Common and alternative methods for installing an IBM data server
client or driver.
Clients are commonly installed on machines where there is no server
present. You do not need to install a client if you already installed
a server product is already installed because the server includes
all the functionality present in an IBM® data server client.
Common situations
The common method for
installing an IBM data server client or
driver is to run the installation program provided on a product DVD
(setup command on Windows operating
systems and db2setup command on Linux and UNIX operating
systems). The IBM Data
Server Client installation
image is included in the database server installation image.
Automation of large-scale deployments
One
group of methods automates the deployment of large numbers of clients:
- Response file. You can automate client installation by
using the response file installation method. A response file installation
lets you install database products without any user interaction.
- Third-party deployment tools. You can install clients using
deployment tools or methods such as Windows Active
Directory, Windows Systems
Management Server (SMS), or Tivoli® products.
Use of Windows operating
system capabilities
Another group of options uses Windows operating system capabilities:
- Windows thin client topology. This
option is supported for the IBM Data
Server Client. A thin client topology is where client code is installed
in a shared Windows directory
on a single code server rather than on the local hard disk of each
client workstation. Individual client workstations connect to the
shared Windows directory
on the code server to run the Data Server
Client code.
- A Windows non-administrator
ID. The common installation method uses a Windows administrator user ID: that is, a
user ID in the Administrators group. However, you can also install
an IBM data server client using
a user ID that is part of the Windows Power® Users group or Users group.
This method is suitable when the user ID performing the installation
does not have administrator privileges. The data server also supports
the Windows Elevated Privileges
mechanism. It is recommended to use Windows Elevated
Privileges to allow a non-administrator to install an IBM data server client.
Linux and UNIX alternatives
On Linux and UNIX operating systems, an alternative installation
method provided for database servers is also applicable to clients:
the db2_install script.
Important: The command db2_install is
deprecated and might be removed in a future release. Use the db2setup command
with a response file instead.
Also, IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC
and CLI is
available as a tar file.
Separate
client instances
If a database server product is installed,
you can use a separate client instance instead of using a server instance
that also serves as a client instance.
To create a separate
client instance, use the
db2icrt command with the
-s option,
as shown in the following example:
db2icrt -s client instname
DB2 10.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows