A publication of the Northeast Ohio Database Users Group

August, 2006

www.neodbug.org

 

In this issue:

 

CHAIRMAN'S CORNER

 

    Imagine that it's July (all right, almost August).  It has been too hot to get out on the golf course yet this year because the grass is all brown with mud from the rain, the ground is so soft that your drives just stick in the turf, and your golf clubs are getting rusty in the trunk.  The Cavaliers have made another blockbuster signing - just kidding!  At least they re-signed LeBron.  What about Gooden?  ...and NEODBUG is holding our next quarterly meeting on Thursday, August 17, 2006.  It will be at the Doubletree Cleveland South (formerly the Cleveland Hilton South) in Independence.  Even though we are in the “lazy days of summer”, our agenda committee has not been laying around.  They did another spectacular job of finding speakers for the August quarterly meeting with some VERY interesting topics.

 

*     *     *

 

    We will start the day with Paul Zikopoulos, an award-winning writer and speaker with the IBM Database Global Sales Support team.  He has more than seven years of experience with DB2 UDB and has written numerous magazine articles and books about it.  Paul has co-authored the books DB2 - the Complete Reference, DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies, DB2 for Dummies, A DBA's Guide to Databases on Linux and DB2 Version 8: the Official Guide.  He is a DB2 Certified Advanced Technical Expert (DRDA and Cluster/EEE) and a DB2 Certified Solutions Expert (Business Intelligence and Database Administration).

 

Paul's presentation is titled "DB2 Viper - Test Drive Highlights".  Here are the major points that Paul will cover:

 

*     *     *

 

    Our second presentation for the day is a member company talk presented by Bob Vargo and Mike Semega of Progressive Insurance.  Bob will give an overview of his recent IDUG presentation titled: “Managing Distributed, Dynamic Workloads on DB2.”  Here is a brief outline of the presentation:

    Both Bob and Mike will talk about "Progressive's DB2 Tools and Utilities".  It includes:

 

 

    Bob Vargo is a senior systems programmer with 20+ years of experience and Mike Semega is a senior systems programmer with over 26 years of IT experience.

 

*     *     *

 

    After lunch, we have a complete afternoon of presentations from John Iczkovits, a consulting IT specialist with IBM Advanced Technical Support (Dallas Systems Center).   He provides technical support of DB2 for z/OS and OS/390 and consulting services.  His areas of expertise include DB2 data sharing, performance, and availability. His work at IBM includes experience supporting DB2 as a systems engineer, database administrator, IT specialist, consultant and project lead. He has an operations background and more than 20 years of IT experience, ranging from database products such as DB2 and IMS to MVS systems support, including storage management. He has also co-authored IBM redbooks, red papers, white papers, and presented at SHARE, the DB2 Technical Conference and local DB2 user groups.

 

    John's first presentation is titled "Help! My Storage Administrator Doesn't Speak DB2!  What Can I Do?".  In this session, you will learn how to talk to your Storage Administrator about DB2.  Learn how to get our DB2 terminology and architecture across to your storage administrator so they can better handle DB2.  Get some key points from a storage perspective to be able to ask the proper questions and have your storage administrator help you out in your future DB2 endeavors. 

 

    John's second presentation is "Faster Fetch and Insert - DB2 V8 Multiple Row Processing".  Multiple row inserts (MRI) and multiple row fetches (MRF) are new SQL constructs for DB2 for z/OS V8.  This presentation will delve into the details you will need to know to take advantage of the performance and functional enhancements introduced with MRI and MRF.  You will receive information on usage, for local and distributed applications, and interaction with other SQL constructs such as scrollable cursors, UPDATE and DELETE WHERE CURRENT OF, and a quick discussion of the GET DIAGNOSTICS statement.  MRI and MRF will be compared and contrasted to existing techniques used by the DB2 family for processing multiple rows - limited block fetch (LBF) and chained inserts (LBF and chained inserts are DRDA constructs used by DB2 to reduce network traffic).

 

*     *     *

 

    It sounds like a full day of information that will prove to be of great use to all of us.

