DB2 Express-C Team Blog

DB2 Express-C 10.5 is now available for download. Express-C is the free edition of the DB2 database.

Unlike the competitor express offerings, DB2 Express-C does not impose any limit on the size of database. The new DB2 Express-C 10.5 release also relaxes its memory restriction by 400%. It will now use up to 16GB of memory.

DB2 Express-C can handle database of any size, it can be used in production, and it can be redistributed with your applications.

Next steps

• Download DB2 Express-C 10.5
• Learn DB2 on Big Data University

PlanetDB2 provides a meeting place for the DB2 blogging community. It automatically links to new posts on many DB2 blogs. Any DB2 blogger is welcome to join by emailing planetdb2@gmail.com

@PlanetDB2 is the corresponding Twitter account.

Recently PlanetDB2 had some down time. We've put in place automated measures to ensure high availability in the future.

PlanetDB2 has a sister site, Planet Big Data, which focuses on Hadoop and other big data and analytics topics.

DB2 Express-C 10.1.2 is now available for download. The release has several exciting features:

• First release of DB2 10 on Mac (installation guide) 
• Enhancements to the LTRIM, RTRIM, and MOD scalar functions
• A new user-defined data type called SUBTYPE
• Backup and restore statistics are now automatically generated

Next steps

• Download DB2 Express-C 10.1.2
• Learn DB2 at Big Data University

Over 50,000 people have signed up for free online courses about SQL, DB2, and Hadoop at Big Data University!


The courses on Big Data University are self-paced and completion is marked with a certificate. Students support each other and can get expert advice in the forums. There is a range of subjects and levels in the courses.

As a site, Big Data University was launched in January 2011.

Ad: Don't know where to get a loan with bad credit in Thousand Oaks, CA, USA? Take it here!

The release of DB2 Express-C 10.1 was accompanied by updates to drivers, extensions, and adapters for many programming languages. One of them is the ibm_db adapter for Ruby and Rails.

It's straightforward on Windows and Linux:


From experience, I would expect Linux installation to require libstdc++ and libaio packages as well as the DB2 headers included in the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI. Windows installation shouldn't have any dependencies other than the Ruby programming language and Ruby's gem package manager.

Next steps

• Download DB2 Express-C
• Get DB2 headers via Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI
• Learn DB2 at Big Data University

Coming on the heels of DB2 Express-C 10.1 is Technology Explorer 4.2.

The Technology Explorer (TE) is a light weight, web based console for DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows. The Technology Explorer strives to be a teaching tool for all users of DB2. Whether you're just starting to use DB2, or have been for years, there are tutorials for you around many aspects of DB2. Part of what makes the TE such a great teaching tool is that it doesn't just explain to you how a system should act, the Technology Explorer shows you, using your database!

The TE has a large number of views that show you how your database is actually behaving. All of the views the TE uses to teach you about DB2 can be used individually, making the TE a very powerful monitoring tool as well.

New features in Technology Explorer 4.2

• The new Data Generator (DG) can be used to create large sets of data that mimic a customer's actual data. The DG can be used in tutorials and demos where a large volume of data is necessary to show performance.
• New 10.1 tutorials and feature demonstrations
• Adaptive Compression
• Custom Analytics
• Jump Scan
• Multi-Temperature Storage
• pureXML Enchancements
• Range Partitioning
• Row and Column Access Control
• Star Schema Query Optimization
• Text Search Enhancements
• Time Travel Query

• Get Technology Explorer 4.2
• Get the DB2 extension for PHP
• Get DB2 Express-C 10.1

For two major releases, DB2 has included an industrial strength feature for running applications originally written for Oracle Database's flavour of SQL and PL/SQL. The performance for it is excellent -- many people have reported significantly faster performance after switching their applications to DB2.

Oracle compatibility feature is now part of the free DB2 Express-C edition.

Serge Rielau wrote up a fantastic article on running your Oracle applications on DB2 10. All of it applies to DB2 Express-C.

Next steps

• Download DB2 Express-C 10
• Run your Oracle applications on DB2 10
• Learn DB2 at Big Data University