This topic describes the high-level process for adding DB2 environments, linking DB2 instances to the Delphix Engine, and provisioning virtual instances.
Delphix for DB2 Architecture
Delphix uses the a Standby server model along with DB2s High Availability Disaster Recovery feature to ingest data and stay in sync with the source database. The standby server is then snapshotted by the Delphix engine and the snapshots can be provisioned out to one or more target servers.
The snapshot and provision process occurs on the instance level, all databases that exist on the standby server will be provisioned out to the target machines. Similarly actions such as bookmark, rewind and refresh will simultaneously apply to all the databases in the instance.
Block Diagram of Linking Architecture Between DB2 Environments and the Delphix Engine
The linking process converts an empty DB2 instance on the standby server into an HADR standby for the primary database. In order to do this the staging instance must have access to a recent backup copy of all the databases that you wish to add the dSource. Once the restoration process is complete, Delphix will begin issue the HADR standby commands on each database and ensure that the health of the HADR connection stays within the acceptable threshold values you set.
DB2 Staging Instance Set Up
This step of the process must be done carefully as the Delphix for DB2 operates on the instance level while HADR replication is done on the database level. If you have only one database to be replicated it is a direct 1-1 mapping betweeen instances and databases. However it may be advantageous to collect multiple databases needed for an application into a single Delphix staging instance which can then be used to snapshot and provision all the databases simultaneously. It is also possible to setup databases from multiple primary hosts to use the same standby/dSource.
The choice of databases on the staging server should also take into account the expected network traffic that HADR will create between the source and staging environments.