SAP on Db2 for z/OS

IBM will discontinue program services for Db2 12 for z/OS® on 31 December 2025. Thus, it is necessary to migrate to Db2 13 for z/OS®.

However, is your installation ready for Db2 13?

SAP describes the process in detail in Migrating SAP Systems to Db2 13 for z/OS.

Several requirements are listed there, foremost:

• Db2 12 with Function Level 510 and PTF UI79956 is activated.
• Required SAP kernel patches and minimum Support Package levels for Db2 13 are applied.

For details, refer to SAP Note 3152993 - DB2-z/OS:v13: Prereqs & preparations for Db2 13.

This paper was a performance evaluation of SMC-Dv2 on IBM Z. It demonstrates that SMC can shorten batch elapsed time, OLTP response time and increase throughput for SAP Core Banking workloads. It may also result in software license cost savings.

For details refer to the IBM White Paper: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7159153

SAP business applications on Db2 for z/OS, with heavy I/O traffic demand the fastest access between application and physical storage. IBM zHyperLink helps to improve synchronous I/O traffic.
The document below addresses specialists who plan to use zHyperLink connectivity and describes a sample implementation:

We are pleased to announce the release of version 3.0 of our best-practices document for TLS in an SAP on IBM Z context.

This major update includes a variety of new topics that go beyond just SAP clients with certificate authentication.

Some of the key features of version 3.0 include:

• Successful implementation of TLS 1.3

• Streamlined certificate setup and AT-TLS policy

• Configuration of additional applications, such as SAP Host Agent and RMF DDS
• Incorporation of valuable customer feedback

These updates will enhance the overall security of SAP on IBM Z, and we are confident that you will find them helpful.

TLS Certificate Authentication for SAP Application Server Connections to Db2 on IBM Z

A revised and updated version 14 of the CLI Failover presentation is available. Major updates are:

• DBA Cockpit no longer supports re-loads of the db2dsdriver.cfg
• Added page 'Recommended Planned Failover trigger.'
• The New User Interface of the latest Failover Configuration Tools version included
• Other updates and improvements

Download the PDF

SAP has successfully certified the usage of APPLCOMPAT=V12R1M506 and APPLCOMPAT=V12R1M508. For the time being, the following SQL features are exploited:

• LISTAGG built-in function (FL501).
• The explicit casting of numeric values to GRAPHIC or VARGRAPHIC (FL502)
• An implicit drop of explicitly created database objects (FL506) & separation of multi-table segmented tablespace (FL508)

Raising APPLCOMPAT to V12R1M506 or V12R1M508 is optional for customers. SAP applications will always check the APPLCOMPAT level before using any new SQL features.

On z/OS the CPU consumption of Solution Manager Diagnostics (SMD) Agents can be very high if there are many (real and virtual) network interfaces. There is one agent (Java process) for each network interface. A detailed study revealed that a huge part of the CPU utilization is triggered by explicit garbage collection calls, which are superfluous with today's Java Virtual Machines. Fortunately, these calls can be deactivated without any code change by a simple adjustment of the SMD Agents' profile.

IBM's current Z processor family supports enhanced data compression using Huffman encoding. The SAP on IBM Z performance team located in Poughkeepsie just finished the first study using banking workloads to assess the effects of the new technology on disk space, performance, and throughput.