A Brief History of DB2 UDB for Windows by Chris Fierros

Although roughly ninety percent of DB2 Universal Database (UDB) on distributed platforms such as Windows , Linux, and UNIX is common code, IBM makes great efforts to exploit the features and technologies of each operating system it supports. In fact, DB2 UDB v8 for Windows leverages more features and technologies unique to the Microsoft Windows operating system than any other supported platform.

It’s probably unlikely that you have been working with DB2 Universal Database (UDB) on distributed systems since the original Database Manager version 1.0 was announced in late 1987, which was almost a decade before it was announced for on the Windows NT 4.0 platform and long before it was available on AIX which was the first UNIX based platform announced by IBM. For the reader that hasn’t spent the last decade working with the DB2 Universal Database on Intel platforms, here is a brief history of the long road that has lead us to the most significant point release to date, DB2 UDB v8.2 for Windows.

DB2 Universal Database (UDB) v8.2 is IBM’s latest release of the relational database management solution which has achieved worldwide market share leadership on a wide variety of platforms including the Windows operating system. DB2 UDB provides customers of all sizes with remarkable value by implementing innovative self-management and automation technology combined with superior price performance and scalability.

DB2 Universal Database has been available on Intel platforms since 1987. The product was originally developed for the 16-bit OS/2 and included in the packaging of OS/2 Extended Edition v1.0. The product was then called Database Manager (DBM) and the name as well as the acronym can still be found in many aspects of the product today, for example multiple DB2 UDB instances today are equivalent to what was once a single Database Manager And today we still configure these instances (database managers) using commands like GET DBM CFG and UPDATE DBM CFG. The next release of Database Manager for OS/2 EE v1.1 shipped with an API for compiler vendors to develop there own pre-compilers. It also delivered Structured Query Language (SQL) operators enhancements including: UNION, INTERSECT, AND EXECT as well as a CURSOR HOLD OPTION which would give application developers the ability to hold a cursor position across transactions (or unit of work) commit points.

In late 1991 the product was ported to 32-bit for OS/2 v2.0 and included in the packaging of OS/2 Extended Services v1.0. In early 1993 the product was renamed to DB2 for OS/2 (DB2/2) version 1.0 and development was moved to Toronto, Canada. A couple of years later, DB2 for OS/2 was ported to AIX and the product was renamed DB2 Common Server to indicate a common code base among the distributed platforms. It was with DB2 Common Server that porting to other Intel and UNIX based operating systems began as announcements were made for beta versions to support HP-UX, SUN Solaris, and Microsoft Windows NT. Online backups were first introduced with DB2/2 v1.2 which would allow database administrators to perform database backups while applications remained connected to the database.

DB2 for Windows NT Version 2.1 was announced towards the end of 1995. The following is a quote from the original DB2 for NT announcement:

“If you need a reliable and powerful database on Windows NT in a stand-alone, departmental, or enterprise environment, IBM's premier family of relational database products, DB2, is now available.”

In 1997 IBM announced the next generation of relational database technology and the name DB2 Common Server was changed DB2 Universal Database. The first DB2 Universal Database, version 5.0, made the Extended Enterprise Edition (EEE) available on the Windows NT operating system as well as providing support for the native Named Pipe communications protocol. DB2 UDB v5.2 provided support for the Virtual Interface Architecture as a supported Fast Communications Manager protocol to enable high-speed inter node communications between physically partitioned database nodes.

IBM announced DB2 UDB v8.1 in September of 2002 marking the next stage in the evolution of the relational database management system with a focus on Self Management and Resource Tuning (SMART) features which included the ability to define AUTOMATIC instance and database configuration parameters values. Version 8.1 also shipped with several high availability enhancements including online loads, reorgs, buffer pools, and configuration parameters.

DB2 UDB v8.2 for Windows includes a number of new features, code named "Stinger", which include enhanced reliability, manageability, integration and scalability features. This point release represents close to a decade of relational database development effort by IBM on the Windows operating system platform and is perhaps the most significant.