DB2 on Campus

DB2 Express-C 10.1 - Faster, more features, and still free!

2012-05-02T10:42:00.001-04:00

The new version of DB2 Express-C, version 10, is out, and it's more flexible and powerful than ever before! Starting from the fact that it now allows you to use 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB, this will boost different database operations. The database size is still unlimited (compared to 11GB for Oracle XE, or 10GB for SQL Server Express). Speaking of Oracle, DB2 Express-C includes the "Oracle compatibility feature", which means that as much as 98% of code written for Oracle could run with no changes on DB2 Express-C!.

There are other cool new features in DB2 Express-C that you can use and configure with minimal effort. For example, "Time Travel Query" allows you to develop "time-aware" applications with minimal effort. This is helpful for audit purposes, governance, and to solve problems because this feature will let you query your data as it was in a given period of time that you specify. This can help you to easily and quickly create charts like the ones you see for stock prices, for example.

Check out the article "DB2 Express-C 10: Even more value" for more details, and download and try DB2 Express-C 10! It's free!

DB2 Express-C 9.7.5 includes Oracle compatibility

2011-11-21T18:28:00.001-05:00

In case you didn't already hear, last week DB2 Express-C 9.7.5 was released! The main feature it includes is Oracle compatibility! Though this functionality was available for a while in other editions of DB2, it has just been made available in DB2 Express-C. Read more about it in the DB2 Express-C team blog!

Raul.

Just imagine...

2011-09-21T22:18:00.002-04:00

About two weeks ago, BigDataUniversity.com launched a Hadoop Programming Challenge with the opportunity to give 3 students a free trip to Las Vegas (all travel expenses paid!) and participate in the Information on Demand (IOD) conference. Students completing the Hadoop Fundamentals I course would be given the details of the challenge. If you click on the "Participants" link in the course, you will see (as of today) that there are about 1000 people registered in the course. That means 3 out of 1000 would be traveling to Las Vegas... That is not a bad ratio, but if you think about it, it is very likely not all registered students will complete the course. Say 300 (30%) complete it. This means 3 out of 300 would make it to Vegas!... but wait ...it gets better. Those who complete the course receive the details of the programming challenge. The challenge requires you to write some code. My guesstimate is that maybe 30 students (10% of 300) will actually submit their program... So now we have 3 out of 30 flying to Vegas!. Now, in my experience judging submissions for other challenges, out of those 30, some submissions will be incomplete or disqualified, some would be too simple... So say 50% are like that....that means 3 out of 15 (or 1 in 5) could be in Vegas this October!

Now remember: This is not a lottery, this is a challenge; therefore you have a say on the outcome. If you put the effort and are creative we can see you at IOD!...moreover, you may network with executives from many companies including IBM and that may open the door to more opportunities!

Now that would be a good reason for participating...

Just imagine!

P.S: Yes, this post will make more people think about participating, but in my opinion, the ratio would still be very good!...I don't think 10000 people would be participating as the submission deadline is this September 30th!

Good luck! Raul.

DB2 Express-C 9.7.4 - Did you try it out?

2011-05-14T08:35:00.000-04:00

Hello,

DB2 Express-C 9.7.4 is out for about a week now. I wrote an article in developerWorks titled "What's new with DB2 Express-C 9.7.4". Check it out for details!

Cheers, Raul.

DB2 University

2011-01-13T08:44:00.003-05:00

Today, DB2 University (db2university.com) was made available (in beta) to the community. DB2 university is an online educational Web site delivering free and paid courses by experienced professionals and teachers.

Why DB2 University?
DB2 University represents many things:

Flexibility
Online delivery of education is a growing trend. It allows students to learn at their own pace, in the comfort of their home, or wherever they may be. It allows companies to have their employees gain skill at a lower cost (No traveling expenses required).

