Chapter 9 Further Reading

IBM Official Documentation

IBM Db2 13 for z/OS: Utility Guide and Reference (SC28-1490) The definitive reference for every DB2 utility. Covers syntax, parameters, phases, restart behavior, and compatibility. Chapters on REORG, RUNSTATS, COPY, RECOVER, LOAD, UNLOAD, CHECK DATA, CHECK INDEX, and REBUILD INDEX are essential reading. Always use the version matching your DB2 release.

IBM Db2 13 for z/OS: Administration Guide (SC28-1480) Chapters on database recovery, image copy management, and utility scheduling provide the operational context that the Utility Guide's syntax reference lacks. The section on point-in-time recovery and referential integrity cascade is particularly important.

IBM Db2 13 for z/OS: Managing Performance (SC28-1486) Covers RUNSTATS strategies, statistics interpretation, and the relationship between catalog statistics and optimizer decisions. The sections on distribution statistics (FREQVAL, HISTOGRAM) and multi-column statistics (COLGROUP) explain when and why these advanced statistics matter.

Hahn, J., et al. "DB2 11 for z/OS Utilities." IBM Redbooks (SG24-8194). Comprehensive Redbook covering all DB2 utilities with real-world examples, JCL samples, and best practices. Although written for DB2 11, the fundamental concepts apply to later versions. Excellent chapters on online REORG, LOAD performance optimization, and utility scheduling.

Yevich, R. and Lawson, S. "DB2 for z/OS and OS/390: Ready for Java." (Chapter on Recovery and Restart) While focused on Java integration, the recovery architecture chapter explains the log-based recovery mechanism, image copy strategies, and point-in-time recovery concepts applicable to any DB2 application including COBOL.

Mullins, Craig S. "DB2 Developer's Guide." 6th Edition. IBM Press. Chapter coverage of RUNSTATS best practices, including when to collect distribution statistics, how to use RUNSTATS profiles, and the critical RUNSTATS-REBIND connection. Written from the developer's perspective rather than the DBA's.
Lawson, Susan. "DB2 for z/OS: DBA Quick Reference." MC Press. Compact reference with utility syntax quick-reference cards, common parameter combinations, and troubleshooting guides. Useful as a desk reference during utility operations.

"Best Practices for DB2 Online REORG." IBM developerWorks. Covers SHRLEVEL CHANGE internals, mapping table sizing, DRAIN_WAIT and RETRY tuning, and strategies for minimizing SWITCH phase duration. Includes case studies of online REORG in 24/7 environments.
"When Not to REORG: Identifying Unnecessary Reorganizations." IDUG Solutions Journal. Evidence-based analysis of REORG effectiveness. Demonstrates that many scheduled REORGs produce no measurable performance improvement. Provides threshold guidelines for CLUSTERRATIOF, PERCDROP, and other metrics.

"Advanced RUNSTATS Techniques for DB2." IBM Data Management Magazine. Deep dive into COLGROUP statistics, FREQVAL distributions, and HISTOGRAM configurations. Explains how the optimizer interprets each type of statistic and when each is necessary.
"The RUNSTATS-REBIND Gap: Why Your Statistics Aren't Helping." IDUG North America Conference Proceedings. Analysis of production environments where RUNSTATS ran regularly but packages were never rebound, resulting in stale access paths despite current statistics. Includes automation strategies for pairing RUNSTATS with REBIND.

"DB2 Point-in-Time Recovery: Strategies and Pitfalls." z/Journal. Comprehensive treatment of point-in-time recovery including RI cascade requirements, recovery order determination, and post-recovery verification steps. Includes a decision tree for choosing between TOCOPY, TORBA, and TOLOGPOINT.
"FlashCopy and DB2: Instant Image Copies." IBM Systems Magazine. Explains the integration between DFSMSdss FlashCopy and DB2 COPY utility. Covers how FlashCopy achieves instant-time copies, registration in the DB2 catalog, and recovery using FlashCopy-based image copies.

"High-Speed DB2 Loading Techniques." SHARE Conference Proceedings. Advanced LOAD optimization including parallel partition loading, SORTKEYS tuning, cursor-based LOAD, and LOG YES vs. LOG NO trade-offs. Benchmark data comparing LOAD performance under various configurations.

IDUG (International DB2 Users Group) — idug.org Annual conferences (North America and EMEA) with dedicated tracks on DB2 utilities, performance tuning, and operational best practices. The IDUG Solutions Journal publishes peer-reviewed articles on real-world DB2 challenges.
SHARE Association — share.org z/OS-focused conference with extensive DB2 content. Session proceedings from the DB2 track cover utility innovations, performance tips, and case studies from enterprise DB2 installations.

IBM Db2 Administration Tool for z/OS GUI-based utility management including REORG advisor (recommends which objects need REORG based on catalog metrics), RUNSTATS advisor, and utility scheduling. Integrates with z/OS job scheduling systems.
IBM Db2 Automation Tool for z/OS Automates threshold-based utility scheduling. Monitors catalog statistics continuously and triggers REORG, RUNSTATS, and COPY when thresholds are breached. Eliminates calendar-based scheduling in favor of metric-driven execution.
BMC AMI Utilities for DB2 Third-party utility suite that provides enhanced REORG (with SHRLEVEL CHANGE optimizations), high-performance COPY, and fast RECOVER. Often used alongside IBM utilities for performance-critical environments.

Chapter 4: Dataset Management on z/OS — Utility input/output dataset allocation, space sizing, SMS storage classes, and dataset naming conventions. Directly applicable to COPY datasets, REORG work datasets, and LOAD input datasets.
Chapter 6: The DB2 Optimizer and Access Path Selection — How the optimizer uses catalog statistics (collected by RUNSTATS) to choose access paths. Understanding Chapter 6 is essential for knowing which RUNSTATS options matter for your queries.
Chapter 8: DB2 Locking and Concurrency — SHRLEVEL options on utilities interact with application locking. Understanding lock escalation, claim/drain processing, and commit frequency is essential for online utility execution.
Chapter 10: DB2 Data Sharing — Utility coordination across data sharing members. Recovery with TOLOGPOINT instead of TORBA. Cross-member utility scheduling.