I am usually not very impressed of books that are as fundamental as the "Teach yourself" books, but there are times when they are useful and that is when you want to learn the fundamentals quickly so that you understand the philosophy of a product so that you know how to perform the fundamental setup and administration as it designed to be performed. The first and oly book I have read about Microsoft SQL Server was "Teach yourself SQL Sever 7.0 in 21 days" and since that have I been able to learn all the advanced details on my own from online documentation and own experiences.

Despite I know a lot of DB2 do I still feel that I not understand the fundamentals about how to administer it enough, but the "Teach yourself" book is now eight years old.

Sams Teach Yourself DB2 Universal Database in 21 Days: Amazon.co.uk: Susan Visser, Bill Wong: Books

Maybe is the fundamentals it teach about still valid for DB2 9.X but if anyone know about a good or better alternative to this book would a tip about it be appreciated!

And if not will I buy this book as its table of contents seems to include many of the details I still feel that I not know about enough.

The current version, DB2 9.7 is very different from DB2 8 that's the subject of the book you mentioned. Current certification guides (e.g. Amazon.com: DB2 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows Database Administration: Certification Study Notes (9781583473672): Roger E. Sanders: Books) are a much better resource I would think.

There are many tutorials and in-depth technical materials available for free on https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/ and as IBM Redbooks.

That´s good to know. But could also the basics be that different?

I wish they had a table of contents but I often agree about certification guides. At least when it comes to programming languages (I am a Java developer a lot more than I am an DB2 administrator) is a certification guide that teach about everything everyone should know and no more often the best choice.

I have made searches there before but have not found anything that compare to the table of contents of the "Teach yourself" book Sams Teach Yourself DB2 Universal Database in 21 Days: Amazon.co.uk: Susan Visser, Bill Wong: Books. The red books and the information at developerworks seems to be better when you already have learnt about the basics so that you understand the fundamental design principles of the product.

Thanks for your advices! I appreciate them!