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.
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>.