep dive into migrating and modernizing IBM Db2 workloads using Amazon RDS for Db2. Participants will gain practical experience in executing seamless migrations from platforms like Linux, AIX, or z/OS while ensuring high availability and optimized performance.
Beyond the migration, you will explore how to unlock the value of your data by integrating AWS AI/ML services. You'll learn to build intelligent applications using Amazon Bedrock powered by your live RDS for Db2 data. By the end of this session, you will have a clear blueprint for transforming your legacy databases into a modern, AI-ready data foundation.
This hands-on lab will explore how Db2 integrates vector data with structured relational data to support AI-driven use cases. Through guided exercises, attendees will combine unstructured text-derived vectors with traditional data and apply similarity search across both. The lab shows queries that merge SQL filtering with vector similarity to enable semantic search, recommendations, and intelligent data retrieval.