Now that it is already July of 2025, here’s a high-level look at the new capabilities and enhancements delivered for Db2 13 during the first half of this year. As always, you can find each of these items documented in much more detail in the official Db2 product documentation section for New-function APARs for Db2 13.
January
Reduced flooding of the z/OS console by Db2 server authentication failures: with PH62137, Db2 issues a new DSNL061I message to reduce situations where Db2 for z/OS server authentication failures can cause DSNL030I and ICH408I messages to flood the z/OS console and potentially cause abnormal termination of the ssnmMSTR address space. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
AUTHID filtering for profiles that monitor security: with PH63652, security administrators can filter on authorization IDs for profiles that discover and enforce secure connectivity for applications, which is useful when they know the authorization IDs that are associated with each application more than IP addresses used. For more information, see the documentation.
EXPLAIN(ONLY) support Db2 native REST services: with PH63990, you can obtain access path information with the without having to create or update the native REST service by specifying the EXPLAIN(ONLY) option for the createService API and BIND SERVICE and REBIND PACKAGE commands. For more information, see the documentation.
RESTful API and the shell CLI interfaces for SQL Data Insights (SQL DI): with PH64220 and PH64221, you can use the new interfaces for OpenAPI-compliant REST API requests and shell CLI commands to administer SQL DI server settings and manage its connections, AI objects, and object models. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
Abbreviated spelling APPLCOMPAT for various SQL statements: with PH64377, you can use the abbreviated spelling CURRENT APPLCOMPAT for any references the CURRENT APPLICATION COMPATIBILITY special register, and you can specify USING APPLCOMPAT can be used wherever USING APPLICATION COMPATIBILITY can be specified inside the REGENERATE clauses of various ALTER statements. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
February
Monitoring of 4 KB and 32 KB work file pages for sort: with PH62780, you can use new trace fields to monitor the current usage and highest usage since Db2 was started (high-water mark) for 4 KB and 32 KB work file pages that are used for sort processing. For more information, see the documentation.
Datagram reply messages in MQListener: with PH63420, the MQListener can send reply replies for datagram messages. For more information, see the documentation.
March
Accumulated CPU time for IBM zIIP use by SQL statements: with PH64742, you can get more information about IBM z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) usage in Db2 with new fields of the IFCID 58, 316, and 401 trace records plus a new column named STAT_ZIIP_CPU in the DSN_STATEMENT_CACHE_TABLE. For more information, see the documentation.
Current schema name for IFCID 350: with PH65474, you can find the current schema name for dynamic SQL statements in IFCID 350 trace records for better performance analysis for tuning and troubleshooting of SQL applications. For more information, see the documentation.
April
Function level V13R1M507 activation support: with PH64907, you can activation function level 507 in Db2 13 to enable online PBR to PBG conversions, improved application availability for system temporal tables, SYSPLAN.LASTUSED column, referencing system temporal and archive-enabled table data in the same SELECT, and greater than 64 GB primary and secondary quantities. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
IPv4 and IPv6 subnet addresses trusted contexts: with PH64533, you can specify IPv4 and IPv6 subnet addresses for the ADDRESS attribute for trusted contexts. This capability is especially useful for using trusted contexts to control access from cloud-based clients or specific portions of the network.
Prefetch to avoid synchronous reads for cross-invalidation in data sharing: with PH65562, you can enable prefetch to avoid synchronous read operations that occur due to cross invalidation and avoid the resulting synchronous reads and impact on online workload performance, and you can also change the pseudo-close interval for specific buffer pools by issuing an ALTER BUFFERPOOL command. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
Generating migration jobs without GRANT statements: with PH63973, you can use a new GRANT OPTION field on the DSNTIPG panel to control whether the Db2 installation CLIST generates, comments out, or omits GRANT statements for generated installation, migration, and IVP jobs. For more information, see the documentation.
Improved Db2 configuration discovery with DSNTXAZP: with PH63793, the DSNTXAZP tool discovers information about current subsystem parameter settings, buffer pool settings, and other settings that define a Db2 subsystem when it updates a DSNTIDxx defaults input member. For more information, see the documentation.
May
CDDS storage of compression dictionaries: with PH64099 and function level 500 or higher, you can store the expansion dictionary in the compression dictionary data set (CDDS). The expansion dictionary is used to decompress compressed table space data that is returned in log records. For more information, check out the earlier blog entry.
DELETEDS override for MODIFY RECOVERY: with PH65233, a Db2 subsystem parameter, UTIL_MODIFY_REC_DELETEDS, can be used to prevent the MODIFY RECOVERY utility from deleting image copy data sets when the DELETDS option is specified. For more information, see the documentation.
Local and remote use of the same trusted context: with PH65634, administrators and users can use the same trusted context for both local connections, such as batch, TSO, RRSAF, and CAF, and remote connections such as JDBC, and ODBC. For more information, see the documentation.
Call attachment facility (CAF) queueing control: with PH65922, you can specify a new optional queue parameter in the OPEN function for the call attachment facility (CAF) to request that threads are rejected instead of being queued based on the CTHREAD subsystem parameter threshold. For more information, see the documentation.
June
Reduced console messages for Db2ZAI DCC: with PH65972, WARNING_DIAGLEVEL0 can be used the ATTRIBUTE1 column of the DSN_PROFILE_ATTRIBUTES profile table to prevent Db2ZAI Distributed Connection Control (DCC) recommended profiles from generating additional console messages during the training process. For more information see the documentation.
Query acceleration for LOB data types: with PH62993 in Db2 for z/OS, and with IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS version 8, large object (LOB) data types such as CLOB, DBCLOB, and BLOB, and LOB expressions can be eligible for query acceleration in certain situations. For more information, see the documentation.
Security enhancements for Db2 SQL DI: with PH66445, PH66446, and PH66267, you can use Db2 secondary authorization IDs to authorize SQL DI users for object and model management. You can also use RACF PassTickets or authentication token files to access Db2 from the shell CLI or the REST API. For more information, see the documentation.
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