The DB2 community demanded a site like this, and finally we have it! DB2 University delivers courses about DB2 and other technologies online, in either self-paced or Instructor-led format. The site has a sample of courses right now that you can check out:

- SQL Fundamentals I
- DB2 Essential Training I
- DB2 Essential Training II
- Data Studio Essential Training I

Some of these courses have been translated to different languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Russian); and they all have a corresponding book that can be used as a reference. For example, the SQL Fundamentals I course is based on the Database Fundamentals eBook just published; the DB2 Essential Training I & II courses are based on the Getting started with DB2 Express-C eBook, and the Data Studio Essential Training I course is based on the Getting started with IBM Data Studio for DB2 ebook.

Books, videos, online delivery... A complete set of materials in different formats!

Quality, easily consumable material
Before DB2 University was released -- and this applies to internet content in general -- you could find a lot of material about DB2 on the Web; however, in many cases it was hard to make sense what was relevant or not. Some of the material out there is obsolete, incorrect, or too complex; and this would cause you a headache more than helping you. Moreover, there is no logical flow when reading this material. You just get an ocean of information that is hard to digest.

At DB2 University, we use Moodle open source course management system (CMS). A CMS helps instructors organize the material in a relevant and easily digestable way. Now students can go through the material with a logical flow that will save them time in their learning. They can also be confident the material is relevant, up-to-date, and of great quality, since it's been prepared by experienced professionals and teachers.

The Moodle version running on DB2 University was enabled to use DB2 as its database server. This means Moodle is helping DB2, and DB2 is helping Moodle!

Recognition
Everyone taking a course likes to have some document to attest they completed the course. At DB2 University, we offer completion certificates to all students passing a course.

A real-life reference: Moodle using DB2, DB2 on the Cloud
Every time you access DB2 University you are seeing DB2 in action!. As mentioned earlier, Moodle CMS was enabled to run on DB2. Moreover, every time you access DB2 University, you are also seeing DB2 in action on the Cloud!. Yes, DB2 University was implemented on the Amazon Cloud. We manage it using Rightscale, a Cloud management platform. Working on the Cloud also enabled us to set up a disaster recovery site at a low cost, so we use a different elastic cloud computing (EC2) instance to run a DB2 Stand-by server in a HADR configuration.

There are many more things to say about DB2 University and how it was implemented. A developerWorks article published on January 13th has more details. It is the first in a series of articles describing how DB2 University was implemented, including it's open-ID sign up capabilities (that is, how ChannelDB2/Facebook/Yahoo/Google IDs can be used to log on to DB2 University), and also using an Android phone to access your marks at DB2 university.

I would like to end this post by inviting you once again to try out DB2 University. Right now we have a special promotion where the top 20 students passing some of the courses offered will receive free or discounted IBM Certification exam vouchers, and also free hard copies of books!

We would like to hear any feedback you may have about the site so we can improve it!. Moreover, if you would like to host your quality material in our site, please let us know! It could be hosted either as a free or a fee-based course. It's up to you!

Enjoy! Raul.

Treat yourself to DB2 this holiday

2010-12-07T10:52:00.003-05:00

Nice post from my colleague Leons:
http://www.db2teamblog.com/2010/12/treat-yourself-to-db2-this-holiday.html

Happy Holidays! Raul.

Experience the next version of DB2 today!

2010-12-01T15:04:00.001-05:00

Check out the DB2 Early Experience Program if you would like to experience the next version of DB2 to be released some time in the future.

You can "test drive" this new version without having to install or setup any software as we are running this from the Amazon Cloud. Send a note to db2beta at ca.ibm.com if you'd like to participate! Discount/vouchers may be available to cover any Amazon Cloud expenses.

Enjoy!, Raul

Moving a PHP app from MySQL to DB2

2010-12-01T14:27:00.005-05:00

Moving a PHP application to DB2 from MySQL is the title of a series of articles in IBM developerWorks.

"This series describes why it makes sense to move a PHP application to DB2, how to prepare for the migration, how to execute it, how to support it, and how to handle potential risks based on the authors' experience with a recent migration. Many code and configuration samples are provided, as well as pointers to resources to help the project run smoothly".

The first part in the series was published two weeks ago.

Another added benefit, budget-wise, is that DB2 Express (Fixed Term License) is 2.5x cheaper than the equivalent MySQL version!. IBM reduced DB2 Express license cost to US$1,990 a few months ago. At around the same time, Oracle raised MySQL's price to about US$5,000.

