node-ibm_db

An asynchronous/synchronous interface for node.js to IBM DB2 and IBM Informix.

Supported Platforms - Windows64, MacOS64, Linuxx64, Linuxia32, AIX, Linux on IBM Z, Linux on Power PC and z/OS.

API Documentation

For complete list of ibm_db APIs and example, please check APIDocumentation.md

Prerequisite

• For higher versions of node (When building with Node 4 onwards) the compiler must support C++11. Note the default compiler on RHEL 6 does not have the required support. Install a newer compiler or upgrade older one.

• Python 2.7 is needed by node-gyp. On z/OS, Python 2.7.13 or higher, but lower than Python 3.0, is required.

• On distributed platforms, you do need not to install any Db2 ODBC client driver for connectivity. ibm_db itself downloads and installs an odbc/cli driver from IBM website during installation. Just install ibm_db and it is ready for use.

• On z/OS, ODBC driver support is part of IBM Db2 for z/OS 11.0 and 12.0. Please ensure IBM Db2 for z/OS 11.0 or 12.0 is installed on your given LPAR. Ensure you follow the instructions to configure your ODBC driver here.

• On z/OS only certain versions of node-gyp are supported. This was tested with:
  node-gyp 3.4.0
  npm 3.10.10
  ibm_db: 2.3.0

• Recommended versions of node.js is V4.x, V6.x and V7.x. Support for node.js V0.12.x is deprecated on Windows and will be discontinued from next release.

Install

You may install the package using npm install command:

npm install ibm_db

For more installation details please refer: INSTALLATION GUIDE

Important Environment Variables and Download Essentials

IBM_DB_HOME :

• USE:

  • On distributed platforms, set this environment variable if you want to avoid downloading of clidriver from the IBM Hosted URL or from the internet.
  • On z/OS, set this environment variable to the High Level Qualifier (HLQ) of your Db2 datasets. During npm install, the module will automatically reference ODBC driver header files under: $IBM_DB_HOME.SDSNC.H and the sidedeck definitions in $IBM_DB_HOME.SDSNMACS(DSNAO64C) to build the node binding.

• HOW:

  • On distributed platforms, set IBM_DB_HOME environment variable to a pre-installed db2 client or server installation directory.
  • On z/OS, set IBM_DB_HOME environment variable to the High Level Qualifier (HLQ) of your Db2 datasets. For example, if your Db2 datasets are located as DSN1210.SDSNC.H and DSN1210.SDSNMACS, you need to set IBM_DB_HOME environment variable to DSN1210 with the following statement (can be saved in ~/.profile):

IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL :

• USE:

  • Set this environment variable to by-pass the IBM Hosted URL for downloading odbc/clidriver.

• HOW:

  • Set IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL environment variable with alternate odbc/clidriver downloading URL link or with locally downloaded "tar/zipped clidriver's parent directory path.

• TIP:

  • If you don't have alternate hosting URL then, you can download the tar/zipped file of clidriver from the IBM Hosted URL and can set the IBM_DB_INSTALLER_URL environment variable to the downloaded "tar/zipped clidriver's" parent directory path. No need to untar/unzip the clidriver and do not change the name of downloaded file.

Download clidriver (based on your platform & architecture) from the below IBM Hosted URL:

DOWNLOAD CLI DRIVER

Cli Drivers for Specific Platform and Architecture

Platform	Architecture	Cli Driver	Supported
AIX	ppc	aix32_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	others	aix64_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
Darwin	x64	macos64_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
Linux	x64	linuxx64_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	s390x	s390x64_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	s390	s390_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	ppc64 (LE)	ppc64le_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	ppc64	ppc64_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	ppc32	ppc32_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
	others	linuxia32_odbc_cli.tar.gz	Yes
Windows	x64	ntx64_odbc_cli.zip	Yes
	x32	nt32_odbc_cli.zip	Not supported with node-ibm_db
z/OS	s390x	ODBC support from IBM Db2 for z/OS 11.0 or 12.0	Yes

Configure ODBC driver on z/OS

Please refer to the ODBC Guide and References cookbook for how to configure your ODBC driver. Specifically, you need to ensure you:

1. Bind the ODBC packages. A sample JCL is provided in the SDSNSAMP dataset in member DSNTIJCL. Customize the JCL with specifics to your system.

2. Ensure users that should be authorized have authority to execute the DSNACLI plan. Included are samples granting authority to public (all users), or specific groups via SQL GRANT statements, or alternately via RACF. The security administrator can use these samples as a model and customize/translate to your installation security standards as appropriate.

   Examples using SQL GRANT statement:

   Example 1: Grant the privilege to execute plan DSNACLI to RACF group, DBCLIGRP.

    GRANT EXECUTE ON PLAN DSNACLI TO DBCLIGRP;
   

   Example 2: Grant the privilege to execute plan DSNACLI to all users at the current server.

