Quest Central for DB2 INTEGRATED DATABASE MANAGEMENT TOOLS Supports DB2 running on Windows, Unix, OS/2, OS/390 and z/os Integrated database management components are designed for superior functionality and ease of use Quickly identify and resolve bottlenecks with a unique performance monitor Save time and eliminate errors associated with DB2 object management with a complete Database Administration tool Identify and resolve space related problems in your database with integrated space management Ensure optimal database performance by tuning SQL statements with context-sensitive advice All Quest Central components are integrated for efficient work flow Poorly performing databases can lead to end-user productivity issues, system downtime and even lost revenues. Complex enterprise systems running on multiple platforms place increased demands on the database and the DBA. Manually identifying, diagnosing and resolving database problems in such complex environments is nearly impossible. Additionally, many of the database management tools available today require DBAs to use multiple platform-specific tools to solve these problems further impacting productivity. Quest Central for DB2 provides today s DBA with a powerful and comprehensive database management tool that supports multiple platforms all from one integrated interface. Each Quest Central component offers distinct functionality focusing on critical aspects of DB2 database management. Available components include: Performance Monitoring, Database Administration, Space Management and SQL Tuning. Quest Central provides consistent features regardless of database platform, making it easy for mainframe DBAs to manage DB2 on Unix or Windows, or vice versa. Quest Central s components are tightly integrated to allow users to identify, diagnose and resolve database problems seamlessly. For example, if the Performance Monitor identifies a poorly performing application and determines that a particular SQL statement is causing excessive CPU consumption, simply invoke the SQL Tuning component from within the Performance Monitor. The tuning component may suggest an additional index, and then you can create the index and immediately see the results. The Quest Central console provides a central location for performing DB2 database management activities.
Quest Central for DB2 INTEGRATED DATAB Real-time Performance Monitoring Quest Central s Performance Monitoring component empowers DBAs with everything they need to quickly identify and diagnose performance degradations. The main display provides an active graphical illustration of the database architecture with live activity flowing through the DB2 components. Displaying the actual processing architecture of your DB2 instance and database helps you pinpoint the source of problems as they occur and rapidly resolve them. This display also reveals to the user how a performance problem in one component affects the other components within the DBMS. With Quest Central, you can drill down to view key database and operating system metrics associated with highlighted bottlenecks. This allows you to quickly gather detailed information about client applications, database I/O, SQL statements and buffer pool utilization. Plus, you can drill down to operating system metrics such as processes, CPU, I/O, network, memory and storage statistics specific to the database server platform. A full range of reports and charts provides detailed information to help pinpoint any activity that causes bottlenecks. Performance Monitoring also detects when thresholds are exceeded and sends warning of impending problems with a visual or audible alert. With these advanced warnings, DBAs have the time to eliminate bottlenecks before they impact end users. An intuitive user interface visually represents DB2 instance and database activity, including the actual flow of data between server processes. Complete Database Administration Too often, database administrators spend a majority of their time piecing together lengthy, complex scripts to migrate and administer database objects. Errors in script logic or design expose the application to system downtime or, at worst, data loss. Quest Central s Database Administration component eases the burden of maintaining and migrating database objects by providing a comprehensive graphical object management solution. This easy-to-use module allows you to quickly create, drop or alter database objects to accommodate business and application needs. Extended object alterations are also available through these dialogs, allowing you to make complex object changes that are not possible using the alter commands native to DB2. Quest Central does this by automating the extensive research and scripting needed
ASE MANAGEMENT TOOLS to accomplish extended alterations. The analysis engine identifies all the relationships and permissions that are involved with a requested alteration and migration and then builds the SQL script to carry out the change. When a table must be dropped and recreated to accommodate an extended alteration, Quest Central manages the unloading and reloading of table data and ensures that all objects are restored intact. To ensure successful script execution, Quest Central provides sophisticated script processing that includes error handling, checkpoint restart and scheduling. Quest Central also offers the ability to execute the script remotely on the database server to reduce network traffic. Database and object migration is also simplified. Just drag and drop an object from one server to another. Quest Central can migrate dependent objects, data and even permissions to ensure the entire database structure is migrated to the target server. A complete migration script is generated which can then be executed, saved, or scheduled to execute later. Managing database security is equally important, so Quest Central provides the necessary means to stay on top of security requests. DBAs can view and control permissions from the object, user, or user group level, ensuring that application data is available only to authorized users. The Database Administration module is integrated with other Quest Central components to streamline workflow. While creating or altering certain database objects such as views and triggers, direct integration into Quest Central s SQL Tuning module is available to tune the SQL statements used by these objects. Comprehensive Space Management Unmanaged database growth leads to poor response time and eventually database failure. Quest Central s Space Management module is a preventive maintenance solution designed to manage database growth and data reorganization as well as save DBAs time with powerful exception reporting. Quest Central Space Management proactively forecasts and graphs database growth, giving DBAs the time to plan for increasing the size of a tablespace and scheduling necessary reorganizations. This component automatically collects both growth and performance related statistics and retains this information in a repository, unlike DB2 UDB, which discards previously collected statistics each time RUNSTATS is executed. Quest Central s Database Administration component lets you create, drop or alter database objects from the database explorer. The Forecast Tablespace Growth display used for proactive capacity planning shows projected growth and indicates current space allocation.
