Initial setup

The runtime support for an iSeries™ distributed relational database is provided by the operating system. Therefore, when the operating system is installed, distributed relational database support is installed.

However, some setup work might be required to make the application requesters and application servers ready to send and receive work, particularly in the Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) environment. One or more subsystems can be used to control interactive, batch, spooled, and communications jobs. All the application requesters (ARs) in the network must have their relational database directory set up with connection information. Finally, you might want to put data into the tables of the application servers throughout the network.

The relational database directory contains database names and values that are translated into communications network parameters. An AR must have an entry for each database in the network, including the local database and any user databases that are configured on independent auxiliary storage pools (IASPs, also known as independent disk pools). These local entries can be added automatically by the system, or manually. Each directory entry consists of a unique relational database name and corresponding communications path information. Information about the preferred password security for outbound connections can be specified. For access provided by ARD programs, the ARD program name must be added to the relational database directory entry.

Connection and setup information for a distributed relational database network of unlike servers can be found in the Distributed Relational Database Cross-Platform Connectivity book, SG24-4311-02.

• Work management on the iSeries server
  All of the work done on the iSeries server is submitted through the work management function. On an iSeries server, you can design specialized operating environments to handle different types of work to satisfy the requirements of your server.
• User databases on independent auxiliary storage pools
  The user might create additional relational databases on an iSeries server by configuring independent auxiliary storage pools (IASPs) on the server. Each independent auxiliary storage pool group is a relational database.
• Use the relational database directory
  The i5/OS licensed program uses the relational database directory to define the relational database names that can be accessed by applications running on an iSeries server, to specify if the connection uses Systems Network Architecture (SNA) or IP, and to associate these relational database names with their corresponding network parameters.
• Set up DRDA security
  Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA^®) security is covered in the Security topic, but for the sake of completeness, it is mentioned here as a consideration before using DRDA^®, or in converting your network from the use of Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) to TCP/IP.
• Set up the TCP/IP server for DRDA
  If you own a Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA^®) application server (AS) that will be using the TCP/IP protocol, you need to set up the DDM TCP/IP server.
• Set up SQL packages for Interactive SQL
  This topic applies only to non-iSeries Application Servers (ASs).
• Set up DDM files
  The implementation of DRDA^® support on the iSeries server uses Distributed Data Management (DDM) conversations for communications. Because of this, you can use DDM in conjunction with distributed relational database processing.
• Load data into tables in a distributed relational database
  Applications in the distributed relational database environment operate on data stored in tables. In general, applications are used to query a table for information, to insert, update, or delete rows of a table or tables, or to create a new table. Other situations occur where data on one server must be moved to another server.