New Features in DBI pureFeat™ V6.2 Performance Management Suite for IBM DB2 LUW

Automated Index Benefit Analysis

The crowned jewel of this release is a DBI innovation called "Index Benefit Analysis." DBI pureFeat takes the recommended index output from IBM program 'db2advis' and adds enormous value by detailing how much benefit is derived from each recommended index individually along with how much value is lost if an index isn't created as part of the solution set. When 'db2advis' recommends multiple indexes, DBI's Index Benefit Analysis is absolutely invaluable because DBAs can instantly tell which indexes are the most important! And, surprisingly, sometimes we see that some 'db2advis' recommended indexes can actually be harmful to workload performance!

Many Customer Suggested Enhancements

The DBI tools are developed by DBAs for DBAs based on many years of real-world experience. In pureFeat 6.2, the majority of new features originated from customer suggestions and usability feedback. Here's a sampling of some of the new customer inspired features:

Cross Database Comparisons

You can now compare the performance of two different databases, side-by-side, for any two timeframes of interest. Further, you can compare the SQL statement workloads as well! This enhancement was inspired by customers that wanted to compare TEST and QA environments, or other use cases. The compared databases must exist in the same DBI Repository database.

Follow-up Flag Notes

When we invented this functionality years ago, who knew how wildly popular it would become? As it turns out, 512 characters wasn't enough space for some customers to record their verbose notes, so we increased the maximum note size to 8,192 characters! And, whenever we'd work together with customers, we'd always suggest that they record their initials, date, time, and observations about the performance attributes within the follow-up note text. That was a lot of typing, so now, with just ONE click, we do all the typing for you! Click QUICK NOTES. And since customers love these follow-up flag notes so much, we also created a new PDF report of all flagged statements! See Reports > DB2 LUW > Repository > Follow Up Flag...

Explains

One of our customers noted that the relative weights in DBI pureFeat's displays were incredibly valuable, so they suggested that we show the relative weights (percentage of costs) for each step in Explains. Brilliant! Done! As a bonus, we're also highlighting the most expensive Explain steps! EASY!

Display Limits

Most performance displays now permit setting a maximum number of rows to display. This is particularly important for customers with 1000's of objects running hundreds of thousands of SQL. Now you can limit displays to just the top tables, tablespaces, and SQL statements in a workload according to any sort criteria.

Right Now > Applications

Some DB2 users have thousands of connections to their databases, but only a small number of these are executing at any one time. As it turns out, most customers don't care about connections in a Waiting state, but EVERYONE wants to see what's running! Now you can filter Current Applications according to their current status values.

Thank you

Thanks for taking a look at DBI pureFeat and some of Brother-Panther's latest enhancements. CLICK HERE to return to Brother-Panther's product page or CLICK HERE to Contact DBI.