This document communicates best practices for using the DB2 Storage Optimization Feature with the DB2® for Linux®, UNIX®, and Windows® product. This paper illustrates how this feature can be a crucial driver of a broader space-conscious storage strategy for your large OLTP workload or data warehouse.

You can use the DB2 Storage Optimization Feature to apply compression on various types of persistently stored data and temporary data. The benefits that you can realize from using the best practices that are described in this paper include the following ones:

• Your data consumes less storage space.
• Your storage is consumed at a slower rate.
• Your database performance might improve, depending on your environment.

The DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows Version 10.1 product (DB2 Version 10.1) provides various means to help control, manage, and reduce the storage consumption of objects in your database by means of compression.

You can apply compression to primary user data (row and XML data, indexes), system- generated data (temporary tables), and administrative data (backup images and archived transaction logs). Advanced compression features for primary user and system- generated data are available through the DB2 Storage Optimization Feature. Compression facilities for administrative data are available in all editions of the DB2 software.

This document presents the various compression methods in DB2 Version 10.1. For each method, the document lists the points that are worth considering when you determine whether to adopt that method. You are provided with detailed information about how you identify candidate tables and indexes for compression. You are also provided with detailed information about the best practices to help achieve maximum storage space savings when you first adopt compression techniques.