DB2 for z/OS and SMS: a DB2 10 Migration Step That You Can Take Ahead of Time

[Note: the IBM developerWorks Web site has undergone some significant changes since this blog entry was originally posted in October of 2011. These changes, aimed largely at making the site more community-oriented (there are several DB2-related communities), are welcome, but as a result the path to some file is not the same as before. I have updated the "how to find" information in this blog post accordingly.]  

Those of you looking to migrate your DB2 for z/OS Version 8 or Version 9 systems to DB2 10 may be aware of the fact that the DB2 catalog and directory data sets must be SMS-managed in a DB2 10 environment, and that SMS must be set up to manage these data sets before you actually perform the migration process (SMS, of course, refers to the Storage Management Subsystem component of the z/OS operating system).

At some sites, the DB2 catalog and directory data sets are already SMS-managed (DB2 9 provided a USE SMS option on panel DSNTIPA2 of the DB2 install CLIST, which if set to YES would cause DB2 catalog and directory data sets to be allocated on SMS-managed storage). For folks with DB2 catalog and directory data sets that are not SMS-managed, IBM provides a job, called DSNTIJSS, that can be used to create a stand-alone SMS environment for the DB2 catalog and directory (that's for sites that do not currently have an SMS environment -- DSNTIJSS can also be used as a guide for adapting an existing SMS environment to achieve SMS management of the DB2 catalog and directory data sets). DSNTIJSS ships with DB2 10 -- it's a member of the SDSNSAMP library.

Suppose you want to use DSNTIJSS to help you get set up for SMS management of the DB2 catalog and directory data sets, but your organization has not yet ordered DB2 10? The good news for you is that this job is available on the IBM developerWorks Web site. developerWorks, by the way, is a good site for you to get to know anyway. There is a lot of great stuff there, and contrary to what you might assume because of the site's name, the content is NOT limited to items that would only be of interest to developers -- DB2 DBAs and systems people will find many useful papers, files, etc.

Information on getting the DSNTIJSS job from developerWorks follows. First I'll provide "find it" instructions starting from the developerWorks home page -- this because it's my way of encouraging you to look around at what the site has to offer. I'll follow that with more of a short-cut path to the file.

The scenic route:

1. Go to the developerWorks home page (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/)
2. On that page, click on "Community" in the black banner across the top of the page. A gray box will drop down. Click on the "Communities" link (that's "Communities" plural, not the bold-faced "Community" link).
3. After clicking the "Communities" link, you'll see a gray banner near the top of the page, just under the developerWorks black banner. In the search box in the gray "Communities" banner (NOT the search box in the black "developerWorks" banner), you'll see a search scope indicator (it might be pre-filled with "Public Communities"). Click on that part of the search box to get a drop-down menu, and select "developerWorks Community" from that menu.
4. After selecting "developerWorks Community" as the search scope, enter DSNTIJSS as the search term next to the magnifying glass icon, and hit Enter. [At this point you'll get a sign-in page, if you're not already signed into developerWorks. To sign in you need an IBM ID. Getting one of these is free and quick. Sign in with your IBM ID.]
5. Click on the returned dsntijss.copy link, and you're there.

The more direct route: go to the developerWorks "public files" page (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/files/app#/), and enter DSNTIJSS in the search box in the gray banner across the top of the page (again, not the search box in the black banner above the gray banner). That will return the dsntijss.copy link. Click on that and download the file.

That's it! Note that dsntijss.copy is a text file that can be opened using an editor such as Notepad.

A few more items of information for you:

• A good source for more information about DSNTIJSS is the DB2 10 Installation and Migration Guide. You can get a copy of this manual in PDF form by going to the DB2 10 for z/OS manuals page on the Web (if you'd rather access this manual's content in the DB2 10 Information Center, just click on the HTML link next to the manual's title in the list of manuals).
• There is also useful information about DSNTIJSS in the IBM "red book" titled "DB2 10 for z/OS Technical Overview" (see section 12.9, "SMS-managed DB2 catalog").
• Although getting set up for SMS management of the DB2 catalog and directory data sets is required prior to migrating a subsystem to DB2 10, it is not necessary to convert existing non-SMS-managed catalog and directory data sets to the SMS environment -- any such data sets not changed to SMS management during the DB2 10 migration process will become SMS-managed the next time the associated table space is reorganized.

DB2 10 has a whole lot to offer to organizations now using DB2 Version 8 or Version 9. The sooner you get to DB2 10, the sooner your company can benefit from numerous functionality, performance, and high-availability enhancements. I hope that the information in this blog entry will provide a boost to your DB2 10 migration efforts.