$ db2set DB2_COMPATIBILITY_VECTOR=MYS
$ db2stop
$ db2start

With this enabled, you’ll be able to execute queries such as:

SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5
SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5 OFFSET 10

Unlike SQL Server Express which is limited to 10GB of data, there are no data limits with DB2 Express-C. This means no database size limits or any restrictions on the number of databases, connections, users, etc…

Oracle XE is even more restrictive than SQL Server Express and seriously insecure, having not been updated for a long time despite the presence of major security vulnerabilities. Unlike Oracle XE, DB2 Express-C uses the same core code as its commercial editions and is always kept up-to-date.

In case you are wondering, there’s no catch. We generate our revenue from affordable, but entirely optional, dedicated 24/7 technical support (a popular business model in the open source community). If you haven’t tried DB2 Express-C before or you currently have an older version installed, consider getting the latest one here and taking it for a spin.

What’s new

Some of the improvements and features of this FixPack 2 edition include:

• Support for the MySQL syntax for LIMIT and OFFSET. This greatly simplifies the process of getting existing applications to work with DB2.
• The IBM Data Server Provider for .NET has been enhanced in several ways that may help you with application performance, data server compatibility, and simplifying application development.
• Both Rails 3 and Django 1.2.1 are supported from out of the gate thanks to our IBM provided, open source drivers and adapters.
• Enhancements made to user-defined functions (UDFs), which now support both default values for parameters and named arguments.
• The RESTORE command can now be used with the TRANSPORT option to copy table spaces and SQL schemas as a set from a database backup image to another active database.
• Auditing improvements now allow replay of past database activities.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Aside from providing a working adapter and driver before the new framework release is even out, this release has a few improvements and fixes, such as getting rid of a minor bug related to prepared statements and has_many associations.

Finally, ibm_db 2.5 improves upon Unicode integration with support for any encoding format that’s permitted by Ruby 1.9.

Recently Matt Aimonetti wrote an insightful article about Rails and the Enterprise. In it he identifies five core Enterprise application needs:

• Reliability
• Support
• Performance
• Advantage over the competition
• Integration and transition path

Matt then proceeds to illustrate how Rails does a good job in regards to most of these points, despite a few existing challenges.

Among these challenges, I can clearly see the following:

• There isn’t a 1-800-RAILS number; the community may be great, but there are not exactly yearly contracts in place. Furthermore, the author of the Ruby driver for, say, Oracle doesn’t owe you a thing. He may or may not be there for you when you need something to be fixed quickly.

• XML support is less than ideal (but it is improving).

• Integration with the Enterprise world is not easy, due in part to less than stellar SOAP support (but that is also improving).

• If you’re taking advantage of ActiveRecord and an Enterprise database like Oracle, your DBA isn’t likely to be happy that you aren’t using prepared statements.

You may think these are small points, and in the startup world they generally are. However, in the Enterprise world they do make the difference between adoption and niche.

One thing that Matt forgot to mention is DB2, which should be the poster child for how Rails can be Enterprise ready. And as a bonus, you get to throw around IBM’s name (which is synonymous with Enterprise) because Rails is both supported by, and used within, IBM.

Let’s address each point above with DB2 on Rails in mind.

IBM is the only database vendor to provide a Ruby driver and ActiveRecord/Rails adapter for its databases. This means that you have a team that’s accountable when things don’t work as they’re supposed to. This team is accountable, regardless of whether you have a contract with IBM or not; it’s their job, not a hobby. This involvement with Rails dates back to 2006, with continuing releases and improvements ever since. Our IBM’s optional yearly 24/7 support contracts (e.g., for less than $3000 a year per server with DB2 Express-C) include support for DB2 on Rails as well.

DB2 supports native storage and querying of XML documents and data (plus it’s fast). This technology is known as pureXML.

DB2 can both consume and serve SOAP web services. This lets DB2 do the integration for you.

DB2 on Rails supports parameterized queries. (While on the subject of queries, if you are using JRuby you can take advantage of pureQuery, which is an IBM created Enterprise solution that’s aimed at making your queries fast, reliable, manageable and easy to debug.)

If you are trying to introduce Rails into your Enterprise job, chances are that DB2 will already be present within the company infrastructure. If not, you can use DB2 Express-C which is entirely free — thus making it easier to introduce than an expensive solution.

IBM is one of the most trusted brands on the market today, as it has been for decades now. Banks and Enterprise companies the world over trust DB2 with their most critical data. One way for the Rails community to increase the adoption of Rails in the Enterprise, is to acknowledge and embrace the great pair that is Rails and DB2.

For example, IBM’s adapter (through the underlying DBI wrapper) now uses persistent connections, which are especially helpful when dealing with Django – as it lacks connection pooling. (Of course DB2 also has the Connection Concentrator to aid in reducing the usage of server resources and improving scalability.)

Furthermore, the adapter adds support for the DECIMAL datatype, a necessary feature when dealing with money and currencies. Various enhancements and bug fixes were included too; check them out on Google Groups.

As a reminder, DB2 Express-C is an absolutely free of charge version of DB2 and it’s production ready (not a toy version). You can download it from here. Take it for a spin, experiment – chances are you’ll like it. If you need a guide to getting started, be sure to check out this free e-book by my colleagues Raul, Ian, and Rav.

