IBM Cognos 8 uses JDBC connectivity to access the database used for the content store.
If you use DB2 on Windows, Linux or UNIX as your content store you must choose whether to use the type 2 or type 4 JDBC driver depending on how you want to connect to the content store.
If you are using a DB2 database on z/OS for the content store, you must use type 4 JDBC connectivity.
You specify the driver type to use in IBM Cognos Configuration.
DB2 introduced a universal JDBC driver that contains both type 2 and type 4 JDBC driver support. The universal driver, db2jcc.jar, replaces the deprecated type 2 JDBC driver, db2java.zip.
If you are upgrading, you can continue to use type 2 JDBC connectivity with no configuration change required. If you want to use the type 4 JDBC connectivity, you must change your configuration to include the host name and port number of the database server.
For information about configuration requirements, Set Database Connection Properties for the Content Store.
For both type 2 and type 4 JDBC connectivity, however, you must copy the new universal driver, db2jcc.jar, and the accompanying license file, db2jcc_license_*.jar, to your IBM Cognos 8 installation location.
For more information, see Set Up Database Connectivity for the Content Store Database.
Type 2 JDBC drivers are comprised of a native-API component and a Java component.
The connection to the DB2 database occurs through the DB2 CLI libraries, which comprise the native component that communicates with the database server.
Because type 2 JDBC drivers require common client code and rely on the native code of the product, a DB2 product must be installed to use this driver. For example, a DB2 client must be installed on the computer where you have Content Manager installed.
Type 4 JDBC drivers are pure Java drivers which provide direct access to DB2 database features through network communication.
The type 4 driver is considered an independent product. It does not require the DB2 product to be installed. For example, you do not need to install the DB2 client on the computer where you have Content Manager installed.