Hey, guys & gals!

I'm a Mainframe DBA in NYC. I've been doing it only for over 3 years and I've never gotten the opportunity to work on installing DB2. Are there any suggestions on what I would need to set up my own pseudo-mainframe system at home without having something as huge as what we have here at work? Any ideas with guesstimated prices would be greatly appreciated. Just have no clue at what I'm looking at here, if it's even feasible.

Your best bet is to set up a DB2 for Linux, UNIX, or Windows server on a PC. I would recommend Linux, since the OS is basically free, and it similar to UNIX, which it the most common platform for DB2. Any decent PC can handle it, with memory probably being more important than processor speed on a development machine.

You can get a trial version of DB2 ESE for free (you have to reinstall every 3 months) from the IBM website. Reinstalling every 3 months is not so bad since it gives you practice with installations.

I don't know of any mainframe solutions that you can easily set up at home.

Of course, DB2 for LUW is substantially different from the DB2 for OS/390 and z/OS, at least at the DBA administrative level.

You could install hercules (the mainframe emulator) and install mvs or z/os on your pc and have a db2 mvs run at home...
Best Regards, Guy Przytula

A legal copy of OS/390 (MVS) and DB2 for OS/390 would be quite expensive.