Provisioning IBM Db2 virtual databases

The virtual database (VDB) is a Delphix Continuous Data Engine virtualized copy of your source database that runs on your target environment. A VDB is provisioned from a dSource or VDB snapshot.

Prerequisites

You must meet the following requirements to create a VDB:

Identify an originating dataset and snapshot.
1. Link a dSource by following the instructions in Linking a IBM Db2 dSource.
2. Select a VDB that has been previously provisioned.
Set up an IBM Db2 target environment as described in IBM Db2 support and requirements.
To use privilege elevation, you must meet the Privilege elevation requirements.
Once you have restored the databases into your target environment, If the version of IBM® Db2® in your source environment is at a different fix pack level than the version of Db2 in your target environment, then you need to update the 11.1 version databases with db2updv111 command and 11.5 databases with db2updv115 command utility. Run the below command as a Pre-snapshot hook:
CODE
```
db2updv111 -d <DBNAME> -a
db2updv115 -d <DBNAME> -a
```

More details on the above can be found here.

Limitations

By default, the IBM Db2 connector will not allow provisioning a VDB on an instance that contains a database that has an identical name to the source database.

For example,

When we are provisioning a VDB from a VDB then the source VDB will be treated as the source database.
When we are provisioning a VDB from a dSource then a staging database will be treated as the source database.

If you want to provision a VDB on an instance that contains a source database, then you need to follow the steps mentioned here.

Procedure

Login to the Delphix Management application.
Click Manage.
Select Datasets.
Select a dSource.
Select a snapshot from which you want to provision.
Click the Provision VDB icon to open the Provision VDB wizard.
Select a target environment from the left pane.
Select an Installation to use from the dropdown list of available DB2 instances on that environment.
Set the Environment User to be the Instance Owner. Note: The picking of instance owners is only possible if you have multiple environment users set on that host.
Provide VDB Name as database name as parameter.
Optionally, provide the VDB Mount Base for the VDB.
Optionally, set the database configuration parameters for the VDB.
Click Next.
Select a Target Group for the VDB. Click the green Plus icon to add a new group, if necessary.
Select a Snapshot Policy for the VDB.
Click Next.
Specify any desired hook operations.
Click Next.
Review the Provisioning Configuration and Data Management information.
Click Submit. When provisioning starts, you can review the progress of the job in the Databases panel, or in the Job History panel of the Dashboard. When provisioning is complete, the VDB will be included in the group you designated and listed in the Databases panel. If you select the VDB in the Databases panel and click the Open icon, you can view its card, which contains information about the database and its Data Management settings. Once the VDB provisioning has successfully completed, if the source and target instance ids are not the same, you may want to grant secadm and dbadm on the database to the target instance id. For more information, refer to Requirements and prerequisites.