The Space Management module can immediately identify all space and performance related exceptions in your database with one concise report. It analyzes exceptions and performs calculations, then provides intelligent advice for correcting any problems. In addition, it lets you change space allocation parameters, collect statistics or reorg tables directly from the report. One of the top reasons a database responds poorly to requests for data is fragmentation. A simple request for just one row of data can require the database manager to issue several physical I/Os. Space Management s Table and Index Reorg Exception Reports identify tables and indexes in need of reorganization. Since one of several reasons could cause a table or index to be identified, the intelligent advice will describe the exception with a suggested resolution. The component also provides the ability to reorganize tables and rebuild indexes directly from the exception reports. Reorganizations may also be scheduled for background execution during off-peak hours to minimize the impact on application availability. Understanding how space allocation changes will affect each object within a tablespace can be difficult. DB2 EEE only complicates the process since nodes must now be taken into account. The space calculator exploits EEE features to provide an intuitive and comprehensive solution for analyzing space allocation and determining impact analysis. The table reorg exception report immediately detects tables with poorly organized rows. The associated advice explains what needs to be done and why. SQL Tuning with Expert Advice Effectively tuning your application is vital to maximizing database performance. Unfortunately, application tuning often gets overlooked due to time and resource constraints. Quest Central s SQL Tuning module available for DB2 running on Windows, Unix, OS/2 and OS/390 provides a comprehensive tuning environment to guide users through the entire tuning process. The access path display is designed to translate explain information into a format that is easy to understand. The display also color codes potentially high cost access steps, so you can focus your attention on areas that yield the highest return from tuning. The SQL Tuning module also offers object statistics to provide pertinent information such as number of rows in a table, indexes on a table and columns found in an index. Many access plans are long and complex, so the SQL Tuning module lets you display plan details in three different formats for easy navigation and analysis. Each format lets you step through the plan and visualize the processing order.
The SQL Tuning component provides intelligent advice on how to tune offensive SQL statements and quickly improve response time. The advice examines every part of the SQL statement and offers informed tuning recommendations. With the click of a button, the component then rewrites the SQL statement to implement the selected advice. Quest Central provides a robust tuning environment that lets you work with multiple versions of a base SQL statement to easily improve queries. The scenario capability keeps the target statement in its original form with modified versions placed in separate scenarios. Scenarios can be based on manual statement modifications or generated from the component s tuning advice. A powerful compare engine allows for comparison across all the scenarios so you can choose the tuning solution that provides the best overall results. The compare engine immediately displays the scenario with the lowest cost in terms of CPU, I/O or elapsed time. In addition, access path and data results are compared to ensure the SQL statement continues to return the desired results. The SQL Tuning module is integrated with other Quest Central components to accommodate your workflow. Easy access to the Space Management module allows update of DB2 UDB statistics that have been identified as missing or inaccurate. Database Administration integration allows for index creation directly from the tuning module. Easily compare the execution results across multiple tuning scenarios so you can identify the most improved statement. Robust Utilities for Everyday Tasks Accessible from all Quest Central components are the basic utilities every DBA needs to get through their day. A built-in SQL editor and query builder are only a click away, eliminating the need to jump to external command prompts. A flexible scheduler enables you to run scripts after hours or at predefined intervals. Plus, a configuration manager allows you to catalog nodes and databases without having to leave Quest Central. Use the integrated SQL editor to easily build, execute and explain complex SQL statements.
Environment Support Client Requirements Windows 98, NT 4.0, or 2000 64MB RAM 75MB disk space IBM DB2 UDB 6.1 and higher Runtime Client IBM DB2 Connect 6.1 and higher (required for OS/390 support) Database Support IBM DB2 UDB EE & EEE 6.1 and higher for Windows, UNIX and OS/2 IBM DB2 UDB 6.1 and higher for OS/390 & z/os Agent Support (Optional) Windows NT 4.0/2000 Sun Solaris 2.7 and higher IBM AIX 4.3 and higher The Integrated Solution for DB2 Management Quest Central for DB2 provides a thorough solution for database management. Quality tools that improve DBA productivity, database performance and application availability are integrated in one easy-to-use graphical platform. And since Quest Central is based on an innovative plug-in approach, it is easy to install enabling DBAs to react to performance problems faster than ever before. Available Quest Central components include: Performance Monitoring - visually renders the DB2 UDB process model, so you can observe actual database activity in real time to quickly identify hot spots within the database and drill into these components to find the source of the problem SQL Tuning - lets you quickly optimize your SQL statements with a complete tuning environment for DB2 UDB and DB2 on OS/390 and expert advice Database Administration - makes it easy to administer and migrate DB2 UDB database objects and security with purpose-built dialogs, extended alter capabilities and automated scripting Space Management - helps you identify and resolve potential DB2 UDB space problems with exception reporting, space analysis, trend analysis, statistic collection and data reorganization For more information on Quest Central for DB2 or other Quest Software solutions, please call 949.754.8000 or visit us at www.quest.com. 8001 Irvine Center Drive Irvine, CA 92618 www.quest.com e-mail: info@quest.com U.S. and Canada: 949.754.8000 UK: +44.1628.601000 Germany: +49.211.770967.0 Australia: +61.3.9811.8000 France: +33.1.4131.9696 Scandinavia: +45.7021.7050 Benelux: +31.204.91.9491 2001 Quest Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Quest Central is a trademark of Quest Software. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. PART NO. DB2-DBT-BR_0401