Understanding DB2: Learning Visually with Examples (2nd Edition)

12.1. DB2 Data Movement Utilities: The Big Picture

Figure 12.1 presents the big picture of the DB2 data movement utilities. The utilities provide a way to move data from one database to another. The source and target databases can be the same instance, in different instances on the same server, on different servers on the same platform, or on different platforms entirely. For example, you can move data stored in DB2 on z/OS to a database defined in DB2 on a Linux server. Data movement within DB2 is very efficient and flexible.

Figure 12.1 shows that all data movement utilities use a file either for input or output. The file can be of types DEL, IXF, ASC, WSF, and Cursor.

To extract data from a table in a database, you use the export utility. The import and load utilities insert data from the input files into a specified table. db2move is a batch version of the data movement utilities; it can export, import, or load multiple tables with just one command. Each utility is discussed in more detail in the sections that follow.