Since June: Db2 12.1.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

End of last month, the Db2 Version 12.1.5 became available. As usual, you can download it from the page Download Db2 fix packs by version for Db2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows. Moreover, as shown in the screenshot above, the Db2 documentation has the typical What’s new in Db2 12.1.5 page for all the relevant links to highlights and new features.

Vector indexes and external AI model support

Important new features shipped with Db2 12.1.5 are the index support for the vector data type and the integrated handling and usage of external AI models.

In short, you can now create (and use 😜) indexes on vector-typed columns. The index is based on the DiskANN algorithm and significantly improves performance for (very) large data sets. What I used to simplify computation of embeddings is now officially available, too. You can register an inferencing endpoint with CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL and then reach out to the LLM (Large Language Model) either via TO_EMBEDDING to compute an embedding, or via TEXT_GENERATION to generate output based on a provided prompt.

I blogged about these features before:

• Soon as your neighbors: Db2 Vector Indexes
• Db2: SQL-embedded LLM-based data generation (external models)
• IBM Bob explains a Db2 vector query

Install Db2 via rpm

So far, I have installed Db2 by either downloading an archive file, unpacking it, then running the Db2 setup, or by pulling and running a Db2 container. Now, a new option is to download an archive with the needed rpm packages and install them on my Fedora system using dnf.

I still need to test this. Right now I am using the Db2 Community Edition for Docker and/or the Db2 Early Access Program releases.

S3 on AIX and other enhancements

What I have been involved with and what took some time is the now available support for Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) on AIX systems. After registering S3-compatible storage providers, it allows to backup to “cloud storage” (and restore from it), archiving transaction logs to it, or loading data from S3 storage.

Some other useful enhancements are listed in the Manageability enhancements document. They include changes to ALTER COLUMN as part of ALTER TABLE to modify data types of column-organized tables. Moreover, the INSPECT command now supports INDEXORDER validation.

Conclusions

The new Db2 12.1.5 has been out since end of June, so you may already have read or even tested it. The above post is for my own reference to have all relevant links handy. And, maybe, it is useful for you, too…

If you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about this post, please reach out to me on Mastodon (@data_henrik@mastodon.social) or LinkedIn.