Installing and configuring DB2

BigFix 11 Server installation on Linux has IBM DB2 as a prerequisite. It must be installed before the BigFix Server is installed.

While earlier versions of certain BigFix products included DB2 entitlement and installer, this is no longer the case with BigFix 11. Because of this, if you want to install your BigFix 11 Server on Linux, and you do not already own a DB2 license, you must procure one with IBM.

DB2 versions supported by BigFix are available at Database requirements.

DB2 can be installed on the local workstation where you want to install the BigFix Server or on a remote workstation.

For information about how to install and verify DB2 server installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux server 64-bit, see DB2 servers and IBM data server clients. Before installing the BigFix Server ensure that the DB2 has been installed and started as follows:

If the DB2 is installed locally:
1. Ensure that the DB2 instance is up and running and that the DB2 administrative server is started. If you configured DB2 to use the default user names, run the following commands:
```
su - db2inst1
db2start
exit
```
2. You can also verify that the DB2 instance is running by checking that the db2sysc process is active using the following command:
```
ps -ef | grep db2sysc
```
If the DB2 is installed remotely:
1. Install a DB2 client on the workstation from where you run the BigFix server installation. The actual product you need to install is IBM Data Server Client 11.5 and its product identifier is "db2client". The port of the remote DB2 database must be reachable by the workstation where the installation is running. No additional DB2 configurations (such as the catalog of the remote database) are required.
  Note:
  To use a remote database for BigFix, ensure you provide the following information in the installation procedure:
  1. The remote DB2 node
  2. The DB2 port number
  3. The user name of the local DB2 instance owner for the remote DB2 client and the remote DB2 server.
  Important: The DB2 instance names used to install the BES Root Server cannot contain the following special characters:
  blanks, tabs (\t), returns (\n) and ; & | " ' < >.
  For the DB2 password rules, see Database requirements.
  To install the DB2 client you can run the installation wizard or the silent installation with a response file. For additional details, see Installation methods for IBM data server clients.
2. On the remote DB2, ensure that the DB2 instance is up and running and that the DB2 administrative server is started. If you configured DB2 to use the default user names, run the following commands:
```
su - db2inst1
db2start
exit
```

For information about database requirements, see Installation requirements for DB2 database products and Database requirements.