Overview of DRDA

Distributed Relational Database Architecture™ (DRDA®) is a set of protocols that enable communication between applications and database systems on disparate platforms, and enables relational data to be distributed among multiple platforms.

Any combination of relational database management products that use DRDA can be connected to form a distributed relational database management system. DRDA coordinates communication between systems by defining what is exchanged and the exchange method.

You can configure the database server to use DRDA to respond to requests from a common API, such as the .NET Core Provider JDBC Driver or the .NET Core Provider .NET Provider.

Connection Managers support DRDA, so you can use connection management to redirect client connection requests to appropriate database servers. Connection Managers can also provide automatic failover for high-availability clusters using DRDA.

Enterprise Replication, data replication, and HCL OneDB™ utilities, such as DB-Access, require standard HCL OneDB connections. Enterprise Replication utilities do not operate over DRDA connections. However, Enterprise Replication connections can coexist with DRDA connections.

When you use DRDA with ANSI-compliant databases, unbuffered logging and implicit transactions are enforced. If you migrate an application that is based on a non-ANSI-compliant database to a DRDA environment, the connection must handle application logic for statements that need transactions. For example, a BEGIN WORK statement is required before a concatenation operator in a stored procedure.

You can secure DRDA connections between a common client API and HCL OneDB in the following ways:
  • Encrypted password security or an encrypted user ID and encrypted password security
  • Password authentication through a pluggable authentication module

You can secure DRDA connections between a common client API and HCL OneDB with password authentication through a pluggable authentication module.