DataGeek.blog

July 22, 2020 Featured

First Look – The New Replacement for db2top and dsmtop – dmctop!

One topic that comes up at most panels, Technical Advisory Board meetings and other longer interactions I participate with for IBM is DBA’s love of db2top. It is such an easy tool, and one that most DBAs I know choose over all others for real-time monitoring and basic investigation of a database.… Read the rest

July 20, 2020 Featured

IDUG NA Virtual Conference: Day One Complete!

The IDUG Virtual conference kicked off today, and I thought I’d share my excitement and a few observations.

Content

Today

Today was mostly the opening keynote and the spotlight sessions. Recordings of Monday’s sessions will be available on-demand for conference attendees later in the week, so if you haven’t even registered yet, do so and replay them.… Read the rest

July 16, 2020 Featured

IDUG NA Tech Conference is 1/10th of Normal Cost, and Online!

If you’ve read the blog for a while, you realize I’m a big fan of the IDUG conferences. I’ve gone to the North American one every year for the better part of a decade now, and the European one for several years.… Read the rest

July 14, 2020 Featured

Using LDAP for Db2 Authentication in a Docker Container

Db2 is a bit unusual among RDBMSes in that it does not perform authentication. No matter what, you need some external authority to perform authentication. Usually that is either the OS or LDAP, though there are other options. If using LDAP, either transparent LDAP or security plugins can be used.… Read the rest

June 24, 2020 Featured

Update on Ember’s Data Science Journey – June 2020

It has been a while since I wrote one of these, and it’s about time!

Recap

In June of 2018, I set a new goal for myself.

Long-term goal (by 2035): Work on data science in a way that makes the world a better place.

… Read the rest Continue reading »

June 17, 2020 Featured

Disappearing Data in PostgreSQL

I recently discovered an interesting (and frustrating) issue while running PostgreSQL in Kubernetes. While the issue technically isn’t specific to Kubernetes, per se, it is certainly easy to encounter in Kubernetes for users of the official PostgreSQL Docker image (and many other images) mounting volumes somewhere other than the default location.… Read the rest

May 15, 2020 Featured

Free Digital Education Opportunity: IBM User Group Days!

What is IBM User Group Days?

On May 19 and 20, IBM is hosting several tracks of great sessions. Some of these come out of content that would have happened at THINK, and others are collaborations with the user groups from various technologies.… Read the rest

March 10, 2020 Featured

DB2 Administrative SQL Cookbook: List Privileged IDs that do not Have the Connect Authority

Purpose

To list IDs that have one or more privileges, but do not have the CONNECT authority through a direct grant, a group, or a role, either explicitly or implicitly. I used this to find IDs I might need to grant CONNECT to before revoking connect from PUBLIC.… Read the rest

February 26, 2020 Featured / MDM

A Single Source of Truth – Even More Elusive in the Cloud Era?

Introduction

I would like to begin by thanking Ember for allowing me to be a guest blogger and explaining the motivation behind writing this blog.

The “need for speed” in today’s world has led to a sweeping reform where old ideas are discarded too rapidly.… Read the rest

January 28, 2020 Featured

How do I Install SQL?

I have seen the question several times on various groups or forums – “How do I install SQL?”. From a DBA standpoint, this isn’t even a properly formed question. From a developer learning standpoint the question makes sense. I needed Python, I went and downloaded Anaconda.… Read the rest

January 21, 2020 Featured

SQL+RDBMS Basics: What is a Commit?

This post is cross-platform and applies to all RDBMSes.

It is interesting to see, as a person experienced with a technical tool, some of the disadvantages of the newer ways of learning technical topics. When I started in IT, you learned some of the concepts in college, you learned some things working on the job with other DBAs who knew what they were doing, and you filled in the gaps by going to week-long classes once a year to get some detailed and hands-on official training.… Read the rest

January 2, 2020 Featured

Packaging and Licensing of Db2 for LUW – Version 11.5

Edit 2020-01-02: corrected limit for free Db2 on Cloud to the correct 200 MB. Original text is still in the document, in strikeout.

This is one of the few blog entries where I include the Db2 version number right in the title.… Read the rest