Cheers, Raul

Leverage Cloud Computing to Accelerate Development and Test

2010-11-15T18:17:00.001-05:00

Chat with the lab webinar:

Date: Thu, November 18, 2010 (11.18.2010)
Time: 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)
10:30 AM Central / 8:30 AM Pacific / 16:30hrs London / 17:30hrs Frankfurt, Paris / India 10 PM
Speakers: Sal Vella (IBM), Uri Budnik (RightScale), Leon Katsnelson (IBM)

Description:
Are your application development and prototyping projects being put on hold due to budgetary constraints? Do you continually have to wait for new hardware and software to be procured and provisioned before your developers can start new projects? Are your current development and test systems sitting idle most of the time? Do you spend long cycles creating copies of your development or production environments for testing new changes and updates?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, join Sal, Uri and Leon to learn more about how you can leverage cloud computing to simplify development and testing for database projects. This webinar will feature live demos and will have about 20min dedicated for your questions.

This webcast is brought to you in collaboration between IBM and RightScale.

Register!

If clicking the above link does not work copy and paste the following URL to your web browser and follow the Registration link: ibm.com/db2/labchats

DB2 course trial run results: 43 free certification vouchers given away

2010-11-07T19:35:00.002-05:00

After 2 weeks running the "DB2 Essential Training I" e-course, I'm happy to announce the results here:

- 336 people enrolled
- 71 people were eligible to take the final exam (completed all assignments)
- 43 people passed the course and received free IBM Certification exam vouchers

We received excellent feedback about this course, and we will soon be announcing other courses to start in December. More details will be provided through the DB2 on Campus Facebook Group. Make sure you join this group!

Raul.

Learn DB2 with a free online course and get a free DB2 Certification voucher!

2010-10-15T11:53:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone!

After a successful trial-run last September, I'm happy to announce that we are having another "Learn DB2 with a free online course and get a free DB2 Certification voucher!" event.

This will be the same course we held in September with some different assignments and other few changes made based on the feedback received.

I will be giving away free IBM DB2 certification vouchers to the top 25% of the students who take the course to a maximum of 50 vouchers. The vouchers are valid to take any DB2 certification exam at any time before March 31st, 2011. They can be used anywhere in the world where there is a testing center such as Prometric. Typically taking a DB2 certification exam can cost between $30 to $120 dollars depending on the location, so this is a great offer!

I will be emailing the details about how to enroll to the course this Monday October 18th, 2010. Please make sure you join the DB2 on Campus Facebook group since I will be messaging all the members with the instructions.

I hope you can participate!

Cheers, Raul.

CC4D - Cloud computing for developers - FREE webinars

2010-10-11T22:18:00.002-04:00

This Oct 12 and 13, 2010 attend free Cloud Computing Webinars organized by IBM developerWorks.

I will be presenting on Oct 13th. My session is #3 and is titled "Database design for multi-tenancy and resiliency" ( 2:30PM-3:30PM EST = Toronto time). I will be talking about Amazon's and DB2's offerings/features for Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors who use multi-tenancy to reduce costs. I will also discuss about DB2's HADR feature as part of the resiliency section, and provide a demo to set it up using Rightscale.

It's not late to participate!. Register to the Cloud Computing for developers (CC4D) event!

Hope to "see" you there,

Raul.

CRN news on DB2 Express-C

2010-10-08T15:54:00.001-04:00

Interesting article about DB2 Express-C:
http://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/227700376/getting-local-with-db2-express.htm

New eBook: Getting started with DB2 Application Development

2010-10-06T10:53:00.002-04:00

Hi All,

As part of the DB2 on Campus book series (ibm.com/db2/books) we have just published a new FREE ebook:

Getting started with DB2 Application Development

Enjoy!

Raul.

More features for DB2 Express

2010-10-05T13:17:00.003-04:00

Today, IBM announced that DB2 Express (Fixed Term License or FTL) will also allow you to use Optim Development Studio and Optim Database Administrator free of charge. These tools increase development efficiency by 50% for Java data access, help pin-point query bottlenecks, automate data migration with object dependencies, and provide a full range of functionality for database administration and development. In addition the cost of the FTL subscription has been cut in half. Read more about the DB2 Express new features and new pricing!

