DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Data movement options

There are various data movement options available. The following table provides an overview of the data movement tools and utilities available to you. Use this table as a guide to help you determine which data movement options might best suit your needs.

Table 1. Data movement options
Utility name Load utility
Purpose To efficiently move large quantities of data into newly created tables, or into tables that already contain data.
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage This utility is best suited to situations where performance is your primary concern. This utility can be used as an alternative to the import utility. It is faster then the import utility because it writes formatted pages directly into the database rather than using SQL INSERTS. In addition, the load utility allows you the option to not log the data or use the COPY option to save a copy of the loaded data. Load operations can fully exploit resources, such as CPUs and memory on SMP and MPP environments.
References Loading data
Utility name db2move
Purpose Using the db2move utility with the COPY option, allows you to copy schema templates (with or without data) from a source database to a target database or move an entire schema from a source database to a target database. Using the db2move utility with the IMPORT or EXPORT option facilitates the movement of a large numbers of tables between DB2® databases.
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage When used with the COPY option, the source and the target database must be different. The COPY option is useful in making schema templates. Use the IMPORT or EXPORT option for cloning databases when there is no support for cross-platform backup and restore operations. The IMPORT and EXPORT options are used in conjunction with the db2look command.
References
Utility name Import utility
Purpose To insert data from an external file into a table, hierarchy, view, or nickname
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage The import utility can be a good alternative to the load utility in the following situations:
  • where the target table is a view
  • the target table has constraints and you don't want the target table to be put in the Set Integrity Pending state
  • the target table has triggers and you want them fired
References Importing data
Utility name Export utility
Purpose To export data from a database to one of several external file formats. The data can then be imported or loaded at a later time.
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage This utility is best suited in situations where you want to store data in an external file, to either process it further or move data to another table. High Performance Unload (HPU) is an alternative, however, it must be purchased separately. Export supports XML columns.
References Exporting data
Utility name ADMIN_COPY_SCHEMA procedure
Purpose Allows you to make a copy of all the objects in a single schema and re-create those objects in a new schema. This copy operation can be performed with or without data, within a database.
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage This utility is useful for making schema templates. It is also useful if you want to experiment with a schema (for example, try out new indexes) without impacting the source schema's behavior. The key differences between the ADMIN_COPY_SCHEMA procedure and the db2move utility are:
  • The ADMIN_COPY_SCHEMA procedure is used on a single database while the db2move utility is used across databases
  • The db2move utility fails when invoked if it cannot create a physical object such as a table or index. The ADMIN_COPY_SCHEMA procedure logs errors and continues.
  • The ADMIN_COPY_SCHEMA procedure uses load from cursor to move data from one schema to the other. The db2move utility uses a remote load, similar to a load from cursor, which pulls in the data from the source database.
References
Utility name ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE procedure
Purpose Allows you to move the data in a table to a new table object of the same name (but with possibly different storage characteristics) while the data remains online and available for access.
Cross platform compatible Yes
Best practice usage This utility automates the process of moving table data to a new table object while allowing the data to remain online for select, insert, update, and delete access. You can also generate a compression dictionary when a table is moved.
  • Avoid making multiple moves into same table space at the same time.
  • Run this procedure when activity on the table is low.
  • Use a multi-step move operation. The INIT and COPY phases can be called at any time. Execute the REPLAY phase multiple times in order to keep the staging table size small, and then issue the SWAP during a time of low activity on the table.
  • Consider using an offline table move if you are working with tables without unique indexes or tables with no index.
References ADMIN_MOVE_TABLE procedure - Move an online table
Utility name Restore utility with the REDIRECT option and the GENERATE SCRIPT option
Purpose To copy an entire database from one system to another using a script from an existing backup image.
Cross platform compatible Limited. See References
Best practice usage This utility is best suited in situations where a backup image exists.
References
Utility name db2relocatedb - Relocate database command
Purpose To rename a database, or relocate a database or part of a database to the same system or a different system.
Cross platform compatible No
Best practice usage
  • This utility can be used for situations where a backup and restore could be time consuming.
  • This utility is an alternative to using backup and restore to move or create copies of databases.
  • It also provides a quick method of cloning a database for alternative environments such as testing.
  • It can be used to move table space containers to a new set of storage devices
References db2relocatedb - Relocate database command
Utility name Split mirror
Purpose To create a clone, standby, or backup database.
Cross platform compatible No
Best practice usage
  • create a standby system in case of a primary failure to reduce down time
  • move backup operations away from a live production machine onto a split database
  • provides a quick method of cloning a database for alternate environments, such as testing
Considerations
  • only DMS table spaces can be backed up on the split version of the database
  • usually used in conjunction with some flashcopy technology provided with storage systems
  • an alternative is to issue a file copy once the database is suspended, however this duplicates the amount of storage for the database
References High availability through online split mirror and suspended I/O support
Parent topic: Data movement utilities and reference