SWARUG News

Hello!

The next SWARUG meeting will take place from 8:30am to 2:30pm on Thursday, October 4, 2012. The meeting is being sponsored by EMC, and will be held at their offices in old town Scottsdale.  EMC will be providing a light breakfast and lunch for the meeting (thanks, EMC!).

EMC’s offices are located at 4250 N. Drinkwater Boulevard, Scottsdale, AZ, 85251.  We will be meeting in the St. Andrews Conference Room. EMC can validate parking for the Lincoln Towne Center (park on the third level of the underground parking garage  on north end).

We have some great speakers lined up for this event.  Paul Pendle from EMC will be delivering talks he has given at IDUG, and I am very very excited to announce that we will have our first user speaker in quite some time:  Jeff Sullivan from the AZ Department of Administration.

Schedule:

 8:30 — Coffee
 9:00 — SWARUG Business
 9:15 — “DB2 for z/OS and Storage Virtualization” (Paul Pendle, EMC)
10:15 — Break 
10:30 — “Using Storage Replication with DB2 for z/OS” (Paul Pendle, EMC)
11:30 — Lunch
12:00 — “DB2 Data Sharing … the Easy Way” (Jeff Sullivan, AZ DOA)
 1:00 — Break 
 1:10 — “VMAX Update” (Paul Pendle, EMC)
 2:30 — Open Discussion 

If you’d like to attend, please RSVP using the registration form below.  Please note that there is limited seating at the EMC facility, so we can only take the first 28 people who RSVP.  Beyond that, we will put people on a wait list. 

If you can’t see or access the registration form (i.e., anyone from American Express or Charles Schwab), you may send an email to swarugrsvp@gmail.com that includes your name, email and the company that you work for.

Thanks!

— Ian Bjorhovde

DB2 for z/OS and Storage Virtualization

Storage virtualization is coming to DB2 for z/OS databases. This new technology has its own interesting challenges.  This session helps you understand the technology and the trade-offs of using it compared to more traditional storage provisioning methods. Best practices and performance recommendations will be offered.

Using storage replication with DB2 for z/OS

Storage arrays can be used to replicate DB2 subsystems using either TimeFinder or FlashCopy. These features can replicate DB2 subsystems for backup, recovery and disaster recovery without using host CPU cycles and I/O. And  it many cases the copy can be made instantly regardless the size of the subsystem.  This session explores those capabilities and discusses DB2 system point in time recover with DB2 V8-V10 and also the new features of FCIC (FlashCopy Image Copy) in DB2 version 10.

DB2 Data Sharing … The Easy Way

When faced with setting up a new data sharing environment on DB2 for z/OS, you may think the work is a daunting task. But have no fear since it is easier than you may think. The presentation will show the tasks associated with installing DB2 as a jump-off point; taking the audience through the steps in the installation process. A checklist of tasks, SMS-managed name standard, and DB2 naming standard will be shown to get you to where you need to be for a successful install with data sharing.

VMAX update

This session describes the new VMAX generation released in May this year. It covers the new hard ware and software capabilities including the automated  storage tiering product FAST VP.

About Paul Pendle:

Paul Pendle is a consulting systems engineer for EMC Corporation. He has more than 30 years of experience in databases, hardware, software, and operating systems both from a database administrator’s perspective and from a systems programming perspective. Pendle is an IBM Information Champion and has worked wiht DB2 for z/OS since version 1.2.

About Jeff Sullivan:

Jeff M. Sullivan is a Mainframe Systems Programmer with the State of Arizona. Prior to this position, Jeff was in IBM Systems and Technology Lab Services and Training. Over the course of his 30+ year career, Jeff has provided guidance and advice to scores of companies across a spectrum of industries, has been a frequent speaker at SHARE and IBM System z Technical University, and has been published in z/OS Hot Topics, IBM Systems Journal, and Redbooks. His specialty is DB2 and IMS performance tuning, installation, and Database Administration.

Hello!

The next SWARUG meeting will take place from 12:00pm to 4pm on Thursday, January 27, 2011. The meeting is being sponsored by CA, and will be held at their offices.  CA will be providing lunch for the meeting (thanks, CA!).

CA is located at 9201 E. Mountain View Road, Suite 200, Scottsdale, AZ 85258.

