This month BMC announced the upgrading of 23 tools for managing DB2 10 databases running on System z9, z10, and zEnterprise/z196. When IBM introduced DB2 10 in 2010 it implied the database would reduce costs and optimize performance. Certainly running it on the z10 or the z196 with the latest zIIP engine would do both, but BMC’s updated tools make it easier to capture and expand those benefits.
IBM estimated 5-10% improvement in CPU performance out-of-the box. BMC’s solutions for DB2 10 for z/OS will help IT organizations further maximize cost savings as well as enhance the performance of their applications and databases by much as a 20% improvement if you deploy using their upgraded tools.
These DB2 improvements, which IBM refers to as operational efficiencies, revolve mainly around reducing CPU usage. This is possible because, as IBM explains it, DB2 10 optimizes processor times and memory access, leveraging the latest processor improvements, increased memory, and z/OS enhancements. Improved scalability and a reduced virtual storage constraint add to the savings. Continued productivity improvements for database and systems administrators can drive even more savings.
The key to the improvements may lie in your ability to fully leverage the zIIP assist processor. The zIIP co-processors take over some of the processing from the main CPU, saving money for those organizations that pay for their systems by MIPS (million instructions per second).
When IBM introduced version 10 of DB2 for z/OS in 2010, it promised customers that upgrading to this version would boost performance due to DB2′s use of these co-processors. Even greater gains in performance would be possible if the customer also would be willing to do some fine-tuning of the system. This is where the new BMC tools come in; some of tools specifically optimize the use the zIIP co-processors.
Some of BMC’s enhanced capabilities help offload the DB2 workload to the zIIP environment thereby reducing general purpose processor utilization. The amount of processing offloaded to zIIP engines varies. With the new release, for example, up to 80 percent of the data collection work for BMC SQL Performance for DB2 can be offloaded.
The BMC tools also help companies tune application and database performance in other ways that increase efficiency and lower cost. For example, BMC’s SQL Performance Workload Compare Advisor and Workload Index Advisor detect performance issues associated with changes in DB2 environments. Administrators can see the impact of changes before they are implemented, thereby avoiding performance problems.
An early adopter of BMC’s new DB2 10 tools is Florida Hospital, based in Orlando. The hospital, with seven campuses, considers itself the largest hospital in the US, and relies on DB2 running on a z10 to support dozens of clinical and administrative applications. The hospital currently runs a mix of DB2 8 and DB2 10, although it expects to be all DB2 10 within a year.
Of particular value to the hospital is DB2 10 support for temporal data or snapshots of data that let you see data changes over time. This makes it particularly valuable in answering time-oriented questions. Based on that capability, the hospital is deploying a second instance of DB2 10 for its data warehouse, for which it also will take full advantage of BMC’s SQL performance monitoring tools.
But the crowning achievement of the hospital’s data warehouse, says Robert Goodman, lead DBA at Florida Hospital, will be the deployment of IBM’s Smart Analytics Optimizer (SAO) with DB2 10 and the data warehouse. The SAO runs queries in a massively parallel in-memory infrastructure that bolts onto the z10 to deliver extremely fast performance. Watch for more details coming on this development.
DancingDinosuar doesn’t usually look at tool upgrades, but DB2 10, especially when combined with the updated BMC tools, promises to be a game changer. That certainly appears to be the case at Florida Hospital, even before it adds SAO capabilities.
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