DB2 Client v9.5 on Win 2003 Taking Long time to establish Connection

Question

Hi,

I have a ASP.NET application running on Windows 2003 that needs to communicate with a DB2 database that resides on the mainframe. We installed DB2 Client driver v9.5 on our server so the application can perform the connection and work with the database. The connection string to connect to the database contains the username and password, it is not a trusted connection.

To be clear, we are using the DB2 .NET provider and not OLE DB, ODBC, etc.

What we're noticing is that when the ASP.NET application is attempting to make that first connection to DB2, it takes a very long time, roughly 20 seconds. After talking to one of our resident DBAs, they said it may be because the DB2 driver is trying to authenticate the user account that is being used to connect to the database, against Active Directory.

Their solution to this was to create a local user account on the Win2003 server, with the same name as the user account that is being used to make the connection. The local user account does not have to be a member of any acl groups and it can be disabled.

I tried this solution, and to my amazement, it actually worked. The connection was made within milliseconds. What I am concerned with is that this "feature" seems like a flaw in the DB2 driver, and any new versions of this driver could actually prevent this from working again.

Does anyone know if there is an actual setting in the DB2 driver that we could set, so it does not try to authenticate with Active Directory? I would feel more comfortable using that setting, than relying on, what looks to me, a flaw in their authentication algorithm.

Thanks

BTW, the same question was asked on Server Fault, however, no one has been able to answer there.

http://serverfault.com/questions/53971/db2-client-v9-5-on-win-2003-taking-long-time-to-establish-connection

Answer 1

DB2 has no concept of a "database-only" userid and will always use the operating system to perform authentication. If your OS authentication happens through Active Directory then that's how DB2 will authenticate too.

I think your DBA has given you the correct solution by changing settings/accounts in the OS to make the authentication easier.

I don't think this is a flaw in the driver.

Answer 2

Our DBA just found the proper solution, and it works without adding that local user.

Basically it's something to do with when you catalog the connection on the DB2 Application server, you must specify something like 'Authentication Server'. This prevents the DB2 driver from authentication against the Active Directory.

I know the answer is vague, but that's the most I could get out of him.