About Long Columns and Siebel Utilities

The Siebel dbchck utility compares the physical database schema with its logical definition in the Siebel Repository and generates errors for any inconsistencies between them. However, the dbchck utility does not generate errors for LONG columns, which are identified as LONG VARCHAR columns in the Siebel Repository and physically created by DB2 as VARCHAR columns, because inconsistencies between the logical and physical definitions of these columns is expected behavior on the DB2 for z/OS platform.

When you run other Siebel utilities, for example, Synchronize Schema Definition (ddlsync), the utilities generate LONG DDL syntax for these LONG columns if the tables containing the columns need to be re-created. However, when the table is re-created, the LONG syntax is converted by DB2 and the column is again physically created as a VARCHAR column set to the maximum size possible.