Today, I took tests 512 (DB2 Family Fundamentals) and 513 (DB2 UDB Database Administration) and passed both in the same day! IBM is supposed to send me the certificate in a few weeks, with the PIN and logo for my resume.

I got 80 on the first and 71 on the second, but I only needed 55 on each to pass.

I crammed about 2 weeks for 512 and 1 week for 513. Also, I've been the DB2 DBA on HP and Sun for about 6 months.

Since my work situation is so strange, I decided it was best to go ahead and try to certify.

If you're interested in DB2 UDB, here are the essential Study Guides.

DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies by Paul Zikopoulos, Jennifer Gibbs, and Roman B. Melnyk

DB2 Universal Database v7.1 for Unix, Linux, Windows, and OS/2 by George Baklarz and Bill Wong.

All in One DB2 Administration Exam Guide by Roger E. Sanders

Also, there's the sample certification tests at [link|http://certify.torolab.ibm.com|http://certify.torolab.ibm.com]

It takes only two tests and you're certified!

At this point I'm playing with three ideas:

1. Try to certify on Oracle and MS SQL Server, so I can be a "multiplatform" DBA. I think this would appeal to large corporations because I could DBA for different database platforms at the same time. I don't know how difficult the Oracle or MS tests are, or how many there are.

2. Try to certify in Java, but I'm not sure what would be valuable to an Employer, Brainbench, jCert, or the Sun certification. My initial thought was to certify on Sun and Brainbench. I don't think this would be too difficult, because, when I'm not doing the DBA job, I'm programming in Java. Actually, my Java work is about to get very very busy in the next few weeks.

3. There are other DB2 "Family" Certifications I can try for like Business Intelligence, Application Development, and Database Administration for OS/390 (but I don't have a mainframe to practice on). Then there are the level 3 tests for Advanced Technical Expert for Clusters, DRDA, or Data Replication (we are doing none of these at work).

Let me know what you guys think.

Glen Austin
IBM Certified Solutions Expert - DB2 UDB 7.1 Database Administration for Unix, Linux, Windows, and OS/2

IBM has actually had a Unix product since about 1994, now called DB2 Universal Database and has Unix, Linux, Windows and OS/2 versions.

I like it, but I can also see how many Unix experts would feel more comfortable in Informix.

Informix is still a separate product, but IBM is now "cross-training" DB2 and Informix developers in the early phases of moving to a joint product. People I talk to say that a complete "combined" product is still probably 24 months away.

SAP, Seibel, PeopleSoft and other CRM/ERP vendors are now lining up on DB2 on Unix because of Oracle's attempts to attack these vendors (who are their customers) in the application space. These CRM/ERP vendors are fed up and IBM is taking advantage of the opportunity.

It's a good time to get into this space, because:

1. IBM is moving mainframe customers into Linux mainframes and guess what these run? IBM DB2 UDB.

2. The CRM/ERP issues I discussed above.

3. IBM is 1/4 of the list price of Oracle in smaller configurations, and can be even 10 times cheaper in the smallest configurations.

4. People are just sick of Oracle.

5. As DB2 and Informix merge, the new combined product will have better Unix/Linux integration.

6. Finally, most people I know seem to think that Oracle really does run terribly on Linux (particularly Red Hat distributions).

Glen Austin