Mark A wrote:
> Tier 1? I assume that does not include Windows, at least according to what
> my Oracle rep told me. I guess "tier 1" is the escape clause which means
> that Oracle is not available on all platforms at the same time when a new
> release or fixpack is made available.
>
> DB2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows is always simultaneously available for
> Every release and every fixpack on all it's supported platforms. That is
> because it is more of a single code base than Oracle on the Linux, UNIX,
> Windows.
Well, like it or not this point goes to Mark A. ...
I intended to stay out of this, but...
Let me try to clarify a few things as unpassionately as possible hoping
I don't break more dishes than I want to mend.
- When talking about one code base for DB2 for LUW what is referred to
is the DB2 for LUW DBMS. Anything but the DBMS are applications built on
top of DB2. Really they are separate products grouped together using the
DB2 brand. Thsi includes the extenders, such as the spatial extender.
Of course the underlying DB2 DBMS features are supported on all
platforms and on all editions which DB2 DBMS supports.
To be entirely correct I have to not eone exception: DATALINKS.
DATALINK, by their very nature deeply interact with the OS and the
filesystem. I presume the same must be true for the matching Oracle
technology.
So DB2 DBMS is the same codebase across all Linux platforms, HP UX, Sun
OS, AIX and Windows. There is a thin layer <<10% called Operating
Systems Service (OSS) which encapsulates each and every interaction with
the OS or any devices.
As a direct result of this DB2 does not need to get ported to be shipped
across all platforms. Ports to new platforms (e.g. if IBM decided to
support Apple) are possible within a few weeks and can occur at a
servicepack level. Also th eplatform support team can be comparatively
small.
I know from reliable sources that the porting teams at Oracle are a lot
bigger.
DB2 gets very few platform specific APARs due to this encapsulation.
- Talking of extenders and DB2 branded tools such as intelligent miner:
(We do not call these features, maybe they are called as such in Oracle)
The decision to support any given platform depends on market needs (no
suprise here). E.g. HP isn't exactly DB2's most popular platform, so an
extension which is either new or fairly specialized may only be
available on the platforms where customers demand it. And perhaps there
simply is no HP demand. Again thsi has nothing to do with single
codebase. This is about enablement and support.
- DB2 Editions
Not all editions are supported on all platforms with all features.
Of course!
E.g. DB2 Express is aimed at the SMB market. It makes no sense
whatsoever to support DB2 Express on Linux/zOS. Which SMB customer would
use such a combination.
The same can be said for DB2 Personal Edition. If DB2 PE is not
available for 64 bit (maybe it is, I don't know, probably Mark T. knows)
would that be an issue? Limiting the number of processors or
capabilities for parallelization (SMP or MPP) is a question of
licensing. It has nothing to do with the codebase and the available
feature set. This, btw, is no different for Oracle licenses.
All in all I think this part of the thread has been quite a divergence
from teh OP's question since none of the properties above have anything
to do with the effort for an Oracle DBA to become skilled in DB2.
Cheers
Serge
--
Serge Rielau
DB2 SQL Compiler Development
IBM Toronto Lab
Received on Wed Oct 26 2005 - 02:22:19 CDT