We have 3 z/OS focused presentations planned for the meeting.  Bill Arledge will be giving a presentation about the Distributed Data Facility that he delivered at the 2010 IDUG EMEA conference in Vienna.  CA will present their new Chorus tool.  Finally, Bill will present some more technical information about DB2 10 for z/OS:  He will discuss temporal tables and hash tables.  

As a bonus for attendees, CA will be raffling off 10 passes to go see a practice round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Schedule:

12:00 — Lunch
12:30 — The DDF in a Nutshell
1:30 — Break
1:45 — CA Mainframe Chorus
2:45 — Break
3:00 — DB2 10 Technical Overview: Temporal and Hash Tables 
4:00 — Raffle and Open Discussion 

If you’d like to attend, please fill out this registration form.  

If you can’t access the registration form (i.e., anyone from American Express or Charles Schwab), you can send an email to swarugrsvp@gmail.com that includes your name, email and the company that you work for.

Thanks!

— Ian Bjorhovde

The DDF in a Nutshell

An increasing percentage of DB2 application workloads originate off the mainframe utilizing DB2 Connect and numerous other distributed technologies.  While SQL is consistent for all applications, DB2 on z/OS implements distinct functionality to manage these distributed workloads.  This session cover details about DB2 on z/OS as a distributed server and requester, including discussions on DDF (Distributed Data Facility) implementation, DBAT characteristics and control, WLM, and performance management for DB2 on z/OS distributed threads.  

CA Mainframe Chorus

CA Mainframe Chorus is based on immersive research with customers to understand how they get their work done. It is designed to go far beyond the benefits of graphical user interfaces, by integrating back-end products and introducing a set of features and capabilities to help harmonize the different tools and processes required for the mainframe team to accomplish their daily tasks, creating an efficient and finely tuned environment that offers significant productivity gains.  Each CA Mainframe Chorus role leverages functionality from the CA software that supports a key management discipline.  CA Mainframe Chorus for DB2 Database Management is the first role bringing together features from seven individual CA tools that support IBM® DB2® for z/OS® in the unified workspace. 

DB2 10 Technical Overview: Temporal and Hash Tables

DB2 10 for z/OS became GA in October of 2010, expanding customer value across the board with lower cost, higher availability, better performance, enhanced security, and increased scalability.  Customers can migrate directly to DB2 10 from DB2 V8, eliminating the cost of an interim migration to DB2 9.  This presentation looks at selected DB2 10 features, specifically temporal tables and hash tables.  Temporal tables provide an integrated DB2 method for managing historical data and are built on the new system_time and business_time application period concept.  Hash tables provide a new tablespace implementation that delivers lowest cost data access using hashing algorithms to minimize GETPAGE and I/O operations.  This one hour presentation will provide detailed information on these new DB2 10 features. 

About Bill Arledge

Bill Arledge is an IT veteran with 36 years experience across a variety of roles, including application development and database administration. Bill’s database experience began in the late 1970’s as an IMS DBA and developer. He began working with DB2 in 1984 as a database specialist at IBM where he consulted with numerous IBM customers on existing and planned DB2 implementations. In 1990 Bill began working in the DB2 and IMS database tools business.  He recently joined CA Technologies as a technical sales consultant focused on DB2 and IMS technologies and tools.  Bill presents on DB2 technical topics at numerous venues around the world.  

Hello!

The next SWARUG meeting will take place from 12:30pm to 4pm on Wednesday, December 8, 2010.  Al Nitta from Global Crossing has graciously offered to host the meeting.  

Global Crossing is located at 14605 S. 50th Street, Phoenix, AZ  85044.

We have 2 interesting presentations planned for the meeting.  Leon Katsnelson will be flying in from the lab in Toronto to talk about how to leverage various technologies and industry developments to enhance your DB2 career.  Then, our own June Lundstrom will be presenting a Technical Overview of DB2 10 for z/OS.  Please see the abstracts and speaker bios below.

If you’d like to attend, please fill out this registration form.  

Alternatively, you can send an email to swarugrsvp@gmail.com that includes your name, email and the company that you work for (although I’d prefer that you use the linked form).

Thanks!

