Happy new year! Before we completely turn our attention to 2025, I want to summarize the key new capabilities and enhancements delivered to Db2 13 in 2024, just in case you missed them.
I hope that you’ve already seen my previous blog entries announcing the availability of two new function levels for Db2 13 during 2024, including function level 505 in April and function level 506 in October.
While continuing an expected cadence of two function levels per year, Db2 development also continues to release new features to customers as soon as possible. With this approach, some APARs take immediate effect when you apply the PTF in each Db2 subsystem or data sharing member if they don’t need application compatibility control or enforcement of consistent behavior in all Db2 data sharing members.
Here’s a high-level review of the new-function APARS for Db2 13 that were released without function-level control in 2024, starting with the newest. Each APAR number is a link to more information about the APAR in the online product documentation.
– PH63832 potentially reduces CPU costs associated with creating backups of your data by making portions processing for the COPY utility eligible to run on IBM z Integrated Information Processors (zIIP).
– PH61970 enables you to obtain access path information for advanced triggers without having to change the packages by introducing support for specifying the EXPLAIN(ONLY) option when you issue REBIND PACKAGE commands for packages for advanced triggers.
– PH63145 enables you to delete unwanted statistics in the Db2 catalog for specific partitions of database objects by enabling the MODIFY STATISTICS utility to run for a single partition of a partitioned object, without deleting the aggregate statistics for the object.
– PH62990 enables binding of location alias to a different IP address for a standalone Db2 subsystem by changing Db2 so that a subsystem that is not a data sharing member can create a single listen socket for a location alias port by requesting that the socket is bound to INADDR_ANY.
– PH62438 enables you to distribute higher importance work more evenly by enabling Db2 13 to use the SPECIFICIMP function for calls to the WLM sysplex routing service (IWMSRSRS), if that function is available.
– PH58162 reduces the extended common service area (ECSA) storage footprint for processing distributed (DDF) threads by enhancing Db2 to request performance blocks (IWMPBs) for WLM enhanced delay monitoring for all threads in 64-bit HVCOMMON storage. The removal of these control blocks from ESCA expands on the ECSA storage footprint reductions already in the original release of Db2 13.
– PH60133 enables you to identify and understand the IP addresses that applications use when connecting to Db13 by introducing the IFCID 417 statistics trace to class 10 and 11 to collect an inventory of new client information that correlates with the IFCID 365, 411, and 412 records.
– PH60133 improves the consistency of authorization behavior for DISPLAY commands by introducing support for users with the DISPLAY privilege to issue the DISPLAY ML and DISPLAY RLIMIT commands.
– PH58161 improves monitoring of the TCP/IP stack in the sysplex and reduces exceptions some customers encountered in compliance tools by enabling Db2 13 to use an ENF80 signal provided by z/OS Communications Server to determine when the TCP/IP stack leaves or rejoins the sysplex.
– PH60669 helps system programmers identify the problem and take appropriate actions sooner if Db2 encounters archive log data errors set during offload. Specifically, it enhances the DSNJ114I message to report the COPYID and data set name of the log data set that is receiving the error.
– PH60870 helps you maintain the accuracy of your AI queries over time as the data objects change by introducing a new model retraining capability for SQL Data Insights (SQL DI).
– PH60240 (an APAR for the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ product ) enables you to specify password phrases of up to 100 characters for applications that use the JDBC Type 2 driver and trusted contexts to connect to Db2 13.
– PH59837 enables your Db2 REST services to take advantage of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), which is a protocol standard for permitting a web page or application to access remote content from a different domain (or port) than the site that the web page was loaded from.
– PH51434 helps you prevent inconsistencies when copying XML data from a source table to a target table when the table space contains XML versions by enhancing the following Db2 utilities: REORG TABLESPACE, RECOVER with FROM, and REPAIR with INSERTVERSIONPAGES.
– PH57811 helps you enforce security more precisely for new cloud-based clients or specific portions of your network by introducing more granular filtering options when you use the MONITOR product-type CONNECTIONS FOR SECURITY keyword in Db2 profile tables.
– PH54199 helps you more promptly resolve situations where a recovery from a group buffer pool recovery pending (GRECP) state is delayed because the GBP-recovery LRSN is not progressing by introducing a DSNB360I message for detailed information for a page that is identified with the minimum page LRSN in a DSNB355I message.
For more information about all the new-function APARs available for Db2 13, see New-function APARs for Db2 13.
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