Overview

The most basic way to move large amounts of data to AWS is by using database backup. However, a Db2 for LUW database backup from one platform family can be restored only to a system within the same platform family. Db2 LUW supports the following three platform families:

• Big-endian Linux and UNIX

• Little-endian Linux and UNIX

• Windows

When migrating Db2 from on premises to Amazon EC2, you have the following options:

• Rehosting an on-premises Db2 database running on the little-endian Linux or Windows platforms is relatively easy because you can use regular backup and restore to move data. If you need a minimum-outage migration, you can use IBM Db2 HADR (high availability and disaster recovery) or backup and recovery with log shipping.

• Rehosting an on-premises Db2 database running on the big-endian platform is much more challenging because the database backup and logs can’t be used. Because IBM doesn’t provide a native tool to convert data between platform families, a full unload and reload is required. These operations can be time-consuming, and they usually require a longer outage window. 

• If you have Db2 workloads on the big-endian platform but can’t afford a long outage window, we recommend a logical replication solution.

This guide provides information about the following options:

• Offline backup and restore

• High availability disaster recovery (HADR) failover

• Online backup and restore with log shipping

• IBM Q Replication

• IBM SQL Replication

• AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)

• Other third-party replication tools, including IBM InfoSphere Change Data Capture (CDC)

• IBM InfoSphere Optim High Performance Unload and load

• LOAD FROM CURSOR

• db2move utility