 

    I also want to remind you that we are coming up on our annual business meeting in November.  This means the election of Trustees to the Board.  It's not too early to start thinking about how you can be involved more in the leadership of this organization.  We always need some new ideas and assistance with the duties of the Board. 

 

    Here's how the process works: any member of NEODBUG may nominate him/herself by submitting a letter to the Board of Trustees with a statement of fifty (50) words or less indicating relevant background.  We will be accepting nominations at the August quarterly meeting.  You may also nominate someone else by submitting his or her name, company name and phone number (if possible).  They will be notified by a Board member of their nomination and asked if they have any interest in joining the Board of Trustees.

 

    The current Board of Trustees will present to the membership a ballot listing all nominees and will conduct an election for the Board of Trustees for 2007.  The elected Board will elect its officers at the December Board meeting.

 

    Join the NEODBUG Board of Trustees and have input into the kind of programs and events that are sponsored by the organization.

 

*     *     *

 

    Wear your summer/casual attire (shorts, golf shirts and sneakers) to the August meeting, especially if it is in the 90-degree range like it has been recently.  There's no need to be uncomfortable.

 

    ...Now that I'm finally on the links, I just made a hole-in-one on the 16th at Firestone (haha).  No, I am the new point guard for the Cavs and I am looking to pass the ball to LeBron or Larry... They just got me under the salary cap after two free agent signing.  Oh my!  I just thought that I saw Danny Ferry - I must be dreaming...

 

    See all of you at the meeting! 

 

Michael P. James

Chairman

 

 

UPCOMING DATABASE EVENTS

 

Dates                  Organization                                       City

 

08/06-10/06        Sybase TechWave 2006                    Las Vegas, NV

 

08/17/06             NEODBUG quarterly meeting             Independence, OH


08/20-25/06        Data Warehouse Inst - Summer        San Diego, CA

 

08/29-09/01/06   BMC UserWorld Conference             San Francisco, CA


09/12-16/06        DB2 Info Management Tech. Conf.   Orlando, FL

 

09/14/06 6-8pm  NE Ohio Data Warehouse SIG           Cleveland, OH

 

09/15/06             NE Ohio Oracle Users Group             Independence, OH

 

09/18-22/06        Teradata Partners Conference         Orlando, FL

 

10/02-06/06        IDUG 2006 - Europe                           Vienna, Austria

 

10/15-20/06        IBM DB2 Technical Conference       Anaheim, CA


10/15-20/06        IMS Technical Conference               Anaheim, CA


10/16-19/06        Info & Data Quality Conference       San Francisco, CA

 

10/16-20/06        IBM Info On Demand Conference    Anaheim, CA

 

10/25-27/06        DB2 Symposium - Europe               Copenhagen Denmark

 

10/30-11/02/06   Data Mgmt, Info Quality & Metadata London, UK


11/05-19/06        Data Warehouse Inst - Fall              Orlando, FL

 

11/06-09/06        SQL Server DB & Developer           Las Vegas, NV


11/13-15/06        DB2 Symposium                              Chicago, IL


11/16/06             NEODBUG quarterly meeting          Independence, OH

 

03/29-30/07        IDUG Australia Forum                     Melbourne, Australia

 

05/06-10/07        IDUG North America                        San Jose, CA

 

 

TREASURER'S REPORT

 

The following are the current figures for NEODBUG as of July 4th, 2006:

 

            ASSETS

 

                        Checking Account                              $   10,309.52

                        Savings Account                                      2,079.83

                        Projector                                                            2,089.10

 

                        TOTAL                                                           $  14,478.45

 

            LIABILITIES

 

                        Membership Prepayment                              $540.00

                        Total Liabilities                                              $540.00

           

                        NET WORTH                                    $   13,938.45

 

We had a soft turnout for our May 18th Meeting with 34 attending from 15 companies.

