Rising Above_ Dubai Floods and the Fortitude of Dubai International Airport.pdf
Top 5 DB2 Support Nightmares 2018 #3
1. Top 5 DB2 Support
Nightmares & How to
Avoid Them - 2018
#3
2. Part 3 – Out of support database
We have a mission critical database that uses
DB2 V9.7 It’s robust, reliable and gives little
cause for concern.
Upgrading to a new version is going to take
our application off-line and is, perhaps, a
business risk that is going to be hard to get
any sanction from senior management. Best
to just let things alone.
3. :
There are a number of problems
with this scenario
1. Even if you have competent and experienced DBAs to hand,
there will eventually be a problem that is actually with the
code base itself, rather than the implementation of DB2.
2. If you’re out-of-support, then IBM will not provide an
answer
You will eventually be trapped in a situation where your
application needs to be upgraded and / or your OS needs to
be, or some other component of your system and this dictates
that you must upgrade DB2.
critical database upgrade
4. You are then under time pressure and you may have to “bunny-hop” from one
version to another to achieve the desired and supported level of DB2
If do have to upgrade you may find that there are features and functions in the
version of DB2 that you use that are deprecated or, worse still, obsolete in the version
that you are being forced to upgrade to. You then have to squeeze some application
rewrite into the timeframe for a
5. The Moral of the Story
Don’t let yourself be lulled into a false sense of
security; your database may be running without a
hitch at the moment but that doesn’t mean it always
will (see http://db2geek.triton.co.uk/aint-broke-
dont-fix/ for further whinging).
Just because the family motor has driven the last
12,000 miles without you looking under the bonnet,
doesn’t mean it will do so indefinitely. And if it’s out
of warranty….
Furthermore, the latest versions of DB2 include
more and more features and functions, and include
many performance improvements straight out of the
box. Why not take advantage of this?
