Before you run the installation jobs to create the DB2® environment, you must consider and decide the following questions.
Typically you need only one CICS® IA database environment, and this environment is typically created in a development or test environment. All the data that is captured from the collector and scanners can be loaded into this single database. The data can include data that is collected from different environments, such as, development, test, and production. Storing the data in one place means that you can have a single connection to the CICS IA plug-in and the ability to compare resource usage across environments.
CICS IA supports DB2 Version 8.1 and later.
If you are planning to install CICS IA with a DB2 Version that is running in compatibility mode, ensure that you set the DB2 Compatibility Mode option to YES when you run the configuration EXEC. This flag, and the DB2 version flag, is used by the configuration dialog to decide which resources you need to define.
CICS IA uses DB2 Stored Procedures to run complex DB2 tasks.
A stored procedure is an executable code that can be called by other programs. You might choose to use stored procedures for the code that is used repeatedly. Other benefits of stored procedures include network traffic reduction, result sets that are returned directly to an application, or access to data without granting the privileges to the applications.
CICS IA supports both Native and External SQL Stored Procedures. Native Stored Procedures are only supported in DB2 V9.1 or later. For more information about available stored procedures, see CICS IA External Interfaces. External DB2 Stored Procedures are run in a started task that is called WLM (Workload Manager) associated with each DB2 subsystem.
When you want to view data, the access is usually with the CICS IA plug-in for CICS Explorer®. This access is through JDBC Type 4.
The batch jobs that are used to run reports against the CICS IA database use a combination of COBOL programs and DB2 stored procedures. These batch jobs are bound into a package and all members of that package list are bound into a plan. The name of the package and the plan are configurable. The users that need to run the reports require access to this plan. For more information about granting access to plans, see Granting access to the plans and tables.