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IBM® Db2® Database Plug-in for Zowe CLI

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IBM® Db2® Database Plug-in for Zowe CLI

The IBM® Db2® Database Plug-in for Zowe™ CLI lets you interact with Db2 for z/OS to perform tasks through Zowe CLI and integrate with modern development tools. The plug-in also lets you interact with Db2 to advance continuous integration and to validate product quality and stability.

Zowe CLI Plug-in for IBM Db2 Database lets you execute SQL statements against a Db2 region, export a Db2 table, and call a stored procedure. The plug-in also exposes its API so that the plug-in can be used directly in other products.

Use cases#

As an application developer, you can use Zowe CLI Plug-in for IBM DB2 Database to perform the following tasks:

  • Execute SQL and interact with databases.
  • Execute a file with SQL statements.
  • Export tables to a local file on your computer in SQL format.
  • Call a stored procedure and pass parameters.

Commands#

For detailed documentation on commands, actions, and options available in this plug-in, see our Web Help. It is available for download in three formats: a PDF document, an interactive online version, and a ZIP file containing the HTML for the online version.

Software requirements#

Before you install the plug-in, meet the software requirements in Software requirements for Zowe CLI plug-ins.

Installing#

Use one of the following methods to install the the Zowe CLI Plug-in for IBM Db2 Database:

Installing from an online registry#

Complete the following steps if you installed Zowe CLI from online registry:

  1. If you are installing the plug-in on an Apple computer that contains an M1 (or later architecture) processor, complete the steps in M1 processor installation. If not, continue to Step 2.

  2. Open a command line window and issue the following command:

    zowe plugins install @zowe/db2-for-zowe-cli@zowe-v2-lts

  3. Address the license requirements to begin using the plug-in.

Installing from a local package#

Follow these procedures if you downloaded the Zowe installation package:

Downloading the ODBC driver#

Download the ODBC driver before you install the Db2 plug-in.

Follow these steps:

  1. If you are installing the plug-in on a Apple computer that contains an M1 (or later architecture) processor, complete the steps in M1 processor installation. If not, continue to Step 2.

  2. Download the ODBC CLI Driver (Darwin x64). Use the table within the download URL to select the correct CLI Driver for your platform and architecture.

  3. Create a new directory named odbc_cli on your computer. Remember the path to the new directory. You will need to provide the full path to this directory immediately before you install the Db2 plug-in.

  4. Place the ODBC driver in the odbc_cli folder. Do not extract the ODBC driver.

You downloaded and prepared to use the ODBC driver successfully. Proceed to install the plug-in to Zowe CLI.

Installing Xcode on MacOS#

To install the Db2 CLI plug-in on MacOS, you need the command line tools, which can be obtained by installing Xcode from the App Store.

Note: On some versions of MacOS, you may receive the error xcrun: error: invalid active developer path as shown below:

xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun

If this occurs, a manual refresh of the command line tools is required by running the following commands:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineToolssudo xcode-select --install

Installing the plug-in#

Now that the Db2 ODBC CLI driver is downloaded, set the IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL environment variable and install the Db2 plug-in to Zowe CLI.

Follow these steps:

  1. Open a command line window and change the directory to the location where you extracted the zowe-cli-bundle.zip file. If you do not have the zowe-cli-bundle.zip file, see the topic Install Zowe CLI from local package in Installing Zowe CLI for information about how to obtain and extract it.

  2. From a command line window, set the IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL environment variable by issuing the following command:

    • Windows operating systems:

      set IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL=<path_to_your_odbc_folder>/odbc_cli

    • Linux and Mac operating systems:

      export IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL=<path_to_your_odbc_folder>/odbc_cli

    For example, if you downloaded the Windows x64 driver (ntx64_odbc_cli.zip) to C:\odbc_cli, you would issue the following command:

     set IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL=C:\odbc_cli

  3. Issue the following command to install the plug-in:

    zowe plugins install db2-for-zowe-cli.tgz

  4. Address the license requirements to begin using the plug-in.

Addressing the license requirement#

To successfully connect the Db2 CLI plug-in to a database on z/OS, a license needs to be present either on the client where the Zowe CLI is executed from, or else on z/OS. If you do not have a license configured when you execute Db2 CLI commands, you will receive an error SQL1598N, for example:

DB2 ODBC Driver Error: [node-ibm_db] SQL_ERRORError Details:Error:    [IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1598N An attempt to connect to the database server failed because of a licensing problem.

