DB2 provides exceptional flexibility for mixing and matching client and server 

platforms in a heterogeneous environment. DB2 client and server code is 

available for a wide variety of platforms. For example, the application can 

execute on a Windows based machine with a DB2 client for Windows, which 

can then access a DB2 database on a Linux server. Likewise, the Linux 

machine can act as a client and access data from UNIX servers or 

mainframes. 

Multi tier

In a multi tier configuration, the application, DB2 client, and the data source 

typically reside on separate systems. Examples of such configuration 

scenarios are illustrated in Table 1 2 below.

Table 1 2   Multi tier configuration examples

Client

Middle tier

Server

Web browser

Web server

DB2 database server

DB2 Client

Application client

Application server

DB2 database server 1

DB2 client

DB2 database server 2

Application

DB2 connect gateway

zSeries, iSeries

DB2 client

Application

DB2 server

Secondary Data Sources 

DB2 client

(for example, Mainframe 

DB2, Non DB2, 

non relational)

IBM recognizes that in many cases there may be a need for accessing data from 

a variety of distributed data sources rather than one centralized database. The 

data sources can be from IBM, such as DB2 or Informix, or non IBM databases, 

such as Oracle, or even non relational data, such as files or spreadsheets. As 

illustrated in the last scenario in the Table 1 2, IBM offers the most 

comprehensive business integration solution by allowing federated access to a 

variety of distributed data sources.

DB2 application programming interfaces (APIs)

In order to access or manage DB2 objects, several different programming 

interfaces can be used as seen in Figure 1 11. 

 Chapter 1. Introduction 

23