Prepare the runtime environment - connecting to the database

In order to connect to IBM^® DB2^®, you must have a database driver "dbmdb2*" in FGLDIR/dbdrivers.

If you want to connect to a remote DB2 server, the IBM DB2 Client Application Enabler must be installed and configured on the computer running the BDL applications. You must declare the data source set up as follows:

Login as root.
1. Create a user dedicated to the db2 client instance environment, for example, "db2cli1".
2. Create a client instance environment with the db2icrt tool as in following example:
  # db2dir /instance/db2icrt -a server -s client instance-user
Login as the instance user (environment should be set automatically, verify DB2DIR).
1. Catalog the remote server node:
  # db2 "catalog tcpip node db2node remote hostname server tcp-service"
2. Catalog the remote database:
  # db2 "catalog database datasource at node db2node authentication server"
3. Test the connection to the remote database:
  # db2 "connect to datasource user dbuser using password"
  
  (where dbuser is a database user declared on the remote database server)

See IBM DB2 documentation for more details.

Important: If you have a non-English environment, you may need to set the PATCH2=15 configuration parameter in the DB2CLI.INI file to ensure that DECIMAL values will be properly inserted or fetched:

[datasource]
PATCH2=15

For more details, see the DB2 README.TXT file in the SQLLIB directory.

Make sure that the DB2 client environment variables are properly set. Check variables such as DB2DIR (the path to the installation directory), DB2INSTANCE (the name of the DB2 instance), INSTHOME (the path to the home directory of the instance owner). On UNIX™, you will find environment settings in the file $INSTHOME/sqllib/db2profile. See IBM DB2 documentation for more details.

Check the database client locale settings (DB2CODEPAGE, etc). The database client locale must match the locale used by the runtime system (LC_ALL, LANG).

Verify the environment variable defining the search path for database client shared libraries (libdb2.so on UNIX, DB2CLI.DLL on Windows™).

On UNIX platforms, the variable is specific to the operating system. For example, on Solaris and Linux™ systems, it is LD_LIBRARY_PATH, on AIX^® it is LIBPATH, or HP/UX it is SHLIB_PATH . On Windows, you define the DLL search path in the PATH environment variable.

Table 1. Shared library environment setting for DB2 UDB version
DB2 UDB version	Shared library environment setting
DB2 UDB 7.x and 8.x	UNIX: Add $DB2DIR/lib (for 32 bit) or $DB2DIR/lib64 (for 64 bit) to LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or its equivalent). Windows: Add %DB2DIR%\bin to PATH.
DB2 UDB 9.x	UNIX: Add $DB2DIR/lib32 (for 32 bit) or $DB2DIR/lib64 (for 64 bit) to LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or its equivalent). Windows: Add %DB2DIR%\bin to PATH.

To verify if the DB2 client environment is correct, you can, for example, start the db2 command interpreter and connect to the server:

$ db2

db2 => CONNECT TO dbname USER username USING password

Setup the fglprofile entries for database connections.

Important: Make sure that you are using the ODI driver corresponding to the database client and server version. Because Informix^® features emulation is dependent on the database server version, it is mandatory to use the same version of the database client and ODI driver as the server version.

Define the database schema selection if needed. Use the following entry to define the database schema to be used by the application. The database interface will automatically perform a SET SCHEMA name instruction to switch to a specific schema:

dbi.database.dbname.db2.schema = 'name'

Here dbname identifies the database name used in the BDL program ( DATABASE dbname ) and name is the schema name to be used in the SET SCHEMA instruction. If this entry is not defined, no "SET SCHEMA" instruction is executed and the current schema defaults to the user's name.