    GRANT EXECUTE ON PLAN DSNACLI TO PUBLIC;
   

   Examples using Access Control Authorization Exit for Db2 authorization:

   Define profile for plan DSNACLI execute privilege check

    RDEFINE MDSNPN DB2A.DSNACLI.EXECUTE UACC(NONE) OWNER(DB2OWNER)
   

   Example 1: PERMIT the privilege to execute plan DSNACLI to RACF group, DBCLIGRP

    PERMIT DB2A.DSNACLI.EXECUTE ID(DBCLIGRP) ACCESS(READ) CLASS(MDSNPN)
   

   Example 2: PERMIT the privilege to execute plan DSNACLI to all users at the current server

    PERMIT DB2A.DSNACLI.EXECUTE ID(*) ACCESS(READ) CLASS(MDSNPN)
   

   Issue SETROPTS command to refresh in-storage profile lists

     SETR RACLIST(MDSNPN) REFRESH
   

3. Update the STEPLIB environment variable to include the Db2 SDSNEXIT, SDSNLOAD and SDSNLOD2 data sets. You can set the STEPLIB environment variable in your .profile with the following statement, after defining IBM_DB_HOME to the high level qualifier of your Db2 datasets as instructed above:

   # Assumes IBM_DB_HOME specifies the HLQ of the Db2 datasets.
   export STEPLIB=$STEPLIB:$IBM_DB_HOME.SDSNEXIT:$IBM_DB_HOME.SDSNLOAD:$IBM_DB_HOME:SDSNL0D2  

4. Configure an appropriate Db2 ODBC initialization file that can be read at application time. You can specify the file by using either a DSNAOINI data definition statement or by defining a DSNAOINI z/OS UNIX environment variable. For compatibility with ibm_db, the following properties must be set:

   MULTICONTEXT=1
   CURRENTAPPENSCH=ASCII
   

   Here is a sample of a complete initialization file:

   ; This is a comment line...
   ; Example COMMON stanza
   [COMMON]
   MVSDEFAULTSSID=VC1A
   CONNECTTYPE=1
   MULTICONTEXT=1
   CURRENTAPPENSCH=ASCII
   ; Example SUBSYSTEM stanza for VC1A subsystem
   [VC1A]
   MVSATTACHTYPE=RRSAF
   PLANNAME=DSNACLI
   ; Example DATA SOURCE stanza for STLEC1 data source
   [STLEC1]
   AUTOCOMMIT=1
   CURSORHOLD=1
   

   Reference Chapter 3 in the ODBC Guide and References for more instructions.

Quick Example

var ibmdb = require('ibm_db');

ibmdb.open("DATABASE=<dbname>;HOSTNAME=<myhost>;UID=db2user;PWD=password;PORT=<dbport>;PROTOCOL=TCPIP", function (err,conn) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  
  conn.query('select 1 from sysibm.sysdummy1', function (err, data) {
    if (err) console.log(err);
    else console.log(data);

    conn.close(function () {
      console.log('done');
    });
  });
});

Un-Install

To uninstall node-ibm_db from your system, just delete the node-ibm_db or ibm_db directory.

For z/OS and iSeries Connectivity

For connectivity against DB2 for LUW or Informix Server using node-ibm_db, no license file is required. However, if you want to use node-ibm_db against DB2 for z/OS or DB2 for i(AS400) Servers, you must have db2connect license of version 11.1 if server is not db2connectactivated to accept unlimited number of client connection. You can buy db2connect license from IBM. The connectivity can be enabled either on server using db2connectactivate utility or on client using client side license file. If you have client side license file, just copy it under .../ibm_db/installer/clidriver/license folder to be effective.

To know more about license and purchasing cost, please contact IBM Customer Support.

For AIX install issue

If npm install ibm_db aborts with "Out Of Memory" error on AIX, first run ulimit -d unlimited and then npm install ibm_db.

For Missing Package/Binding issue

If your application is able to connect to IBM Database Server but query execution is throwing SQL0805N error, run below commands to fix the package related issues:

cd .../ibm_db/installer
source setenv.sh
db2cli bind $IBM_DB_HOME/bnd/@db2cli.lst -database <dbname>:<hostname>:<port> -user <dbuser> -passwd <passwd> -options "grant public action replace blocking no"

If above command prints 0 error at end, then you can proceed to run query. If it reports non-zero error, open a new issue on github and share the output of above db2cli bind command along with query execution error.

