Overview of the IBM DB2 LUW Replication Solution

Replication is the copying of data from one place to another. Data can be extracted by programs, transported to some other location, and then loaded at the receiving location. A more efficient alternative is to extract only the changes since the last processing cycle and transport/apply those to the receiving location.

Data may be filtered and transformed during replication. There may be other requirements for replication, such as time constraints. In most cases, replication must not interfere with existing applications and have minimal impact on production systems. The replication processes need to be managed and monitored.

Who uses IBM DB2 Replication and Why?

A business organization that wants to build distributed system

Data distribution is a tool that helps companies put necessary data in the hands of local decision-makers yet maintain firm central control over the data. With IBM DB2 replication, data can be shared and replicated between databases, allowing system designers to put the data where it's needed

A business organization that wants to have additional backup strategy

In conjunction with backup, IBM DB2 replication strategies seek to complement traditional approaches by providing alternative levels of data protection and integrity, while minimizing user disruptions. Replication creates a point-in-time copy of the data to be used as the backup source

A business organization who wants to set up a High Availability failover system

DB2 High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) is a database replication feature that provides a high availability solution for both partial and complete site failures. HADR protects against data loss by replicating data changes from a source database, called the primary, to a target database, called the standby. In case of a failure the takeover by the standby database only takes seconds since the standby database server is already up and running. HADR also lets you manage planned downtime such as routine maintenance and software upgrades between connected servers.

In Practice

An Xtivia client had a problem with heavy load and poor performance on their production database servers. It was determined that most of the load came from reporting tools and the long running, complex queries they used. Xtivia implemented a new database on another server that could be used specifically for reporting in order to remove this workload from the production database. This new database would contain a subset of 20 production tables and data would be loaded into the reporting database nightly.

DB2 SQL Replication is a feature that comes built into DB2 without the need for additional software or licenses. DB2 SQL Replication is based on the database transaction logs so it is very efficient. Using DB2 SQL Replication, performance is impacted far less compared with other methods of moving data. Another very useful feature is that SQL Replication can be set up between different hardware and operating system platforms.

The result was a fully functioning reporting database that could be configured and tuned specifically for a complex query workload. This freed up resources on the production database server and allowed Xtivia to tune it for a very high transaction, OLTP workload.

What We Provide

Xtivia’s Engineers will provide recommendations and strategies to set up IBM DB2 replication environments to meet your organizational objectives. Xtivia also provides Virtual-DBA services that can monitor your replication server activities. We deliver:

• Initial assessments and review requirements
• Design replication system
• Define the approach & plan
• Estimate schedule & cost
• Perform installation
• Test and validate
• Training to administer replication server
• Monitor replication server using Virtual-DBA when requested