Can I develop a windows application using .NET framework and IBM.Data.DB2 provider to access a DB2 database running on OS/390?
Thanks in advance.
A:
I'm not sure about OS/390 but at work I co-develop .Net application that connects to Solaris DB2 instance. We use standard IBM.Data.DB2 so I believe OS/390 should work as well.
zarzych
2008-12-28 21:44:57
+1
A:
IBM guard (or, more precisely, allows their customers to guard) their mainframe DB2 access very closely. I suspect this has something to do with ensuring only enterprise-blessed applications even try to connect (JDBC clients that don't have the right license file don't even get their requests appearing at the mainframe TCP ports, they're blocked on the client side) - the mainframe is usually business-critical in a way most desktop/server apps only dream of becoming :-).
With the JDBC drivers, a single type-4 driver is used to access all DB2 platforms (LUW, iSeries, System z, etc) but you actually have to have a license file installed in your CLASSPATH for the specific platforms or you'll get an exception.
This license file is of the form "db2jcc_cisuz.jar" where the cisuz specifies which platforms are allowed to be accessed (cu is the most common but that doesn't give access to iSeries or System z).
You generally have to buy DB2 Connect from IBM to get these files and I suspect it would be a similar situation for the .NET framework. You may find that DB2 Connect products have .NET client drivers as well as JDBC (I haven't looked). Look for the "Enterprise" edition of that product since the standard ones would be unlikely to have the System z license.
And just a minor niggle, it's not OS/390 any more (unless you're one of the rare Japanese customers paying specially to have that dinosaur supported). It's z/OS.
paxdiablo
2008-12-28 23:39:04