New Features in DBI pureFeat™ V7.3 Performance Management Suite for IBM Db2 LUW

Monitored Database Information Tracking

This release includes the ability to maintain monitored database DB2 information in the repository and display changes to them on performance trend charts. The following information is currently tracked:

• Db2 version and product name
• Time zone
• Database type: standard, logical DPF, physical DPF, or pureScale
• Number of partitions or members
• Install path

Performance Improvements

Several enhancements were made to the agentless collector and repository to improve processing performance. In addition, statement performance data storage in the repository has been significantly reduced.

Db2 TLS Connections

Panther is now capable of connecting to Db2 databases that use secured TLS connection protocols.

DBI pureFeat Web Performance Suite licensing

This release includes support for the new DBI pureFeat Web Performance Suite license key.

Admin Console Activity Logging

The Admin Console logs all administrative changes and no longer requires debug to be enabled.

Db2 pureScale Performance

This release adds the industry's most robust Db2 pureScale performance reporting and trending. There are new performance displays for Global Bufferpools, CF Wait Times, CF Processing Times, the Cluster Facility, Member performance, and more, plus trend charts!

In addition, in support of pureScale, Hawk has been enhanced to include several new built-in alerts related to pureScale "health checks".

pureScale Memory Pool Performance

This release includes the collection and display of memory pool performance data as a drill-down from the DB Score performance display.

The Secret is Out! Database Score Calculations Revealed!

Many DBI Customers appreciate that the Database Score helps them quickly triage which databases have the worst problems. The "Analyze Database Score" function previously highlighted what the problems were and offered suggestions for resolution, but there was no indicator for the severity of the problems identified. In this release, the number of points lost for each problem is revealed so that DBAs can understand what the worst problems are.

As a reminder, the Database Score, ranging from 0-10,000, is cost based. Some databases can deliver excellent performance to end users, but may not be doing so as efficiently as possible. The intent of the cost based score analysis is to help DBA teams discover hidden or emerging future problems.

"Index Design Workbench"

DBI pureFeat V6.3 introduced Predictive Index Impact Analysis (PIIA) to the Db2 world, and our Customers instantly fell in love with it because they could learn the impacts of adding new indexes given SQL workloads for any timeframe. PIIA helps DBA teams tune Db2 databases with confidence, and it also helps them gain Change Control approvals with relative ease.

Building on the success of this Analysis capability, this release adds the ability for DBAs to modify indexes recommended by the Design Advisor (add, remove, or reorder columns, and change sort sequences) or invent their own New Index that can be passed into the Impact Analysis. Yes, some DBAs are smarter than Db2's Design Advisor! If DBAs believe their index idea is better than Db2's, you can run the Impact Analysis for both, or multiple, index designs and see which indexes produce the best results! This was the #1 Customer requested enhancement!

Significantly Improved Trend Charts

This is an industry breakthrough and significant differentiator for DBI. Customers have always loved DBI's trend charts with change event indicators plotted on them, but previously it was only possible to graph certain similarly scaled metrics across time on an X and Y axis. In this release, a new Z axis option is added making it possible to graph multiple metrics across time. This is incredibly helpful for correlation of cause and effect.

For example, DBAs can now graph Average Transaction Response time along with the number of current and active database connections. You might see, for instance, that as the number of active database connections increases, response times might begin to degrade. CPU Utilization could be graphed against the number of transactions per second. There are many possibilities!

AES 256-bit Encryption

This release encrypts all user ID and passwords saved to disk using AES 256-bit encryption.

Operational Performance Improvements

A number of performance improvements are included in this release. From collecting performance data to accessing that data in the repository, enhancements have been made to optimize their performance for an improved user experience.

Elimination of Client/Server Communication

To avoid firewall issues and improve accessibility, client/server network port communication requirements have been eliminated for configuring back-end server components.

No More Embedded Java JRE

To facilitate integrating with existing customer environments and supporting the latest versions of Java, the embedded Java JRE that was previously distributed with our product suite has been removed. As a result a compatible version of the Java JRE must be pre-installed and configured before installing the product suite.

Bug Fixes

This release squashes a number of pesky bugs from previous releases. While we strive to provide perfect software, pesky quirky bugs will happen. Please bring them to our support team's attention so we can work on exterminating them!

Thank you

Thanks for taking a look at the latest enhancements for DBI pureFeat and Panther.

Return to Panther's product page or Contact DBI for prompt assistance.

GA Date: 20 November 2020 at 4pm Central Daylight Time