Cheers, Raul.

Course over, vouchers distributed

2010-09-21T22:57:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, 25 students won vouchers to take any Information Management certification exam after enrolling in a free online course about DB2. The feedback received about the event was excellent, so it is very likely I will be repeating a similar event in the near in future (probably end of October 2010). I will be announcing new events like this on this blog, the DB2 on Campus Facebook group, and my twitter (raulchong)

Stay tuned!

Raul.

Learn DB2 with a free online course and get a free DB2 Certification voucher!

2010-08-25T10:34:00.002-04:00

This September I will be giving away 25 free IBM certification vouchers to take any DB2 certification exam at any time, anywhere in the world where there is a testing center such as Prometric.

If you already passed Exam 730, this could be an opportunity for you to take Exam 731 for free (for example), or you can choose any other exam.

In order to get the voucher, you will be asked to take a free online DB2 basic course titled "DB2 Essential Training I" that will be available to take at any time starting on September 13th, 2010.

If you have already passed Exam 730, the course may not be hard for you. It is based on the free e-book "Getting started with DB2 Express-C". It has 5 lessons which you can finish in one day or weekend. There will be one short assignment, one live review session with me for feedback (Web-based), and then a test.

If you are interested, please reply before Sep 1st, 2010 to db2univ at ca.ibm.com email with this information:

- Email
- Firstname
- Lastname
- Country

Use "Free certification voucher" as the title of your email for easy identification.

Once you send me this information, I will be providing you with a userID/password, and more instructions.

Cheers, Raul.

Job internship opportunities at the IBM Toronto Lab.

2010-08-24T18:18:00.008-04:00

Early this year we started the search for students around the world to fill up two 16-month internship positions at the IBM Toronto Lab. We were looking for the best Web developers to help with cool and interesting projects that would use Web services, mobile technologies (iPhone, Android), and Cloud technologies; all in conjunction with DB2.

Today I'm happy to announce that after a long selection and recruitment process, Marius-Gabriel Butuc from Romania (left on the picture) and Henrique Copelli Zambon from Brazil (right on the picture), have been selected.

These are their stories in their own words:

Henrique Copelli Zambon
I'm a Computer Engineering student from the University of Sao Paulo. I learned about this opportunity from my colleague Phillip Viana, who now works as a Software Engineer at IBM Brazil. I'm very excited about this opportunity because of the chance to work with cool technologies involving mobile platforms (iPhone and Android), Web services and cloud computing using DB2. After several phone interviews, and completing an assignment, I was delighted to be chosen. I'm looking forward to the work ahead!

Marius-Gabriel Butuc
Hi, I'm Marius, a 2nd year MSc Software Engineering student at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania. As soon as I learned about this opportunity from my professor, Dr. Sabin-Corneliu Buraga, I was happy to embark in an application process that made me discover great people who have now become both my colleagues and inspiration. Discovering an unsuspected match between my interests and most of the buzzwords surrounding the project - like Django, RESTful Web Services, interface development for mobile devices, Ruby on Rails and DB2 - I soon decided to take this opportunity. After my longest flight to date, and with a smile on my face, I'm eager to fulfill this great learning opportunity, in the middle of this great team!

More information about internships
Through the DB2 on Campus program we recommend students we've met in person at DB2 on Campus events, or referred from a teacher or IBMer. Internships are only offered to students who are still in school. They must go back to continue their studies after the internship period is completed. Undergraduate, graduate (Master's, PhD) students are welcome to apply.

Internship applications at the Toronto Lab start in mid-December for positions that start in May. Though 16-month internship work periods are preferred, there are also 4, 8 and 12 month internships. Preference is given to Canadian students, but everyone is invited. Most positions are for development and testing, where C/C++/Java skills are a must. DB2 skills are a plus.

To apply, please contact your teacher or local IBMer who can get in touch with me. Please don't apply directly from this blog post.