Aside from being a bright and ambitious student, you should currently be working towards a Computer Science degree at any recognized University in the world (and have completed at least 2 years of your degree). You read that right, this opportunity is not limited to Canadian students. We are looking for the most talented students in the world, so as long as you’re ready to relocate to Toronto for 16 months, and are able to start the internship program in May 2010, we have the means to get you here. The location for this internship will be the Toronto Software Lab, in Markham, Ontario.

In particular, we are looking for students who are highly skilled in the area of web technologies and who are enthusiastic about cloud computing. This is NOT your run-of-the-mill, boring student job. You’ll be working with cutting edge technology on high visibility, fast paced projects that involve web technologies, cloud computing, Xp/Agile methodologies, and other related fields. You’ll be granted ample freedom to express yourself and your programming creativity. Should you be accepted for this well paid (in my opinion) internship program, you will report directly to my manager (a cool, down to earth guy) and I’ll be your mentor.

If you fit the criteria described above, please get in touch (cangiano at ca dot ibm dot com) and tell me a bit about yourself. You don’t need to attach your résumé at this stage, but if you drop me a line, I’ll be able to provide you with info on how to apply through the official IBM channels. We’ll take it from there.

Please note that I do NOT receive any form of compensation for referring you. I’m just hoping to provide a tiny subset of my readership with what could be a really great opportunity.

1. Support for Ruby 1.9;
2. Support for mingw32, used by the latest version of the Ruby installer for Windows;;
3. Performance and security enhancements through “automatic” parameterized queries.

As we approach the release of Rails 3, supporting Ruby 1.9 is becoming more of a necessity. Likewise, the so called “One-Click installer” on Windows has been replaced by a current project that uses mingw32, which offers a much needed performance boost on Windows. Having a mingw32 compatible gem is starting to become a requirement for many of our Windows users.

Finally, DB2 is now the only database that supports prepared statements in ActiveRecord (without changing any of the application’s code). This has important performance benefits, as I explained in my article Improve the security and performance of DB2 Ruby on Rails applications using parameterized queries, which was published today by developerWorks.

You can grab it directly from here:

• DB2 Express-C for Windows
• DB2 Express-C for Windows x86-64
• DB2 Express-C for Linux
• DB2 Express-C for Linux x86-64
• DB2 Express-C for Linux on POWER
• DB2 Express-C for Solaris x86-64

The DB2Night Show

While we are on the subject, I want to mention a great new independent initiative called the DB2Night Show. In the words of its organizers:

The DB2Night Show has the simple mission of building a fun, interactive community around DB2 LUW. Each episode will include fun stuff, education, tips, and special guests. Guests will range from industry experts to “Joe the DBA”.

The first six episodes have been wonderful, and the seventh one, which is about a comparison of DB2 Express-C with other free versions like SQL Server, as well as Cloud Computing, will air tomorrow.

You can reserve your free virtual seat for Friday, December 4, 2009 at 9am PST/ 10 am CST / 11 am EST, here. Even if you can’t make it, register anyway, so you’ll have access to replays. Every participant who attends will receive a $50 voucher to use for the Amazon EC2 cloud. Not only that, but one lucky, randomly selected attendee will also receive an Amazon.com gift certificate. With the holiday season coming up, that could come in handy.

For all their merits, even premium hardware solutions can only do so much in terms of vertical scalability. They may postpone the problem, by allowing a large number of processors and a huge amount of RAM to be installed, but they are still not limitless. And that’s when it becomes cheaper and much more feasible to attempt horizontal scalability, or the process of adding extra servers that share data and the overall system load.

Commercial databases, particularly DB2, excel at vertical scalability, which incidentally is one of the weakest aspects of open source RDBMS like MySQL. When it comes to horizontal scalability though, even commercial databases tend do struggle a little. Scalability is achieved, but a lot of work is required to configure complex setups involving masters, slaves, replication, failover servers, and so on. Until now.

IBM has just introduced a new technology for DB2 called pureScale, which accomplishes three incredible feats:

1. Horizontal scalability: Virtually unlimited capacity by simply adding new nodes to the cluster.
2. Application transparency: No code changes needed.
3. Continuos data availability: regardless of which server fails, the system will continue to operate albeit with a proportionally reduced throughput.

DB2 pureScale applies to DB2 running on Unix (IBM System p running AIX only, for the moment), the same principles and rock solid technology employed by DB2 for z/OS Data Sharing and SYSPLEX. This technology happens to be employed by some of the largest companies in the world and it’s considered the golden standard when it comes to easily create OLTP database clusters, providing virtually unlimited scalability capabilities.

You can read more about it here and here. If you are going to IOD this year, don’t forget to attend this overview by one the architects of DB2 pureScale. And even if you can’t head over to Las Vegas next week, you can still attend online our Chat with the Lab today at 11:30am EST. Database scalability is a hot topic and this is going to be one of the most popular chats with the lab ever, so register for free now.

IBM provides all the information on how to proceed through a series of detailed documents, which explain why each command is required and what your options are. But if you are looking for a single document that is slightly more concise in nature, you can read this excellent step by step guide that was published today on the blog bits.of.info.