 

The following companies/individuals have sent in their Corporate or Individual Memberships.  If you don’t see your company name there, you will have to pay the higher, non-Membership registration fees at the upcoming quarterly meetings.  Those that prepaid to send members to NEODBUG meetings have the number of remaining coupons next to their names.  The coupons expire 12/31/2006:

 

            Companies/ Individuals that have paid memberships:

 

Alltel Information Services

Antares Management Solutions                   (2 Coupons left)

Betz Consulting, LTD                                    (3 Coupons left)

Susan Birgeles                                               (2 Coupons left)

BMC Software, Inc.                                      

Bridgestone/ Firestone                     

Dominion CCS                                               (3 Coupons left)         

Erie Insurance

JoAnn Stores 

Key Bank

Lovell Leverette                                           

National City Bank                            (1 Coupons left)                                 

Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

Parker Hannifin                                             (2 Coupons left)

Progressive 

Phil Sherman                                      (2 Coupons left)

Hy Sockel

S&P Solutions                                                (2 Coupons left)

Sherwin Williams                                           (3 Coupons left)

  

Alan P. Solnick

NEODBUG Treasurer

 

 

 

 

 

Are the obstacles you face in implementing your Data Warehouse insurmountable?  Is your Data Mart really a Data Dinosaur because no one uses it?  Are you ready to jump off of a cliff?

 

Whether you need to create an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) or a data mart for a particular functional area of your organization, S&P Solutions, Inc. (SPS) can assist in the design, development and implementation of your EDW, Data Mart or ODS to insure that it can provide the data your users are requesting in the most efficient manner.

 

S&P Solutions, Inc. is a Cleveland-based Information Technology consulting company, founded in 1983, with a goal of providing creative enterprise solutions to Fortune 1000 companies.  Since that time, SPS has become one of the premier IT Services and Software Sales companies in Ohio.

We specialize in providing quality:

 

Custom Applications Development                  Database Design and Management Services

        Data Warehouse Development                  Systems Management Services

       Network Management Services                                Systems Integration Services

        Database Reviews/Evaluations     Website & e-Commerce Development Svcs

     Offshore Development                                   Software      Asset Management Services

            Software Sales                                                         Full-time Placement Assistance

 

Call us today and see if we can help you conquer YOUR challenges!

 

 

35000 Chardon Rd., Suite 200

Cleveland, Ohio 44094

(440) 918-9111

(800) 978-9113

Fax (440) 918-1429

Email: sales@sps-solutions.com

www.sps-solutions.com

 

 

 

AGENDA

August 17, 2006

 

8:30 - 9:00           Registration

 

9:00 - 9:10      Opening Remarks

                                                Michael James

 

9:10 - 10:30                "DB2 Viper Test Drive Highlights"

                                    Paul Zikopoulos

                                                IBM Corporation

 

10:30 - 10:45  Break

 

10:45 - 12:00  “Managing Distributed, Dynamic Workloads on DB2"

                                    Bob Vargo

                           Progressive Insurance

 

                           “Progressive's DB2 Tools and Utilities”

                        Bob Vargo & Mike Semega

                           Progressive Insurance

 

12:00 - 1:00    Lunch

 

1:00 - 2:15      “Help! My Storage Administrator Doesn’t Speak DB2!"

                        John Iczkovitz

                          IBM Corporation

 

2:15 - 2:30      Break

 

2:30 - 3:45      “Faster Fetch and Insert – DB2 V8 Multiple Row Processing"

                                    John Iczkovitz

                                    IBM Corporation

 

3:45 - 4:00      Closing Remarks/Door Prizes

                        Michael James


Doubletree Hotel Cleveland South

(Formerly the Hilton South)

6200 Quarry Lane

Independence, Ohio 44131

(216) 447-1300

 

REGISTRATION FORM

NEODBUG Quarterly Meeting

Thursday, August 17, 2006

DoubleTree Hotel Cleveland South (formerly Hilton South)

6200 Quarry Lane

Independence, OH

 

R.S.V.P: Checks and registration forms are encouraged to be sent early.

Cost: If your company is a member of NEODBUG: $30.00 pre-registration or $40.00 at the door.

If your company is not a member of NEODBUG: $40.00 pre-registration or $50.00 at the door.

Yes, I will be attending the quarterly meeting; a check for $ ________ is enclosed for a total of ________ reservations.

