Waiting for NSFDB2?
by Volker Weber
DB2 support was one of the big innovations in Domino 7.0. It lets you store Notes data on a DB2 database server. Well, almost. It was announced, it was in the beta, it shipped, but you could not use it. Although IBM was really quiet about this, I learned about it a year ago. At the end of July it became obvious that IBM would lock this feature up with a special key. Again, not openly communicated, but learned through beta documentation.
7.0 shipped. NSFDB2 was not supported.
7.0.1 shipped. NSFDB2 still not supported.
7.0.2 will ship by the end of this quarter. And NSFDB2 will still not be supported, according to this thread in the Partner forum:
702 will have some cool additions, read this post from Ed for some details [link]
DB2 support will not be one of the additions, the GA of this feature is expected for the next major release.
RoB
The next major release is not even announced yet. And the feature is only "expected" for the next major release. For 7.0 it was announced. I would say you need to wait another year. Minimum.
Who wants this anyway?
Update: Ed says it is announced. Let's read it:
... announcement of the next major release of Lotus Domino. IBM plans to enhance the next major version of Lotus Domino with support for service-oriented architecture (SOA), composite applications, activity-centric computing and support for server-managed clients. ... the next major version of Lotus Domino will continue IBM's tradition of innovation in the collaboration space and provide many new features and functions to address the evolving needs of our customers, including portal services from WebSphere Portal, updated document library services and team spaces. The next major versions of Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino will be available in 2007.
That is lot more fluffy than the announcement IBM released for Domino 7 when it became available:
Domino 7 provides developers with the option of using either traditional NSF storage features or IBM DB2 as the foundation for new and existing applications. This new capability gives developers the option of leveraging open-standard SQL (Structured Query Language) and choosing the technology that best fits their skills and business needs.
This is the very feature which is now "expected" to be generally available "in the next major release".
Comments
Looking at DB2(Viper) native XML capabilities this would be quite more interesting for storing the nsf data than BLOBs in tables. Just an idea.
I've spend alot alot alot .... of time in installing and troubleshooting NSFDB2 and I found the following problem:
By population a DAV, you will alway get these two errormessages on your serverconsole:
Failed when creating DB2 export table. DB2-Authorisation violation.: 42884 - [IBM][CLI Driver][DB2/NT] SQL0440 No autorized routine "ISREADER2" of typ "FUNCTION" with compatible argument found. SQLSTATE=42884 - *LOCAL.DB2.060629115301
Error: DB2-Autorisation violation.
By browsing the user defined functions in the DB2-Database "DOMINO" I found a function called "ISREADER3" (not ISREADER2!!).
I'm using DB2 8.2 Enterprise Server Edition (exact: DB2 v8.1.8.806, built special_13153), Domino 7.0. All access is given to my db2admin (OS, Domino, DB2 etc.) and the DB2 connection is successfully verified by the Domino-Administrator ( the application, not the person :-)) ).
Yes,
+) I've read the "DB2 And Domino 7 Install Guide" posted in the educationzone
+) I've read everthing which is coherent in this context (Administrator Help, Usergroups, etc.)
+) I've verified: the DB2-access, the Domino-access, the OS account authorisation, the DB2 account authorisation, the TPC/IP connection, the host list, the ports and every f*****g thing I can set in this context.
Belief me, my installation is ok!
I think that everybody who thinks or say to have a stable installation got not straight about the problem with DAVs.
I've written (I think more than 5 or 6 times) to IBM, but no one cares .... :-(
@Tobi: Make one guess why NSFDB2 will be available AFTER DB/2 Viper has become available... (which would be in the R8 timeframe)
;-) stw
Are you seriously suggesting that IBM throws away years of development of shoehorning Notes into DB2, to come up with a sensible solution?
@Christian - where have you written IBM? I don't see your name on any postings in the NSFDB2 forum.
Hi Ed, I've written to Bob and he forwared my question to a developper but I can't remember his name. I think his name was sounding a little bit like "wai ki" or so...
Are you seriously suggesting that IBM throws away years of development of...
I don't think that's a big problem.
[X]"San Francisco" Projekt (remember anybody?)
[X]eSuite
[X]OS/2
[X]Token-Ring
[X]Network Station
Feel free to append the list ;-)
To use Vipers XML capabilities is a much smarter way.
@Christian, while Bob and Wai Ki Yip are great contacts, you're going the "back door". Posting in the forum is the best way to get issues to us, much more useful than e-mail.
Hi Ed, thanks and greetings to Bob and Wai Ki Yip. Both are excellent engineers and very nice guys.
Just wanted to throw a quick note on the list to balance Christian's comment. I can appreciate your pain in getting the db2nsf feature set up. I have also spent a great deal of time with it. There are a few things that can go wrong during install and it can be very (VERY) challenging to get it straight.
However, once the feature is configured properly, it does indeed work. It is reliable and performs extremely well. We have applications in production doing things that I would not have attempted without db2nsf. Check the Lotusphere 2006 AD211 page on my blog for some slides.
I do believe in the technology and I wish it was getting pushed more. I'm not sure I have a complete understanding of IBM's reasons for hesitating but I have had several discussions with the developers on the topic. There are tons of opportunities with new development on db2nsf. It's ensuring support of all the existing applications and infrastructures that I think is causing them trouble.
I would also second Ed's comment and encourage you to post any questions to the db2nsf forum on the DeveloperWorks site.
I hope you find a solution to your error soon and get a chance to play with the technology. It's addicting! :-)
Imho many System i customers (iSeries, AS/400) are egerly waiting for this feature ! Simply because they all are running DB2.
It is so difficult to understand why this feature is still not available, even after about 9 month Domino 7. And even worse. So far I was unable to receive any info from IBM when it will become available for this platform.
Michael Poetzsche
Michael, the beta for i5/OS is available now. See here on ibm.com
