I am trying to test ou the Connection Concentrator and have no idea how the tuning parameters relate to what is going on in the system. I am using DB2 8.1.4, with a PC and opening up multiple terminals. When I start up the server (checking to make sure that the Admin Server process is off and all db2bp processes are killed from prior runs), and using the following parameters:

maxagents=2
maxcagents=2
max_coordagents=2
num_initagents=0
num_poolagents=2
max_connections=4

I am able to get to 3 connections established. If there are residual processes running from prior connections and terminations, I may not get that high. In this scenario, I am assuming that the Connection Concentrator is running. If I change max_connections to 2, shut everything down, kill all residual processes, and then start up the db2 server, I can increase my number of connections to 5. When I take a snapshot, it shows 5 connections. It also shows a high water mark for coordinating agents at 7. None of this makes sense. Can anyone explain what I am seeing? Is max_connections a soft limit?