Server-side license#

You can execute the utility db2connectactivate on z/OS to enable a Db2 database to accept client requests. For more information, see db2connectactivate - Server license activation utility. This avoids having to apply the Db2 Connect license on each database client that connects directly to the server. It is also the preferred approach to enabling users of the Zowe Db2 CLI because it avoids individual client license distribution and configuration.

Client-side license#

If the utility db2connectactivate has not been executed against the Db2 database that your profile is connecting to, then it is possible to obtain the license file db2consv_zs.lic from a copy of DB2 Connect and use this for client configuration. This will need to be done separately for each client PC.

  1. Locate your client copy of the Db2 license file db2consv_zs.lic.

    Note: The license must be of version 11.5 if the Db2 server is not db2connectactivated. You can buy a db2connect license from IBM. The connectivity can be enabled either on server using db2connectactivate utility or on client using client side license file. To know more about DB2 license and purchasing cost, please contact IBM Customer Support.

  2. Copy your Db2 license file db2consv_za.lic and place it in the following directory.

    <zowe_home>/plugins/installed/lib/node_modules/@zowe/db2-for-zowe-cli/node_modules/ibm_db/installer/clidriver/license

    Tip: By default, <zowe_home> is set to ~/.zowe on *UNIX Aand Mac systems, and C:\Users\<Your_User>\.zowe on Windows systems.

    After the license is copied, you can use the Db2 plugin functionality.

Creating a user profile#

You create a DB2 profile to avoid entering your connection details each time that you issue a command. You can create multiple profiles and switch between them as needed. Use one of the following methods to create a profile:

  • Create plug-in profiles using a configuration file: Specify your profile and connection details in the zowe.config.json configuration file.

  • Create plug-in profiles using a command: Issue the zowe profiles create command to create the profile.

We recommend that you create profiles using the configuration file. We do not recommend using profile commands because we are removing them in a future major release.

Creating plug-in profiles using a configuration file#

When you issue various zowe config commands, such as init, auto-init, and convert-profiles, they create a zowe.config.json configuration file. When you install the DB2 plug-in, the commands create an entry for a db2 profile in your zowe.config.json file.

Alternatively, you can create a db2 profile manually by adding a section that contains the configuration details to your zowe.config.json configuration file.

  1. Browse to the following directory: C:\Users\<username>\.zowe

  2. Open the zowe.config.json configuration file using a text editor or IDE, such as Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ.

    NOTE: If the file does not exist, issue the following command to create the configuration file: zowe config init -–gc

  3. Add code to the "profiles" section as shown in the following example:

    "Your_db2_profile": {    "type": "db2",    "properties": {        "host": "Your_host_name",        "port": Your_port_number,        "database": “Your_database”    },    "secure": [        "user",        "password"    ]}

  4. Save the file

You can now use your profile when you issue commands in the db2 command group.

Creating plug-in profiles using a command#

The following steps describe how to create a profile using the zowe profiles create command.

  1. Open a terminal window and issue the following command:

    zowe profiles create db2 <profile_name> –-host <host> --port <port> --user <user> --password <password> -–region-name <region>

    profile_name:

    Specifies a name for your profile.

    host:

    Specifies the host name for the instance.

    user:

    Specifies your user name to log in to the instance.

    password:

    Specifies your password to log in to the instance.

    port:

    Specifies the port number to connect to the instance.

    database:

    Specifies the database to use on the instance.

    Example:

    zowe profiles create db2-profile database1 --host db2.zowe.org --port 25000 --user zowe --password zowepass --database zowedb

  2. Press Enter. The result of the command displays as a success or failure message.

You can now use your profile when you issue commands in the db2 command group.

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