DB2 Buffer Pools and the BizTalk Adapter for DB2

The most important factors that impacts buffer pool configuration are a) structure of the database and b) structure of the queries running against this database. These two factors will ultimately define what will be the I/O profile of these database operations. Buffer pools will reduce I/O as they will cache data avoiding load on the I/O devices.

With that said, it’s really difficult to provide a ‘magic number’ for this configuration parameter. DBA’s will likely tune the buffer pool based on the actual load of the database in a test environment. This tuning operation can be executed with the help of DB2’s online commands, more specifically the DISPLAY BUFFERPOOL and ALTER BUFFERPOOL commands. A brief descriptions on how to use these commands to tune the buffer pools is available at: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/dzichelp/v2r2/topic/com.ibm.db2.doc.admin/dmtbp.htm#dmtbp

A load on the database can be created by activating the BizTalk Adapter for DB2 in a test environment and then further analysis of I/O activities profile can indicate the need to change the default buffer pool configuration.