DB2 Integrated Cluster Environment Deployment Guide

Chapter 2. Selecting your cluster 35

2.1.2 AMD64 (and x86-64)

A 64-bit architecture provides DB2 servers with access to vast amounts of

memory, well beyond the maximum of two to three gigabytes of shared memory

available on 32-bit systems. Until recently, 64-bit systems came at a substantial

cost premium. AMD changed the 64-bit landscape by releasing AMD64

technology that added 64-bit extensions to the x86 architecture. Systems with

64-bit AMD Opteron processors do not cost too much more than similarly

configured 32-bit Intel Xeon systems.

This platform allows running both the existing 32-bit x86 applications as well as

native 64-bit ones, thereby providing flexibility and making the transition to 64-bit

easier. Applications such as database managers that benefit the most from the

64-bit architecture can be among the first to be deployed to this platform, while

client applications can be kept as 32-bit or moved to 64-bit at their pace. Given

the benefits and success of this platform, it is not surprising that Intel has also

released its 64-bit extended technology known as EM64T.

DB2 UDB was the first major commercial database for this platform. Whether you

want to deploy on AMD64 or Intel EM64T, there is a common version of DB2

UDB that runs on both of these x86-64 architectures. The x86-64 version of DB2

UDB is a hybrid one that allows you to create both 32-bit and 64-bit DB2

instances on the same system; see Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1 Application execution scenarios against a database on x86-64

x86-64 platform

64-bit Linux Distribution

64-bit DB2 Instance

Local 32-bit Application

Remote 32 or 64-bit

Application

32 or 64-bit DB2 Instance

Local 64-bit Application