DB2 Copy, Clone and Replication
Large corporations maintain a significant amount of DB2 databases with several DB2 subsystems in z/OS production and test environments. Refreshing the test environments is a crucial process to assure proper application development and quality assurance lifecycle. The window of opportunity for copying DB2 data is constantly diminishing as the demands for nonstop production system increases.
Cloning DB2 databases and tablespaces is a sophisticated and error prone process. Traditional methods like Unload/Load consume a lot of CPU time and I/Os. The copy process can take many hours and often it cannot be completed in the limited batch window.
BCV5 - F--A--S—T Database Copy
BCV5 is a fast and powerful cloning tool for DB2 on z/OS. It can reduce the time required for copy to 90% compared to DSN1COPY. This dramatic time and money saving are achieved by multiplexing the copy process and OBID translation.
Save 90% Elapsed Time
The RUNSTATS utility is known as a long running process that consumes a lot of CPU cycles. BCV5 eliminates the costly RUNSTATS executions by automatically copying source statistics to the target system. It is no longer necessary to wait hours while RUNSTATS finishes.
Save 90% CPU Time
BCV5 copy process saves about 90% CPU time compared to Unload/Load. BCV5 efficiently works at the VSAM dataset level and copies the data directly from the source to the target DB2.
Save 90% Manual Efforts
BCV5 is a completely automated expert system. Its integrated ISPF user interface is intuitive and easily meets the needs of both experienced and less technical users. A graphical interface is also available for those who prefer using the PC environment.
BCV5 powerful rename mask facility assures proper naming conventions across DB2 systems. JCL jobs are automatically generated so you do not have to worry about cryptic copy statements or different source and target databases structures.
BCV5 expert system automatically generates the DDL for the target DB2 environment. A comprehensive check facility ensures that the target DB2 objects matches the source objects. Structural differences are automatically detected and successful completion of the copy process is guaranteed.
BCV5 Overview
BCV5 provides fast, efficient and manageable copying of DB2 data. It automatically generates and executes jobs to:
- Extract object definitions from the source DB2 catalog
- Transfer the definitions to the target system (CREATE, or DROP and CREATE)
- Compare the source definitions with existing target objects for compatibility
- Copy pagesets from the source to the target DB2
- Make target objects ready and start them
Why is BCV5 so fast?
Using a high performance multithread engine, BCV5 copies the data at the page level instead of extracting single rows one at a time. BCV5 copies the complete page and replaces the DB2 internal OBIDs with respective target values. There is no need to allocate temporary storage to unload the data because the DB2 pageset data is copied directly from the source to the target system.
Another performance enhancement technique consists of copying the indexspaces instead of rebuilding them. The BCV5 copy process runs ten times faster than DSN1COPY and uses only 10% of the service units compared to Unload/Load utilities.
Optional Components
BCV5 Data Reduction – BCV5/DR allows copying only a subset of your data. Depending on your test plan, a full table copy may not be necessary. If a particular test scenario only requires customers from a certain geographical area, then why copy an entire table with thousands or millions of unwanted rows? BCV5 Data Reduction allows specifying optimum copy criteria to reduce the number of rows prior to copy or replication.
BCV5 Data Scrambling – BCV5/DM mask sensitive DB2 data while copying data from a production system to a testing or QA environment. Any sensitive information is automatically replaces with random data. Fields can be replaced according to specific patterns to maintain the original data relationships.
BCV5 IceBox – This component of BCV5/IB takes snapshot and restores DB2 data to the same or other DB2 environments. The standard DB2 backup functionality only backs up data and optionally takes an image copy of tablespaces. When the structure of a table is altered, the data of the image copy is no longer compatible with the table structure. Icebox automatically generates and restores the DDL of all backed up objects and automatically rebuilds indexes during the restore process. IceBox also eliminates the lengthy and resource consuming execution of RUNSTAT
S. As soon as the objects are restored, they are ready to be used.
To avoid taking additional backup copies, IceBox can integrate with existing backups system. It uses the available image copies, registers them in its backup repository and stores the DDL of each object. The restore function supports renaming the saved objects and permits creating a completely different environment with the same data. It fully automates the DDL manipulation, creates target environment and performs the restore process. This guarantees that every generation of a backup can be restored to any target DB2.
IceBox user friendly interface provides an overview of all backup processes. To restore objects from a backup, users just need to select the backup version and let IceBox do the rest.
BCV4 - SAP/DB2 and PeopleSoft Subsystem Cloning
BCV4 is the fastest solution for cloning complete SAP or PeopleSoft environment that uses DB2 or a combination of IMS and DB2. New cloned systems are immediately available 
to application developers and QA group.
With BCV4, subsystem cloning does not require valuable DB2 expertise and can be executed in record time compare to traditional methods. System cloning for SAP, DB2 and IMS systems can be perform on nonstop 24x7 environments without impacting production systems. BCV4 is the fastest solution available.
BCV6 – Non‐Stop DB2 Environment
If you run a 24x7 shop, BCV6 can copy your DB2 tables and preserve data integrity without stopping your production database and without impacting data availability. Copying live DB2 systems assumes there will be changes made to objects while they are being copied. To overcome this issue, BCV6 automatically uses the information in the DB2 log to bring the copied tablespaces to a consistent state.
BCV Suite - Key Features
BCV solution cuts copy time down to one-tenth compared to conventional tools. It allows important savings of about 90% in copy time, a reduction of 90% in CPU time and a decrease of 90% in manual efforts.
Because BCV is incredibly faster that other solutions, databases can be copied more frequently and at a much lower cost. The target data is always up-to-date so it is beneficial for the application developers and the quality assurance group. BCV solution minimizes the human efforts required to setup the copy process and prevents runtime errors.
Being able to copy production databases at any period of the day avoids budgeting for costly overtime. The copy process can be executed during the normal business hours, without stopping the production databases.
- Automate DB2 Cloning/Migrating/Refreshing processes
- Save 90% CPU resources and elapsed time
- Reduce overtime and manual intervention
- Integrate seamlessly into existing IT environment
- Eliminate costly RUNSTATS, Rebuild Index, etc.
- Reduce DASD space required by copying data directly
We are also offering a series of z/OS DB2 management tools that enable you to make the best possible use of your DB2 resources. These DB2 management solutions automates the process of continuously inspecting each mission critical DB2 system, looking for potential problems and issuing early alerts ensures system availability and reduce the total cost of ownership.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information and see how you could save up to 90% in: Elapsed time, CPU time and Manual efforts.
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DB2 Solutions Brochure |
| BPV4 Brochure | |
| BPV5 Brochure | |
| BPV5 IceBox Brochure | |
| BPV6 Brochure |