Deploying IBM DB2 inside a Solaris 10 Container

1. Creating the ZFS filesystem:
# zfs create rpool/export/zones

2. Configuring the DB2 zone:
# zonecfg -z db2
db2: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:db2> create
zonecfg:db2> set zonepath=/export/zones/db2
zonecfg:db2> set autoboot=true
zonecfg:db2> add net
zonecfg:db2:net> set address=192.168.1.100/24
zonecfg:db2:net> set physical=iwk0
zonecfg:db2:net> end
zonecfg:db2> verify
zonecfg:db2> commit
zonecfg:db2> exit

3. Installing the DB2 zone:
# zoneadm -z db2 install
A ZFS file system has been created for this zone.
Preparing to install zone .
Creating list of files to copy from the global zone.
Copying <9648> files to the zone.
Initializing zone product registry.
Determining zone package initialization order.
Preparing to initialize <1319> packages on the zone.
Initialized <1319> packages on zone.
Zone is initialized.
Installation of these packages generated errors:
Installation of these packages generated warnings:
The file contains a log of the zone installation.

4. Listing the zones:
# zoneadm list -cv
ID NAME STATUS PATH BRAND IP
0 global running / native shared
- db2 installed /export/zones/db2 native shared

5. Booting the DB2 zone:
# zoneadm -z db2 boot

6. Logging into the zone:
# zlogin -C db2
[Connected to zone 'db2' console]

Configure the initial system (locale, etc).

7. Install IBM DB2 Database 9:
db2# gunzip db2_v9fp1_ese_solaris_x64.tar.gz
db2# tar xvf db2_v9fp1_ese_solaris_x64.tar
db2# cd ese/disk1/
db2# ./db2_install


Default directory for installation of products - /opt/IBM/db2/V9.1

***********************************************************
Do you want to choose a different directory to install [yes/no] ?
no


Specify one or more of the following keywords,
separated by spaces, to install DB2 products.

CLIENT
RTCL
ESE

Enter "help" to redisplay product names.

Enter "quit" to exit.

***********************************************************
CLIENT RTCL ESE
DB2 installation is being initialized.

Total number of tasks to be performed: 41
Total estimated time for all tasks to be performed: 915

Task #1 start
Description: Checking license agreement acceptance
Estimated time 1 second(s)
Task #1 end

Task #2 start
Description: GSKit support
Estimated time 19 second(s)
...

8. Add a regular user account to your DB2 zone:

db2# mkdir -p /export/home/cmihai
db2# useradd -s /usr/bin/zsh -d /export/home/cmihai cmihai
db2# chown cmihai /export/home/cmihai
db2# passwd cmihai
New Password:
Re-enter new Password:
passwd: password successfully changed for cmihai
db2# su - cmihai
db2% cd /opt/IBM/db2/V9.1/bin

Check locale(1) and export LC_ALL=C if needed or db2 will complain:

db2% ./db2fs
couldn't set locale correctly

Make sure you read the install log in /tmp.

Here's a tip though: if you can, use the Graphical installer (ssh -X and run db2setup instead of db2_install).
All you need now is add various tuning, limitations and zfs quotas, etc.

If you need to start over, there's always ZFS snapshots or db2_deinstall.

Either way, if you need to create an instance:

# ./db2icrt -s wse -u db2fenc1 db2inst1
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_90 January 2008
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_90 January 2008
DBI1070I Program db2icrt completed successfully.

You can now use db2 to create a database and connect to it.

# db2
db2=> CREATE DATABASE test
db2 => CONNECT TO test
Database Connection Information

Database server = DB2/SUN64 9.1.1
SQL authorization ID = DB2INST1
Local database alias = TEST

db2 => CREATE TABLE clients (name char(25), surname char(50))
DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully.
db2 => LIST TABLES

Table/View Schema Type Creation time
------------------------------- --------------- ----- --------------------------
CLIENTS DB2INST1 T 2008-06-11-05.39.58.167896

1 record(s) selected.

db2 => INSERT INTO clients VALUES ('Some','Guy')
DB20000I The SQL command completed successfully.
db2 => SELECT * FROM clients

NAME SURNAME
------------------------- --------------------------------------------------
Some Guy

1 record(s) selected.

IBM Lotus Symphony - Free Office and Productivity Suite built on Eclipse

IBM Lotus Symphony is a free ODF (Open Document Format) compatible Office suite from IBM. It comes with a word processor, a presentation application and a spreadsheet application (basically replacements for Words, Excel and Powerpoint).

It's a nice change of pace from StarOffice / OpenOffice, and it's free for both Windows and Linux platforms.

Lotus Symphony is build on the Eclipse platform, and you can use Eclipse to develop various plugins and addons.

It can also open .doc files written by Office 97,2000,XP and 2003:



Powerpoint presentations and even OpenOffice presentations:



And of course .xls files:

My very own IBM System/370 Mainframe - sort of

Are you intro retro computing or just want to run a really really obscure operating system (something that SIMH may not handle)? Or just want to brush up on your mainframe skills and run bleeding edge z/OS? Well, you really need to try Hercules then :-).



Hercules is an open source (QPL licensed) emulator of IBM Mainframe computers (System/370, ESA/390 architectures and even the 64-bit zSeries). Hercules runs under Linux, Windows (98, NT, 2000, and XP), FreeBSD, and Mac OS X (10.3 and later).

Hercules emulates the CPU and peripheral device hardware and can run the operating system supplied by the user.



Hercules will run OS/360, DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, TSS/370 - all IBM public domain operating system, as well as OS/390, z/OS, VSE/ESA, z/VSE, VM/ESA, and z/VM, and even Linux/390 and Linux (SuSE, RHEL, Debian, CentOS and Slackware) on zSeries.

Solaris will soon run on IBM zSeries Mainframes

IBM and Sun Microsystems have been working for the past 18 months on porting OpenSolaris to IBM System Z (currently running z/OS) mainframes.