Learn DB2 quickly from channeldb2.com/oncampus videos, and the free eBook "Getting started with DB2 Express-C".

Cheers, Raul.

Data Studio webinar replay

2010-07-27T16:39:00.002-04:00

If you missed the Data Studio Webinar held on July 27th, the replay is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/276y96j

Cheers, Raul.

Free Data Studio webinar - Receive book for attending!

2010-07-20T18:20:00.002-04:00

This Tuesday, July 27th, I will be delivering a free webinar about the free IBM Data Studio software. Receive a hard copy of the book "Getting started with IBM Data Studio for DB2" just for attending!

The presentation will show you all the possibilities available for database administration and development using Data Studio.

Details:
Date: Tuesday, July 27th
Time: 11:30am - 1:00pm EST
Link: https://de202.centra.com:443/GA/main/0000017cff6600000128b56cd8a024e2
(replay available from the same link)

Hope to "see you" there!

Raul.

DB2 Express-C 9.7.2 is now available for download!

2010-06-02T09:37:00.003-04:00

DB2 Express-C 9.7.2 is now available for download!. It is a full refresh of the free edition of DB2 with lots of new features and fixes including:

- Default parameter values in user defined functions (UDFs)
- Named arguments when calling user defined functions
- Ability to copy table spaces and SQL schemas between active databases using RESTORE with TRANSPORT option
- Auditing improvements with full replay of past database activities
- Improved performance and ease of development for .NET applications

Download landing page:
http://www.ibm.com/db2/express/download.html

Cheers, Raul.

Webcast: DB2 for LUW Security Primer

2010-02-17T13:37:00.001-05:00

Date: 02/25/2010
Time: 11:30 - 13:00 EST / 10:30 AM Central / 8:30 AM Pacific / 16:30hrs London / 17:30hrs Frankfurt, Paris / India 10 PM
Presented By: Sal Vella (IBM), Walid Rjaibi (IBM)
Hosted By: Rav Ahuja (IBM)

Description:

This presentation will quickly refresh your understanding of the DB2 9.5 security capabilities and then bring you up to speed on the latest additions made in DB2 9.7 to help you better meet your regulatory compliance needs such as separation of duties and data-in-transit encryption.

You will learn how to:
1. vest security administration and database administration into two non overlapping roles;
2. prevent database administrators from accessing table data;
3. avoid granting users more privileges than what they need to perform their job tasks;
4. configure DB2 SSL to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your data communications; and
5. make a successful transition to the DB2 9.7 authorization model.

Join experts from the IBM Toronto Lab: Sal Vella - Vice President of Development, and Walid Rjaibi - Chief Security Architect for DB2 LUW, for this one hour session on DB2 security followed by live questions and answers.

Presentation charts and recording for this Chat will be available for download from ibm.com/db2/labchats

Registering for this event

The following Web address points to the page where participants can register for this event:
https://events.webdialogs.com/register.php?id=e3f817f571&l=en-US

New free ebook: IBM Data Studio for DB2

2009-12-10T09:01:00.002-05:00

A new free ebook titled "Getting started with IBM Data Studio for DB2" is now available here!.

Data Studio is an eclipse-based tool that is replacing the DB2 Control Center and other DB2 tools. In addition to DBA tasks, you can also develop stored procedures (using languages such as SQL PL, PL/SQL, Java), SQL and XQuery scripts, and data Web services.

Download this free ebook and learn!

Enjoy,

Raul.

DB2 on Campus Newsletter - 3rd quarter is out

2009-12-09T14:52:00.002-05:00

The DB2 on Campus newsletter summarizes many of the activities performed by students, professors, and IBMers around the world working/volunteering on the DB2 on Campus initiative.

The latest edition of the newsletter can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/yatuhte

You can subscribe to the newsletter by visiting:
http://www.channeldb2.com/group/db2oncampusnewsletter

Enjoy! Raul.

DB2 Express-C 9.7.1 is out!

2009-12-02T09:21:00.004-05:00

The 9.7.1 refresh of DB2 Express-C free database server is now available:
http://db2expressc.blogspot.com/2009/12/get-db2-express-c-971-now.html

Cheers,

Raul.