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Release Information

This chapter provides information specific to this release of the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA. It includes the following sections:

Product Set

The following table lists the production components that are included on the product CD-ROM:

Product	Release number
Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA	9.0.1.0.1
Oracle Universal Installer	2.0.1.4.0
Oracle Net	9.0.1.0.0

Changes and Enhancements, Release 9.0.1.0.1

Following is a list of changes and enhancements unique to this release of the gateway.

Enhancements in this Release

Support for DB2/MVS V6 Stored Procedures

This release of the gateway supports the native stored procedure catalogs in DB2 V6 (SYSIBM.SYSROUTINES and SYSIBM.SYSPARMS).

Codepage Map Facility

This release of the gateway supports external mapping of IBM CCSIDs to Oracle character sets. Refer to "Gateway Codepage Map Facility" in Appendix D, "National Language Support".

Improved Oracle Data Dictionaries

This release of the gateway ships with a set of improved data dictionary table and view which help the gateway better integrate with the Oracle 9i Server.

Changes in this Release

Following is a list of changes unique to this release of the gateway.

Oracle Server Dependencies

This release of the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA requires Oracle 9i Server Release 9.0.1.0.0.

Gateway Parameters

In previous versions of the gateway, the initialization parameters were stored in files named initsid.ora and initsid.gtwboot, both found in the gateway instance directories. With version 9, most parameters that were in 'initsid.gtwboot' have been moved to a Startup Shell Script file. The syntax of the Startup Shell Script is that of the UNIX Bourne shell. The syntax of initsid.ora has been simplified. Refer to Appendix C for details.

When migrating from previous releases of the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA, please be aware of these differences.

Refer to the "Heterogeneous Services" section of Oracle9i Heterogeneous Services for complete information about heterogeneous services.

TNSNAMES.ORA

The service name definition (from the integrating Oracle Server to the gateway) must contain an extra parameter, (HS=). Refer to Chapter 8, "Configuring the Gateway", for additional information.

Sun Solaris Support

Version 9 of the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA does not support Sun Solaris Version 2.5. You must have Sun Solaris Version 2.6 or 2.7.

IBM DB2 Universal Database Support

This release supports IBM DB2 Universal Database.

IBM DB2 Version 5.1 ASCII Tables

IBM DB2 Version 5.1 supports ASCII and EBCDIC character sets. The character set selection is defined during table creation. The Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA supports access to EBCDIC tables and ASCII tables. Refer to Appendix D, "National Language Support".

Read-Only Support

This release allows the gateway to be configured as a read-only gateway. In this mode, no modifying of user data will be allowed. For more information, refer to "DRDA_READ_ONLY".

Table 2-1 Bugs Fixed in Release 9.0.1.0.1 of the Gateway

Bug Number	Description
1422130	Support for character set AR8ISO8859P6 required for the Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA on NT.
1366454	There was a Kernel core dump when running consecutive stored procedures to DB2/MVS.
1358377	ORA-28500 and DB2 error -301 received when using gateway with microfocus cobol.
1353699	Gateway debug version returned errmc=124c.
1336994	DB2 threads remained and TCP connection was still established after exiting Plus.
1255848	FDS_CLASS in DRDAAS400.sh
1255698	Binding FDRDA gateway package
1149824	De-installing Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA.
1033074	Port of base bug 661051 to Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA product.
940538	Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA would hang when executing GTW$_BIND_PKG bind package.

Known Problems

The problems documented in the following section are specific to the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA, and are known to exist in this release of the product. These problems will be fixed in a future gateway release. If you have any questions or concerns about these problems, contact Oracle Support Services.

A current list of problems is available online. Contact your local Oracle Corporation office for information about accessing this online information.

Compatibility with DB2/UDB

This release of the gateway is not compatible with DB2/UDB for Microsoft Windows NT or DB2/UDB for Linux.

Known Restrictions

The following restrictions are known to exist for the products in this release. Restrictions are not scheduled to change in future releases. Also refer to Chapter 10, "Developing Applications", for information or limitations when developing your applications.

SQL*Plus DESCRIBE command

The SQL*Plus DESCRIBE command cannot be used to access the remote DRDA server object information.

Accessing DB2 Alias Objects

If you need to access DB2 alias objects on a remote DB2 system, then you must specify DRDA_DESCRIBE_TABLE=FALSE initialization parameter in the Gateway Initialization File.

Oracle SQL Command INSERT

When copying data from an Oracle server to a DRDA server, the Oracle SQL command INSERT is not supported. The SQL*Plus COPY command must be used. Refer to Chapter 9, "Using the Gateway", for more information.

For Owners of DB2 Components

DD Basic Tables and Views

The owner of DD basic tables and views is OTGDB2. This cannot be changed.

