Setting up a direct connection to DB2

This information applies to clients of IBM DB2 for Linux, UNIX, Windows, and z/OS. (Clients to ArcSDE for DB2 for z/OS are always Windows clients.)

You must install the DB2 client software on the client machine and set up the connection using the client software. These actions are detailed in the following steps.

Note:

You must install a DB2 9.5 client on the client computers to make a direct connection from ArcGIS 10 to an ArcSDE geodatabase in DB2. The DB2 9.5 client must be used even if you are connecting to an earlier release of DB2 and the ArcSDE geodatabase. Also note that when connecting from a 32-bit ArcGIS cllient, you must install a 32-bit DB2 client, even if the database to which you are connecting is 64 bit. 32-bit drivers are not available on Solaris; therefore, you cannot make a direct connection from ArcGIS Server on Solaris to DB2.

Steps:

1. Use the DB2 Configuration Assistant to configure the client to connect directly to a DB2 instance.

The Configuration Assistant comes with DB2 and lets you configure and maintain the database objects that you or your applications will be using. It is available as part of the DB2 Administration Client and DB2 Application Development Client. Please refer to DB2's documentation for all information on using the DB2 Configuration Assistant to connect directly to a DB2 instance.

2. Test the database connection that you created using the Configuration Assistant. To do so, open the Databases page in the DB2 Configuration Assistant.
3. Select the database for which you want to test the connection and, from the Selected menu, click Test Connection.
4. When the Test Connection notebook opens, click the type of connections that you want to test.
5. In the User ID field, type a user ID that can connect to the database.
6. Type the password for the user ID in the Password field.

   If you do not specify a user ID and password, the system password will be used for the connection.

7. Click Test Connection.

   The Results page opens, displaying the results of the connection test. If the connection is successful, you will get the following message:

   This process creates an entry in the db2cli.ini file 
   that will look like this. This file resides under the %DB2PATH% dir. 
   [SDEQUART]
   DBALIAS=SDEQUART

8. Test the connection by adding a spatial database connection in ArcCatalog. Instructions for this can be found in the topic Making a direct connection from ArcGIS Desktop to a geodatabase in DB2.