YOUR NAME __________________________  TITLE _________________________

 

PHONE & EMAIL ADDRESS _____________________________________________

 

In addition to myself, the following persons will be attending:

NAME                                        TITLE                                 PHONE & EMAIL ADDRESS

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

________________             _______________               ______________________

Company Name: ___________________________

Company Address: _________________________

Email this form to neodbug@sps-solutions.com to notify us of your intent to attend, then postal mail this form and your check (payable to NEODBUG) no later than August 10, 2006, to:


NEODBUG

c/o S&P Solutions

35000 Chardon Rd. Suite 200

Cleveland, OH 44094

 

Other Midwest User Groups

 

If you are looking for additional database education, consider the offerings of other user groups in the midwest.  Here are announcements of two upcoming events:

 

*     *     *

 

The Michigan DB2 Users Group (MDUG) is glad to announce that it is sponsoring a one-day DB2 tuning training session on Friday Sept. 15, 2006.  The training will be given by Sheryl Larson, a well-known DB2 expert.
 
The training is titled "Tuning SQL for Performance".   The course will
begin with a quick review of  SQL coding performance rules.  The first
half of the class will then concentrate on the skills required to be
competent at changing the DB2 optimizer's mind: what each access path
is, when they are good, when they need to be altered, reading
the PLAN_TABLE, Visual Explain, and applying the recommended tuning
techniques.  A workshop will follow to reinforce these skills.  The
second half will focus on how to determine if a query has a non-optimal
access path.  A couple of estimation techniques will be demonstrated.
For the workshop, a poorly coded query will be provided for the students
to fix.  This exercise reinforces the five steps needed to effectively
tune a query.  
 
Details on registering for the course will be available at the MDUG web
site www.mdug.org in early August.   Cost is $ 299 if registered by
Sept. 1, 2006.   
 
And check out the MDUG web site www.mdug.org for details on the upcoming September MDUG Seminar.  

 

*     *     *

 

The Midwest DB2 Users Group (MWDUG) presents their fall DB2 seminars, featuring:

Bonnie Baker –
The Best of “Things I Wish They Told Me”
DB2 Locks, Latches, Claims and Drains

David Beulke –
Performance for SOA Java DB2 Applications
How to do a DB2 z/OS Performance Review

Sheryl M. Larsen –
Extreme SQL Tuning for Performance
Unleash the Power of SQL for Data Access

Tink Tysor –
Intermediate DB2 SQL Coding
Design Patterns: Data Access Strategies for Performance

David Majcher from IBM -
XML on DB2 to the MAX


Date: September 25 - 27, 2006
Location: River Forest Country Club, Elmhurst, IL 60126 (10 minutes from O’Hare)

Detailed program information available at:
http://www.registration123.com/mwdug/06FALL/

 

Midwest DB2 User’s Group

c/o Technical Registration Experts
13 South 2nd Street, Geneva, IL 60134 USA
Phone: 630-578-3991; Fax: 630-262-1520
E-mail: mwdug@trexperts.com

Website: http://www.mwdug.org

Letter FROM the Editor

 

    The NEODBUG Board of Trustees would especially like to thank Bob Vargo and Mike Semega of Progressive Insurance for being presenters at our August quarterly meeting.  They are the first "member company talk" that we have had in quite a while.

 

    Your previous meeting evaluations have told us that you really want to have presentations by companies "in the trenches", gaining first-hand knowledge of what works and what doesn't, in database design, support and application.

 

    But to get 'em, you have to give 'em - have YOU considered preparing a presentation to give at a future NEODBUG meeting?

 

    There are many benefits for presenting at NEODBUG: you attend our day's activities as our guest, and the presentation you develop can earn free registration to national conferences like IDUG, OracleWorld or the SQL Server conference.  Plus, your presentation can be a source of education within your own company.

 

    If you are interesting in presenting at a future NEODBUG meeting, talk to a Board member at our August meeting - they are the ones sporting the blue (stinkin') badges.

 

    See you at the August meeting.

 

Jim Szabo

Newsletter Editor