Db2 z/OS: Supported Data Types, Objects, and Operations

This section contains support information for Oracle GoldenGate for Db2 z/OS database.

Oracle GoldenGate for Db2 for z/OS supports capture and delivery of initial load and transactional data for supported Db2 for z/OS database versions.

Oracle GoldenGate for Db for z/OS supports the mapping, filtering, and transformation of source data, unless noted otherwise in this document, along with replicating data derived from other source databases supported by Oracle GoldenGate, into Db2 for z/OS databases.

Oracle GoldenGate for Db2 for z/OS is installed and runs remotely on Linux and zLinux.

Supported Db2 z/OS Data Types

Here is the list of the Db2 for z/OS data types that Oracle GoldenGate supports and any limitations of this support.

  • Oracle GoldenGate does not perform character set conversion for columns that could contain multi-byte data. These include GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC and DBCLOB data types, as well as CHAR, VARCHAR, and CLOB for tables defined with ENCODING_SCHEME of 'M' (multiple CCSID set or multiple encoding schemes) or 'U' (Unicode). Such data is only supported if the source and target systems are the same CCSID.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports ASCII, EBCDIC, and Unicode data format. Oracle GoldenGate converts between ASCII and EBCDIC data automatically, however, it does not convert Unicode.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports most Db2 data types except those listed in Non-Supported Db2 for z/OS Data Types.

Limitations of Support

  • The support of range and precision for floating-point numbers depends on the host machine. The precision is generally accurate to 16 significant digits, but you should review the database documentation to determine the expected approximations. Oracle GoldenGate rounds or truncates the values that exceed the supported precision.

  • Oracle GoldenGate does not support the filtering, column mapping, or manipulation of large objects greater than 4K in size. You can use the full Oracle GoldenGate functionality for 4K or smaller objects.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports the default TIMESTAMP and the TIMESTAMP with TIMEZONE to up to 9 digit fractional value, but no further.

Non-Supported Db2 for z/OS Data Types

Here is the list of Db2 for z/OS data types that Oracle GoldenGate does not support. Data that is not supported may affect the integrity of the target data with the source data.

  • Negative dates

  • User-defined types

  • XML

Supported Objects and Operations for Db2 z/OS

Here is the list of database objects and types of operations that Oracle GoldenGate supports.

  • The extraction and replication of DML operations on Db2 for z/OS tables supports the maximum row length of Db2 for z/OS and LOB columns, which can be up to 2GB in size.

  • INSERT operations from the IBM LOAD utility are supported for change capture if the utility is run with LOG YES and SHRLEVEL CHANGE, and the source tables that are being loaded have DATA CAPTURE CHANGES enabled (required by Oracle GoldenGate). Also, specify or map these tables in the Oracle GoldenGate Extract configuration. Oracle GoldenGate also supports initial loads with the LOAD utility to instantiate target tables during initial synchronization.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports the maximum number of table columns supported by the database.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports the maximum column size supported by the database.

  • Oracle GoldenGate supports extracting and replicating data stored using Db2 data compression (CREATE TABLESPACE COMPRESS YES).

  • Capture from temporal history tables is supported.

  • TRUNCATE TABLE is supported, but because this command issues row deletes to perform the truncate, they are shown in Oracle GoldenGate statistics as such, and not as a truncate operation. The Replicat process uses the DELETE operation without the WHERE clause to replicate the TRUNCATE statement.

  • TRUNCATES are always captured from a Db2 for z/OS source, but can be ignored by Replicat if the IGNORETRUNCATES parameter is used in the Replicat parameter file.

  • UNICODE columns in EBCDIC tables are supported.

  • Supported options with SHOWTRANS
    SHOWTRANS [transaction_ID]  [COUNT n]
    [DURATION duration unit] 
    [FILE file_name] |

    Do not specify, transaction_ID and count or transaction_ID and duration together.

  • Options supported with SKIPTRANS and FORCETRANS:
    SKIPTRANS transaction_ID  
    [FORCE] FORCETRANS transaction_ID  [FORCE]

Non-Supported Objects and Operations for Db2 z/OS

Oracle GoldenGate does not support the following objects and operations on Db2 z/OS:

  • Extraction or replication of DDL operations

  • Clone tables

  • User-supplied Db2 exit routines that manipulate data remain unsupported, such as:

    • Compression

    • Date and time routines

    • Edit routines (CREATE TABLE EDITPROC) in Db2 release versions less than 13.1

    • Validation routines (CREATE TABLE VALIDPROC)

  • Replicating with BATCHSQL is not fully functional for Db2 z/OS. Non-insert operations are not supported so any update or delete operations will cause Replicat to drop temporarily out of BATCHSQL mode. The transactions will stop and errors will occur.