Learning Visually with Examples [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

4.4. General Administration Tools

The tools available under

General Administration Tools in the DB2 menu are GUI-based. If you are unfamiliar with DB2 commands or SQL statements, the tools in this section allow you to perform all kinds of database administration tasks without having to enter one single DB2 command!

The General Administration Tools consist of the Control Center, the Journal, the Replication Center, and the Task Center.

4.4.1. The Control Center

As mentioned in Chapter 2, DB2 at a Glance: The Big Picture, the Control Center is the most important DB2 GUI administration tool. It provides the following functions.

• A complete picture of all your instances and databases on local and remote systems, including host systems (OS/390 and z/OS platforms). This helps you visualize how your instances and databases are structured.

• Management of your federated database systems (federation was briefly discussed in Chapter 2).

• Most database operations, which you would otherwise have to perform using DB2 commands.

• A launchpad for all other GUI tools.

• Many wizards and advisors, which can make your database administration tasks a lot easier.

You can start the Control Center in three different views, as shown in Figure 4.24.

The

Basic view only shows databases residing locally on the server; it doesn't display instances. The

Advanced view shows everything: all instances and databases on both the local system and remote systems (if connections have been configured). The

Custom view allows you to tailor the Object Tree and the object actions to your specific needs.

Figure 4.25 shows the Control Center Advanced view. The

Object Tree displays the tree structure on your local and remote systems, and the

Contents pane provides more detail about the specific item selected. The

Object Details pane displays details and actions that can be performed for the selected object.

For example, in Figure 4.25 the Tables folder in the Object Tree is selected, so the Contents pane displays the list of tables. Since the EMPLOYEE table is selected, the Object Details pane shows the table structure as well as other actions like the Create New Table action.

You can perform many tasks from the Control Center by right-clicking an object to display its list of operations. Figure 4.26 shows the list of available operations for the database named

SAMPLE .