SUBSTR Function Post-Processed

The SUBSTR function can be used with the Oracle Server in ways that are not compatible with a DRDA server database, such as DB2/MVS. Therefore, the SUBSTR function is post-processed. However, it is possible to allow the server to process it natively using the "Native Semantics" feature. Refer to Chapter 10, "Developing Applications", for details.

AVS Mapping User IDs (DB2/VM)

APPC VTAM Support (AVS) has problems mapping user IDs that are sent using lowercase letters or special characters. Contact your IBM representative for additional information about this problem.

Support for DRDA Server Character Sets

Support for character sets used by a DRDA server is configurable via the gateway's Codepage Map Facility. Refer to Appendix D, "National Language Support" for more information.

Character Set Limitation

Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA does not support access to double-byte character set (DBCS) data in DB2/MVS, DB2/400, DB2 Universal Database, DB2 server, and DB2/VM databases.

Datatype Limitations

Refer to "DRDA Datatype to Oracle Datatype Conversion" for detailed information about datatypes.

SAVEPOINT Command Is Not Supported

Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA does not support the Oracle command SAVEPOINT.

Null Values and Stored Procedures

Null values are not passed into, or returned from, calls to stored procedures through the gateway.

String Concatenation of Numbers

String concatenation of numbers is not allowed in DB2/400, DB2/UDB, and DB2/MVS. For example, 2||2 is not allowed.

GLOBAL_NAMES Initialization Parameter

If GLOBAL_NAMES is set to TRUE in the Oracle server INIT.ORA file, then in order to be able to connect to the gateway, you must specify the Heterogeneous Services (HS) initialization parameter, HS_DB_DOMAIN, in the Gateway Initialization Parameter file to match the value of the Oracle server's DB_DOMAIN parameter. Refer to Chapter 8, "Configuring the Gateway", for more information.

Binding the DRDA Package on DB2/UDB

The DRDA gateway package must be bound on the DRDA server before the gateway can perform any SQL operations. Because of a DB2/UDB restriction, the ORACLE2PC table must be created in the DB2/UDB database before the package can be bound. For details, refer to Chapter 8, "Configuring the Gateway".

Date Arithmetic

In general, the following types of SQL expression forms do not work correctly with the gateway because of DRDA server limitations:

date + number 
number + date 
date - number 
date1 - date2

DRDA servers do not allow number addition or subtraction with date datatypes. The date and number addition and subtraction (date + number, number + date, date - number) forms are sent through to the DRDA server where they are rejected.

Also, DRDA servers do not perform date subtraction consistently. When you subtract two dates (date1 - date2), differing interpretations of date subtraction in the DRDA servers cause the results to vary by server.

Note:

Avoid date arithmetic expressions in all gateway SQL until date arithmetic problems are resolved.

Row Length Limitation

Because of a restriction of the DRDA architecture, rows with aggregate length exceeding 32K bytes in DRDA representation cannot be stored or retrieved.

LONG Datatype in SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus cannot fetch LONG columns from the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA.

Dictionary Views Are Not Provided for DB2/VM or DB2/UDB

Currently the Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA provides SQL for defining DB2/MVS and DB2/400 views that emulate parts of the Oracle database dictionary. These are required for certain applications and tools that query dictionary tables. View definitions for DB2/VM and DB2/UDB are not provided in this release.

Single Gateway Instance per DRDA Network Interface

When installing the Gateway, a proper DRDA Network Interface must be chosen. Only one DRDA Network Interface may be chosen and installed per gateway instance. If the gateway product is re-installed, and if a Network Interface different from the previous installation is chosen, then the new choice will overlay the current installation. Reconfiguration of the gateway's Initialization Parameters must occur at this point to ensure proper gateway operation. If you wish to have both SNA and TCP/IP DRDA Network Interfaces installed, then you must create two separate gateway homes and installations.

SQL Limitations

Oracle ROWID Column

DB2 does not have a column equivalent to the Oracle ROWID column. Because the ROWID column is not supported, the following restrictions apply:

UPDATE and DELETE are not supported with the WHERE CURRENT OF CURSOR clause. To update or delete a specific row through the gateway, a condition style WHERE clause must be used. (Bug No. 205538)

When UPDATE and DELETE statements are used, in precompiler and PL/SQL programs, they rely internally on the Oracle ROWID function.
Snapshots between Oracle servers and DB2 are not supported.

Snapshots rely internally on the Oracle ROWID column.
Oracle Forms Version 3 and earlier versions are not supported. Oracle Forms Version 4 is supported.

Oracle Bind Variables

Oracle bind variables become SQL parameter markers when used with the gateway. Therefore, the bind variables are subject to the same restrictions as SQL parameter markers.

For example, the following statements are not allowed:

WHERE :x IS NULL 
WHERE :x = :y

CONNECT BY Is Not Supported

Oracle Transparent Gateway for IBM DRDA does not support CONNECT BY in SELECT statements.

2 Release Information