IBM DB2 PowerPack Release Notes, version 105

Version 105 of the IBM: DB2 PowerPack updates the PowerPack to be compatible with Python 3, and includes a new Dynamic Application, device categories, and device dashboard.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 12.1.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

NOTE: Historic data is not preserved when upgrading from version 100, 101, or 102 to version 103 or greater. See the Known Issues for more details.

Ensure that you are running version 12.1.0 or later of SL1 before installing "IBM: DB2" PowerPack version 105.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Installation or Upgrade Process

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

To install version 105 of the IBM: DB2 PowerPack, perform the following steps:

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 12.1.0 or later release.
  3. Download the "IBM: DB2" version 105PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import "IBM: DB2" version 105.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

See the Monitoring IBM DB2 manual for instructions on using the PowerPack.

Features

This release includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications to discover, model, and monitor performance metrics and collect configuration data for IBM Db2 devices
  • Event Policies that are triggered when Db2 devices meet certain status criteria
  • Example Credentials that you can use to connect to IBM Db2 databases and instances
  • A Run Book Action and Run Book Automation policy for aligning Dynamic Applications
  • A device dashboard to display information about Db2 instances

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "IBM: DB2" PowerPack:

  • Added the "IBM: DB2 Installed Products Configuration" Dynamic Application. This Dynamic Application is shipped disabled by default due to a possible memory leak issue on some versions of Db2.
  • Moved the following collection objects from the "IBM: DB2 Product Configuration" Dynamic Application to the "IBM: DB2 Installed Products Configuration" Dynamic Application: (Support Case: 00277222)
    • Installed Product
    • License Type
    • License Installed
    • Product Version
  • Added the following device categories:
    • Database
    • Database.Application
    • Database.Instance
    • Database.Tablespace

  • Added the "IBM DB2: Tablespace" device dashboard.

  • Updated all Dynamic Applications in the PowerPack to be compatible with Python 3.
  • Added the "Total Request Time" collection and presentation objects to the "IBM: DB2 Subclass Performance" Dynamic Application.
  • Added the following alerts and events to the "IBM: DB2 Subclass Performance" Dynamic Application:
    • IBM: DB2 Client Idle Wait Time Ratio Excessive
    • IBM: DB2 Client Idle Wait Time Ratio Healthy
    • IBM: DB2 Deadlocks Excessive
    • IBM: DB2 Deadlocks Healthy
    • IBM: DB2 Lock Timeouts Excessive
    • IBM: DB2 Lock Timeouts Healthy
    • IBM: DB2 Lock Wait Time Excessive
    • IBM: DB2 Lock Wait Time Healthy
  • Added the following new thresholds to the "IBM: DB2 Subclass Performance" Dynamic Application:
    • Client Idle Wait Time Ratio
    • Deadlocks
    • Lock Timeouts
    • Lock Wait Time
  • Updated the content library to write a message to the device log instead of raising the ibmdb2connection error as an unhandled exception.
  • Updated the queries of the "Memory Usage" and "CPU Usage" collection objects in the "IBM: DB2 System Utilization Performance" Dynamic Application to no longer use a deprecated table. (Support Case: 00284158)

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 105 of the IBM: DB2 PowerPack:

  • If a device raises the following communication error, increase the value in the Timeout (ms) field of the database credential (Manage > Credentials) to resolve the error:

    • [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL30081N A communication error has been detected. Communication protocol being used: "TCP/IP". Communication API being used: "SOCKETS". Location where the error was detected: "10.2.21.253". Communication function detecting the error: "selectForRecvTimeout". Protocol specific error code(s): "115", "*", "*". SQLSTATE=08001 SQLCODE=-30081

  • Historic data is not preserved when upgrading from version 100, 101, or 102 to version 103 or greater of the PowerPack. Databases are discovered under Instances and Tablespaces are discovered under Databases. As a result, some Dynamic Applications have been relocated to the Database and Tablespace level. Due to the relocation of these Dynamic Applications, historical data will be lost.
  • You may see the message "<Metric Name> is not valid in the context where it is used. SQLSTATE=42703 SQLCODE=-206" in the component log. This could happen in certain versions of Db2 such as version 9.7, in which some metrics monitored do not exist.
  • This PowerPack does not currently support Military Unique Deployment (MUD) systems.
  • When using the IBM DB2 PowerPack, some errors are logged to the collector syslog due to missing permissions. These errors will not cause any collection issues, but can be bothersome if you are monitoring the syslog. To clean up the errors, run the following commands on the collector you will be using to monitor your Db2 servers:

    sudo chmod o+w /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/clidriver/

    sudo chmod o+w /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/clidriver/cfgcache/conlic.bin

  • For Linux and Unix users, the user profiles that you create on the database will likely need to use a shell. If that is the case, Linux users should use Bash and Unix users should use KornShell. You should not use Shell (sh) as the user shell, as doing so could result in shell-related errors appearing in the Device Log.