DB2 Magazine E-Newsletter

February 20, 2002

DB2 MAGAZINE EMAIL NEWSLETTER:
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2
http://www.db2mag.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
1. Behind the Numbers: Making sense of application benchmarks; benchmark news
2. Asked & Answered: Dealing with NPIs
3. Skills & Education: Test your data mining knowledge; online learning options
4. Now Playing at the DB2 Developer Domain
5. At the Bookstore: Clickstream Data Warehousing

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BEHIND THE NUMBERS
Making Sense of Application Benchmarks
When considering a purchase as important as a new database, many people look to benchmarks to provide some kind of measurement of how well various systems perform. And, thanks to vendor enthusiasm and the work of some dedicated organizations, there's plenty of information to sift through. First, there's the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) alphabet of benchmark categories. Now, application vendors are increasingly running their own benchmarks with various databases. But what do they really mean? Consultant and author Martin Hubel takes you behind the scenes of application vendor testing to show you the story behind the results ( http://www.db2mag.com/db_area/archives/2002/q1/hubel.shtml?ls=220 ).

Benchmark News
And speaking of TPC benchmarks, two new TPC-H benchmarks released on February 6 rate DB2 first in performance and first in price/performance for both the 1TB and the 3TB scale factors. For details about these benchmarks, visit http://www.tpc.org or http://www.ibm.com/software/data/highlights/db2leads.html .

ASKED AND ANSWERED
I have a large table that needs to be available at all times. I use a staging table for data loading, then I INSERT from the staging table into the large table. However, there are at least three other non-partitioned indexes (NPIs), which makes inserting to the large table time-consuming. How would you deal with NPIs in this situation?
Read Robert Catterall's response at http://www.db2mag.com/qanda/020218.shtml?ls=220 .

SKILLS & EDUCATION
Test Your Data Mining Knowledge
How well do you and others at your company understand data mining? Can you identify the kind of problems that data mining can (and those it can't) address? Here's a quick quiz to find out:

Which of the following business questions are appropriately addressed by data mining?
a.) How many orders did our best customers place last year?
b.) What are the characteristics of our best customers?
c.) What was our best performing sales region last year?
d.) Of our new customers, who will generate the most revenue?


How did you do on the quiz? Find out at http://www.db2mag.com/education/resources.shtml?ls=220 .

Online Learning Options
If you're interested in DB2 training, IBM offers a variety of electronic learning options. Experienced programmers who want to apply their skills to a DB2 environment can take advantage of the DB2 UDB Programming Fastpath download to learn how to create applications that access data in a DB2 UDB system and may help prepare candidates for certification exam 514: DB2 UDB V7.1 Family Application Development. To download the course, go to http://www.ibm.com/software/data/db2/ct10crs .

If you're specifically interested in Stored Procedures, you can take the e-class DB2 Stored Procedures Programming entirely online. E-classes combine self-paced learning with real-time sessions in a virtual classroom. Participants can discuss course-related topics, chat with others attending the course, and send messages to the instructor. For information, go to http://www.ibm.com/software/data/db2/skills/eclass.html .

If you're interested in finding out about courses (traditional, self-taught, or electronic) that cover topics in the Quarter 1, 2002 issue of DB2 Magazine ( http://www.db2mag.com/db_area/archives/2002/q1?ls=220 ), check the resource boxes at the end of the articles online for links to course information, or go to http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/spotlight/db2/all.html .

NOW PLAYING AT THE DB2 DEVELOPER DOMAIN
Installation 101: Installing DB2 Products Across your Enterprise, by Paul Zikopoulos
http://www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0202zikopoulos/0202zikopoulos.html .

A Scalability Study for WebSphere Application Server and DB2 Universal Database, by Yongli An, et al.
http://www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0202an/0202an.pdf .

WebSphere and DB2 Clustering and Scalability Study: Installation and Configuration Guide
http://www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0202an/0202an2.pdf .

Apache Web Development with IBM DB2 for Linux Tutorial
http://www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/library/tutorials/db2linux/db2linux.html .

DB2 MQ Functions: Using MQSeries and XML Extender from DB2 Applications, by Dan Wolfson
http://www7b.boulder.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/wolfson/0201wolfson.html .

Partitioning in DB2 Using the UNION ALL View, by Calisto Zuzarte, et al.
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0202zuzarte/0202zuzarte.pdf .

Choosing an Administration Model for Content Manager OnDemand, by Debbie Wagner
http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/library/techarticle/0202wagner/0202wagner.html .

AT THE BOOKSTORE
Clickstream Data Warehousing, by Mark Sweiger, Mark R. Madsen, Jimmy Langston, and Howard Lombard

Many enterprises are scrambling to build data warehouses that capture the knowledge contained in the clickstream data from their Web sites. By analyzing user behavior patterns contained in these clickstream data warehouses, businesses may be able to expand their markets, improve customer relationships, reduce costs, streamline operations, strengthen their Web sites, and hone their business strategies. Clickstream Data Warehousing explains what you need to know about the Web technology and IT infrastructure required to build a clickstream data warehouse and provides a step-by-step look at the process of designing and implementing one. For more information, or to buy a copy, go to http://www.db2mag.com/bookstore?ls=220 .