— Ian Bjorhovde

Leveraging Technology & Social Media for DB2 Professionals

Technology is changing at break neck pace and it is changing the way we live. We don’t read on paper, our books come on Kindle. We watch Youtube instead of TV. Publishers are losing audience in droves to blogs and 140 character Twitter messages. This is also changing our professional lives … in a good way. For DB2 professionals, we have more ways than ever to propel our careers to a new level. Whether you are an old DB2 for z/OS pro or just started with DB2 for LUW, this presentation will enlighten you and give you confidence and knowledge to rise above the crowd. 

Leon Katsnelson will focus on tools, Cloud Computing, DB2University, social media, and other topics to help you get ahead of the technology curve. This is not a marketing spiel or crystal ball gazing. Just practical knowledge that you can take advantage right away and without putting any money on the table. After all, the best things in life are free. 

About Leon:

Leon Katsnelson is a 25 year veteran of the IT industry. He spent the last 17 years working on DB2 in various roles. He is sometimes known as the father of DB2 Connect. Leon is currently leading the team responsible for Cloud Computing and other emerging technologies. He is responsible for bringing new people to experience the power of DB2. Leon is an author, a prolific blogger and an engaging presenter in demand at many industry events. You can find his blog at http://FreeDB2.com. 

DB2 10 for z/OS: A Technical Overview

 In this session, June Lundstrom will present a technical overview of IBM DB2 10 for z/OS. DB2 10 provides many potential benefits to help you improve service levels and save money. This session presents an overview of these features and functions and how customers can begin planning to migrate to this release. 

About June:

June is a Certified Consulting DB2 Advisor.  She has over 25 years experience with Information Management Software and supports DB2 for z/OS customers in their utilization of IBM mainframe software, including the migration to new versions of DB2 on z/OS.

SWARUG has been on hiatus for a couple of years, but with the hard work of Paul Bocks [Glasshouse Systems] and Jeff Sullivan [IBM], and a few others, we are going to try and start having meetings again.

The next meeting take place on Wednesday, July 14, from 12:30pm to 4pm at the IBM Office in Phoenix.

The IBM office is located at 2929 N Central Ave, Suite 700. Phoenix, AZ 85012.  Covered parking in the IBM complex is not free, but you can park across the street from the IBM Office at Park Central Mall, or even take use Light Rail (there is a stop right in front of the IBM Office). 

I know that this is short notice, but you’ll want to attend:  Willie Favero will be presenting two very interesting topics — DB2 parallelism and the new IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer.

If you’d like to attend, please send an email to swarugrsvp@gmail.com to indicate your interest.

Thanks! 

— Ian Bjorhovde

Myth Busting DB2’s Parallelism

Parallelism was first introduced to DB2 way back in 1993 with DB2 Version 3. With every release of DB2 parallelism has been enhanced. In applications like data warehousing and business intelligence, it’s almost a necessity. Yet, a surprisingly large number of customers continue to avoid parallelism when it could offer significant elapsed time improvements. With this presentation, we’ll try to debunk the myths that surround using DB2 parallelism. We will discuss a little bit of parallelism’s history, how parallelism works, the parameters in DB2 that control parallelism and the affects of the value chosen for those parameters, and how to get the greatest benefits when parallelism is put to use; the DOS & DON’TS necessary for you to get the most out of DB2’s parallelism . We will also discuss the latest enhancements to parallelism and how parallelism can take advantage of zIIP specialty engines.

Accelerating your Queries using the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer on System z

This session is a preview a new technology, Smart Analytics Optimizer, that will enable a new class of high speed business intelligence and analytic queries on System z. The innovative technology within the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer, offers organizations the ability to integrate business insights into the fabric of their operational processes, while accelerating queries, making business insights more accessible to the front lines of business. The value of this applies to executive users that need to make well-founded, strategic decisions as well as knowledge workers who need to have insight into the daily operational aspects of the business. This presentation will also include an introduction to the new Smart Analytics System 9600 data warehouse appliance for System z.

About Willie Favero -

Willie is an IBM Senior Certified IT Software Specialist and DB2 SME for IBM’s Silicon Valley Lab Data Warehouse on System z Swat Team. He has over 30 years of experience working with databases with more than 25 years of that working with DB2. He is a sought after international speaker for conferences, user groups, and seminars, publishes articles, white papers, and Redbooks, and has one of the top technical blog on the Internet.