Alternatively, if you have any other DB2 client with CLP, you can bind packages using db2 bind command too. f.e. use below command against DB2 for z/OS server:

db2 bind .../sqllib/bnd/@ddcsmvs.lst action replace grant public sqlerror continue messages msg.txt

Note: "db2cli bind" command print the logs on output prompt, so you need to redirect output to some file to capture it. To capture logs of "db2 bind" command, you need to use messages option as in above example. Note: "db2cli bind" does not work with DB2 z/OS if the CLI packages (SYSSH*) were bound the DB2 subsystem is configured with APPLCOMPAT and SQLLEVEL set to V12R1M502 or higher. Tested with APPLCOMPAT=V12R1M500

Troubleshooting on z/OS

Some errors on z/OS are incomplete, so, to debug, add the following to your Db2 ODBC initialization file: APPLTRACE=1 APPLTRACEFILENAME=/u//odbc_trace.txt

Need Help?

If you encountered any issue with ibm_db, first check for existing solution or work-around under issues or on google groups forum. Links are:

https://github.com/ibmdb/node-ibm_db/issues
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/node-ibm_db

If no solution found, you can open a new issue on github or start a new topic in google groups.

How to get ibm_db instance?

The simple api is based on the instances of Database class. You may get an instance by one of the following ways:

require("ibm_db").open(connectionString, function (err, conn){
  //conn is already open now if err is falsy
});

or by using the helper function:

var ibmdb = require("ibm_db")();

or by creating an instance with the constructor function:

var Database = require("ibm_db").Database
  , ibmdb = new Database();

Build Options

Debug

If you would like to enable debugging messages to be displayed you can add the flag DEBUG to the defines section of the binding.gyp file and then execute node-gyp rebuild.

<snip>
'defines' : [
  "DEBUG"
],
<snip>

Unicode

By default on distributed platforms, UNICODE suppport is enabled. This should provide the most accurate way to get Unicode strings submitted to your database. For best results, you may want to put your Unicode string into bound parameters.

On z/OS, UNICODE is disabled by default.

However, if you experience issues or you think that submitting UTF8 strings will work better or faster, you can remove the UNICODE define in binding.gyp

<snip>
'defines' : [
  "UNICODE"
],
<snip>

timegm vs timelocal

When converting a database time to a C time one may use timegm or timelocal. See man timegm for the details of these two functions. By default the node-ibm_db bindings use timelocal. If you would prefer for it to use timegm then specify the TIMEGM define in binding.gyp

<snip>
'defines' : [
  "TIMEGM"
],
<snip>

Strict Column Naming

When column names are retrieved from DB2 CLI, you can request by SQL_DESC_NAME or SQL_DESC_LABEL. SQL_DESC_NAME is the exact column name or none if there is none defined. SQL_DESC_LABEL is the heading or column name or calculation. SQL_DESC_LABEL is used by default and seems to work well in most cases.

If you want to use the exact column name via SQL_DESC_NAME, enable the STRICT_COLUMN_NAMES define in binding.gyp

<snip>
'defines' : [
  "STRICT_COLUMN_NAMES"
],
<snip>

Tips

Using node < v0.10 on Linux

Be aware that through node v0.9 the uv_queue_work function, which is used to execute the ODBC functions on a separate thread, uses libeio for its thread pool. This thread pool by default is limited to 4 threads.

This means that if you have long running queries spread across multiple instances of ibmdb.Database() or using odbc.Pool(), you will only be able to have 4 concurrent queries.

You can increase the thread pool size by using @developmentseed's [node-eio] (https://github.com/developmentseed/node-eio).

install:

npm install eio

usage:

var eio = require('eio'); 
eio.setMinParallel(threadCount);

Issues while connecting to Informix Server

While using ibm_db against Informix server, you may get few issues if server is not configured properly. Also, ibm_db connects to only DRDA port. So, make sure drsoctcp of Informix is configured.

SQL1042C Error

If ibm_db is returning SQL1042C error while connecting to server, use "Authentication=SERVER" in connection string. It should avoid the error. Alternatively, you can set Authentication in db2cli.ini file or db2dsdriver.cfg file too.

code-set conversion error

If Informix server is not enabled for UNICODE clients or some code-set object file is missing on server; server returns this error to ibm_db: [IBM][CLI Driver][IDS/UNIX64] Error opening required code-set conversion object file.

To avoid this error, remove UNICODE from binding.gyp file and rebuild the ibm_db.

Also to avoid above issues, you can run ibm_db/installer/ifx.sh script on non-windows system.

Contributor

• Dan VerWeire (dverweire@gmail.com)
• Lee Smith (notwink@gmail.com)
• Bruno Bigras
• Christian Ensel
• Yorick
• Joachim Kainz
• Oleg Efimov
• paulhendrix
• IBM

Contributing to the node-ibm_db

Contribution Guidelines

Contributor should add a reference to the DCO sign-off as comment in the pull request(example below):
DCO 1.1 Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.org>

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Dan VerWeire dverweire@gmail.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Lee Smith notwink@gmail.com

Copyright (c) 2014 IBM Corporation

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.