Using Liquibase with DB2 on z/OS

Note: This database is supported at or below the Contributed level. Functionality may be limited. Databases at the Contributed level are not supported by the Liquibase support team. Best-effort support is provided through our community forums.

For more information about the verification levels, see Database Verification and Support.

If you have an update to these instructions, submit feedback so we can improve the page.

DB2 on z/OS is a relational database management system that runs on the mainframe. For more information, see the DB2 for z/OS documentation page.

Reported versions

  • 11.5.7+

Prerequisites

  1. Introduction to Liquibase – Dive into Liquibase concepts.
  2. Install Liquibase – Download Liquibase on your machine.
  3. Get Started with Liquibase – Learn how to use Liquibase with an example database.
  4. Design Your Liquibase Project – Create a new Liquibase project folder and organize your changelogs
  5. How to Apply Your Liquibase Pro License Key – If you use Liquibase Pro, activate your license.

Install drivers

To use Liquibase and DB2 on z/OS, you need the DB2JCC driver (Maven download) and the license JAR file, which is required when connecting to a mainframe DB2 database. You must purchase the DB2 Connect product. The license file is contained within the activation package for it. For more information regarding the license file, see Location of the db2jcc_license_cisuz.jar file. Place the license JAR file in the liquibase/lib directory.

The latest version of Liquibase has a pre-installed driver for this database in the liquibase/internal/lib directory, so you don't need to install it yourself.

If you use Maven, you must include the driver JAR as a dependency in your pom.xml file.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.ibm.db2</groupId>
    <artifactId>jcc</artifactId>
    <version>11.5.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.liquibase.ext</groupId>
    <artifactId>liquibase-db2i</artifactId>
    <version>4.20.0</version>
</dependency>

Test your connection

  1. Ensure your DB2 on z/OS database is configured. You can check the status by running the DISPLAY DATABASE command, which displays status information about DB2 databases.
  2. Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file (defaults file), along with other properties you want to set a default value for. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:
  3. url: jdbc:db2://<servername>:<port>/<dbname>

    Note: The URL for DB2 on z/OS may have different formats, such as jdbc:db2j:net:, jdbc:ibmdb:, and jdbc:ids:, depending on your connection type. For more information, see URL format for IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC and SQLJ type 4 connectivity.

    Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>

  1. Create a text file called changelog (.xml, .sql, .json, or .yaml) in your project directory and add a changeset.
  2. If you already created a changelog using the init project command, you can use that instead of creating a new file. When adding onto an existing changelog, be sure to only add the changeset and to not duplicate the changelog header.

    XML example
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <databaseChangeLog
        xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
        xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
            http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
            http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
            http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
    
        <changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
            <createTable tableName="test_table">
                <column name="test_id" type="int">
                    <constraints primaryKey="true"/>
                </column>
                <column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
            </createTable>
        </changeSet>
    
    </databaseChangeLog>
    SQL example
    -- liquibase formatted sql
    
    -- changeset liquibase:1
    CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR(255), PRIMARY KEY (test_id))

    Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql instead of --liquibase formatted sql and -- changeset myname:create-table instead of --changeset myname:create-table.

    YAML example
    databaseChangeLog:
       - changeSet:
           id: 1
           author: Liquibase
           changes:
           - createTable:
               tableName: test_table
               columns:
               - column:
                   name: test_column
                   type: INT
                   constraints:
                       primaryKey:  true
                       nullable:  false
    JSON example
    {
      "databaseChangeLog": [
        {
          "changeSet": {
            "id": "1",
            "author": "Liquibase",
            "changes": [
              {
                "createTable": {
                  "tableName": "test_table",
                  "columns": [
                    {
                      "column": {
                        "name": "test_column",
                        "type": "INT",
                        "constraints": {
                          "primaryKey": true,
                          "nullable": false
                        }
                      }
                    }
                  ]
                }
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  3. Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:
  4. liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    Note: You can specify arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

    If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this:

    4 changesets have not been applied to <your_jdbc_url>
    Liquibase command 'status' was executed successfully.
  5. Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
  6. liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
    liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

    If your update is successful, Liquibase runs each changeset and displays a summary message ending with:

    Liquibase: Update has been successful.
    Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.
  7. From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the test_table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

Now you're ready to start making deployments with Liquibase!

Related links


Last update: June 29, 2023
Created: April 26, 2023