DB2 Client Install on Linux

Allowing client machines to connect to a DB2 database is not as simple as regular databases. If you are using a client application, such as a Java web application, usually the application server has what is needed to configure a DB2 connection pool. However, if you need to access DB2 from the command line, the process is a little more complicated. Here are steps that will work with IBM DB2 v9.5 (example is for AMD64 architecture):

• Get download link from http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/9/download.html
• Run the following commands:

  wget <use link retrieved above>
  tar xvzf v9.5_linuxx64_client.tar.gz
  client/db2_install (accept defaults)
  groupadd -g 999 db2iadm1
  groupadd -g 998 db2fadm1
  groupadd -g 997 dasadm1
  useradd -u 1004 -g db2iadm1 -m -d /home/db2inst1 db2inst1
  useradd -u 1003 -g db2fadm1 -m -d /home/db2fenc1 db2fenc1
  useradd -u 1002 -g dasadm1 -m -d /home/dasusr1 dasusr1
  /opt/ibm/db2/V9.5/instance/db2icrt -a server -u db2fenc1 db2inst1
  cp /home/db2inst1/sqllib/db2profile /etc/profile.d/db2profile.sh

• If you run into errors during the install process such as:

  /root/client/db2/linuxamd64/install/db2_install: line 277: /root/tmp/db2_install.15043.rsp: Not a directory
  /root/client/db2/linuxamd64/install/db2_install: line 285: /root/tmp/db2_install.15043.rsp: Not a directory
  /root/client/db2/linuxamd64/install/db2setup: /tmp/db2.tmp.15043/db2/linuxamd64/install//db2chgpath: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied
  /root/client/db2/linuxamd64/install/db2setup: /tmp/db2.tmp.15043/db2/linuxamd64/install//db2setup_exec: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

  Because /tmp is mounted with the noexec option the db2_install fails. It looks like it prefers to copy all the files to tmp then install (not a secure method).

  Open up the platform specific db2_install file (noted above in the errors)

  db2/linuxamd64/install/db2_install

  Edit the TMPDIR line:

  TMPDIR=${DB2TMPDIR:-/tmp}

  to something like

  TMPDIR=${DB2TMPDIR:-/root/tmp}

  (*directory must exist or be created!)

  Next, make sure DB2TMPDIR is a valid environment variable matching above:

   [root@server ~/] export DB2TMPDIR=~/tmp

  Then start the db2_install from the top level directory, IE

   ./db2_install

• there is one more step: adding the catalog entry to for the remote database which consists of two steps

• create the instance alias using the following commands:

      db2 "catalog tcpip node remoteinst remote remotehost server 50000"
      db2 "terminate"
  

• create the database alias using the following commands:

      db2 "catalog database testdb as remotedb at node remoteinst authentication server"
      db2 "terminate"
  

References:

• Getting Started With IBM DB2