IDUG NA 2025

Modern hybrid cloud infrastructures are becoming too complex for humans to manage efficiently and effectively. Shortage of experienced Db2 for z/OS professionals is further exacerbating the situation. This warrants a need for embracing AI and automation to augment human intervention to ensure the highest achievable availability and performance for Db2® for z/OS® systems. IBM Db2® AI for z/OS® ("Db2ZAI") provides three key features. 1. SQL Optimization – This empowers the optimizer in your Db2 for z/OS engine to determine the best–performing query access paths with performance validation based on your workload characteristics 2. System Assessment – This detects Db2 system performance exceptions and provides recommended actions for tuning which are based on your environment. 3. Distributed Connection Control (DCC) – This provides protection for Db2 for z/OS from unintentional disruptions and intrusions that can originate from remote applications This Hands–on Lab covers these main features provided by Db2ZAI.

New to getting Open Mainframe Project Zowe up and running? Bring your laptop and join us for an informative workshop designed to guide you through the essential steps of installing and configuring Zowe's API ML, the open–source framework that facilitates mainframe services accessibility for both application developers and database administrators. This workshop will be divided into two main segments.
In the first part, we’ll dive into the critical Zowe configuration aspects, covering three key focus areas:1. YAML Edits – Learn how to customize configurations efficiently to suit your environment.2. Certificates Configuration – Understand the importance of security and how to set up certificates for seamless connectivity.3. Networking – Explore networking configurations that ensure Zowe communicates effectively across applications and your mainframe.
In the second part, we will shift our focus to how Zowe enhances the Db2 development and administration experience for users of Broadcom’s Db2 Suites. Discover how Zowe integration streamlines workflows and improves productivity. Whether you're a seasoned mainframe developer or new to the ecosystem, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge to leverage Zowe and transform how you interact with Db2 for z/OS.

Have you ever tried to use an LLM? How exactly can they be used in a business environment? And how can Db2 help with the accuracy of what an LLM produces?
This lab will take you through the various components that are used to create a system that generates a RAG (Retrieval–Augmented Generation) for an LLM to use to answer a question. You will get a chance to experiment with a system that provides a environment where you can try out different prompts and settings to see how an LLM will respond to your question. 
You will also get to see how Db2 fits into this picture and what vector calculations (and Vector databases) do when generating a RAG prompt.
 
 

IBM Db2 Query Monitor for z/OS, V3.4 offers current and historical views of query activity throughout Db2 subsystems. It gives you the ability to efficiently customize and tune your SQL workload and Db2 objects to validate the effectiveness of your Db2 subsystems and improve overall performance. It also offers you extensive choices so you can determine what monitoring information you will gather, and when.
DB2 Query Monitor for z/OS enables you to identify problem SQL activity and applications, allowing you to focus your efforts on improvement. DB2 Query Monitor enables you to do the following:  – Proactively manage DB2 resources  – React quickly and effectively to supply and demand–related DB2 problems (such as those resulting from inefficient SQL or inadequate object structures)  – Identify SQL requests that prevent critical requests from completing on schedule
Db2 Query Monitor comes with two interfaces, ISPF and a Web Client.  This hands on lab will take the user through the Web Client interface.   From your web browser, you can review query activity in Db2 Query Monitor, the SQL/CA, Db2 Commands, view alerts, and configure actions and responses. 

A cloud native resource without monitoring (or with a very complex monitoring setup) is like driving a car without a dashboard – you wouldn't know if you are speeding or low on fuel! Db2 needs a concise and simplified monitoring solution that gives a bird eye's view on the performance metrics and Db2 diagnostics. We present here a solution that is available in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud while running Db2 with a Infrastructure as a Service model.
The speaker will cover her experience of collaboration with all cloud vendors, Db2 development and customers like SAP. The session will share the findings from that reserach and development project and it is based on the cloud native monitoing solutions currently available. The solution consists of a smart combination of Db2 monitoring capabilities, Operating System scheduling and Cloud logging functionality resulting in an out–of–the–box Db2 monitoing solution.
The solution has the following features:

Displays the most important metrics (based on customer data) of a database instance namely, Bufferpool quality, Activities per second, Activity wait time and Logging performance.
Information regarding Db2 Diagnostics by providing the count of increasing errors that can be easily extended for a comprehensive diagnostic analysis. 
Whether or not the database is alive.

This solution introduces the Monitoring as a Service infrastructure and ables you to build your own cloud native monitoring solution with a few fingertips.

This workshop will give you the education and information you need to use existing and new features of Amazon RDS for Db2. Some of the topics covered during this workshop will include provisioning, scaling, backup, monitoring, migration and beyond.  Each module will be introduced and presented and then participants will be provided an environment they can use and go through a series of instructor led exercises to practice what they have learned and explore.  This will be a joint workship between the IBM and AWS RDS teams.