Setting up a connection to DB2
This information applies to clients of IBM DB2 for Linux, UNIX, Windows, and z/OS.
You must install the DB2 client software on the machine where the ArcGIS client is installed. Follow the instructions provided with the DB2 client software to install it.
![Note Note](rsrc/note.png)
You must install a DB2 9.7 or higher release client on the client computers to connect directly from ArcGIS 10.1 or 10.2 to a supported DB2 version. The DB2 9.7 client must be used even if you are connecting to an earlier release of DB2.
After you install the client software, you can catalog a database, thereby seting up a data source name, or connect from ArcGIS to your database without setting up a data source name.
If your ArcGIS client is installed on a Linux machine that is separate from the DB2 server, you must create a DB2 client instance on the client machine before you can catalog the DB2 instance.
If you do not set up a data source name, you must provide a string at the time of connection that contains all the information the client needs to connect to your database. The string is in the format HostName=<DB2 host>;Port=<port number>;Database=<database name>.