Integration Plumbers // Docs

Documentation for Integration Plumbers products.

Trial setup

To evaluate the IBM Db2 plug-in against your own Db2 databases, on your own OMS, you need a licence key for ip.em.xdb2. Request a key, enter it on each target, then work the guided checklist below. It touches every page and metric family the plug-in ships.

Prerequisites for this page

  • Enterprise Manager 13.5 or 24ai, with an agent that can reach the Db2 databases you want to evaluate — see Enterprise Manager and agents.
  • Db2 LUW 11.5 or 12.1 and a least-privilege monitoring user on each database — see The monitoring role.
  • For the local-only jobs in the checklist, an agent co-located on the same host as the Db2 instance — see Network and ports.

Where to find it: the key is requested through your Integration Plumbers contact. It goes in the target’s Plugin Licence Key property, under Target Setup ▸ Monitoring Configuration, and the target’s License metric confirms it.

In this page: Request a key · Your licence key · Install · Guided evaluation · Send us your findings · Coming from the Open Beta

Request a key

Request the key before you install anything — a valid licence key is required to monitor a target, and it is a target property you will be asked for while adding the target. Email your Integration Plumbers contact, or helpdesk@integrationplumbers.io, with:

What we ask for Why it matters
Your Enterprise Manager line, 13.5 or 24ai It decides which build you receive, 13.5.2.0.0 or 24.1.1.0.0. Both carry the same features.
Your Db2 versions, 11.5 or 12.1 Versions 11.1 and below are not supported — see Supported versions and platforms.
How many databases you want to monitor A key carries a licensed instance count, or Unlimited. A key limited to fewer than 100 instances also needs the OMS settings described in Licensing.
Whether the agent will be local or remote to each database Metric collection, and the three remote administrative jobs, work either way. Local-only capabilities — the five local administrative jobs and diagnostic-log monitoring — need the agent on the same host as the database. See Network and ports.

While you wait, work through the Prerequisites checklist on the database you plan to evaluate: creating the monitoring user is the one step worth starting early, since it needs a DBA connection.

Your licence key

The key is issued for ip.em.xdb2 specifically. A key issued for the Open Beta plug-in (ip.em.xdbb) does not work on GA, and the reverse is also true.

Enter the key

  1. Open the target and go to Target Setup ▸ Monitoring Configuration.
  2. Enter the key in the Plugin Licence Key property, exactly as issued, as one line.
  3. Save the properties.
  4. Repeat for every target. Keys are entered per target, so a second database added later needs the same key entered again.

Verify it

Open the target’s License metric, under All Metrics. It reports the status, the licence type, expiration, instance count, and days remaining.

Status Meaning
Active The key is genuine, issued for ip.em.xdb2, and in date.
License Required No key has been entered.
Invalid Signature The key text was altered, or it was issued for a different plug-in identity.
Expired The key’s expiry date has passed.
Exceeded Limit More ip_db2_database targets exist than the key’s instance count. Only this plug-in’s own targets count, never targets under a different Db2 plug-in. Collection keeps running, and the licence alert stays open.

If the status is License Required, Invalid Signature or Expired, every metric group except Response, License, Version and CollectorStatus reports a collection error until you fix it. See Troubleshooting.

Install

Create the monitoring user, import the OPAR, deploy it to the OMS and to the agents, add a target, enter the key, and confirm the first collection. Follow Getting started — it walks the whole path in order.

Guided evaluation

Work the rows in order and you will have touched every part of the plug-in.

Day 1

Everything here needs only the target added and the key in place.

What to do What you should see Page
Open the target’s Home page. The Health Overview, with one row per area and a link to the page behind each, plus availability, the configuration summary, the Connections and Lock & Deadlock Activity charts, Related Targets, and open incidents. Monitoring pages
Open Analysis and read Top Waits by Blocking Application. The applications holding locks others wait on, with a Kill Blocking Application button that asks for confirmation before it submits the Kill IBM Db2 Application job. Empty tables mean a healthy, uncontended database — not a collection failure. Monitoring pages
Open Performance and pick Past hour. Buffer pool I/O, cache hit ratios, transaction log I/O and SQL activity over the last hour. Real time (live) starts empty and fills in, one point a minute. Monitoring pages
Open Storage. Table space use, the transaction log and the transaction holding it, storage-path headroom, and the days-to-full forecast. Monitoring pages
Open Backup History. The last backup and the days since it, Db2’s recovery history with failures highlighted, and any utilities running now. Monitoring pages

Day 2 to 3

These need a little more time.

What to do What you should see Page
Open SQL Analytics and pick Past day. The top statements by CPU time or by executions, with their SQL text. Read Statement text and your data first if the database holds sensitive values. Monitoring pages
If the database is in an HADR pair, open HADR. Takeover readiness and standby lag per standby, with a trend of log gap and replay lag. HADR monitoring
Set the target’s preferred credentials and run a remote RUNSTATS on a Table job against a test table. The job completes and its output carries Db2’s own message. Jobs
From the agent monitoring the target, run Purge Stale Plugin Cache once from Enterprise ▸ Job ▸ Activity ▸ Create Job. The job completes with no error even on a brand-new install — there is nothing stale to delete yet, which is the expected result. Jobs
Associate the three compliance standards with your target. Association Count moves from 0 to 1 on each of the three standards. Compliance standards

Week 1

What to do What you should see Page
Let a configuration collection run (every 24 hours), then open Compliance ▸ Results. Scored results for all three standards: configuration best-practices, audit posture, and version lifecycle. A fresh, unhardened install typically shows some findings on the first two — that is real signal, not a broken check. Compliance standards
Review the curated default thresholds on Metric and Collection Settings. Warning/Critical values already set on the metrics in Alerts and thresholds, sized for a general estate rather than tuned to yours. Alerts and thresholds
Watch the Growth Forecast on Storage over several days. DaysToFull moves from 9999 (no forecast) to a real projection once there is enough history to fit a trend. Monitoring pages

Send us your findings

Tell us what you found, including the parts that did not work.

Include the plug-in version (emcli list_plugins_on_server), your Enterprise Manager line, the Db2 version, the metric group or page involved, and any deploy log, agent log, or collection-error text.

Before you write, check Troubleshooting. An empty page, a job that fails on credentials, and a licence surprise each have a known cause and a fix there.

Coming from the Open Beta

If you evaluated the Open Beta, GA is a different plug-in: install it fresh alongside the beta, re-create your targets with a GA key, then retire the beta. See Moving from the beta to GA.

↑ IBM DB2 Plug-in documentation