Zend DBi, MySQL, and IBMDB2i introduction

MySQL is a popular open source data base used widely on the internet.  MySQL puts the ‘M” in LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).  Taken together, these open source software products make it possible to build a complete web site, and to this day a large plurality of web sites are served on these technologies.

Zend Server users on IBM i typically use IBM i for the operating system, Apache as implemented by IBM HTTP Server for the web server, DB2 for the data base, and PHP as distributed in Zend Server as the programming language.  So our stack is more like IADP, which is not so much fun to say as LAMP stack.

MySQL can be installed on an IBM i.  A fair question to ask might be, “Given the general all around greatness that is DB2 on the IBM i, why on earth would anybody want to install an open source data base?”  That’s a really good question.  I’m glad you asked.

Because LAMP is so popular on the internet, and through the generosity of the open source community, there are a lot of open source applications available that run on LAMP, many of them free to use.  With Zend Server installed on your IBM i, you already have the ability to run many of these applications, but they do require MySQL.  Fortunately, Zend Server for IBM i includes MySQL in the installation package, branded as Zend DBi.  It is an optional installation, because a lot of IBM i customers may never desire to run LAMP applications on their IBM i.  But is is nice to have it available when it is needed.

One really interesting feature of MySQL is that it can use different storage engines.  A Storage Engine “is the underlying software component that a database management system (DBMS) uses to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) data from a database.”  Some familiar with DB2 may know there are two engines for IBM i, SQE and CQE.  One of the engines available for MySQL is IBMDB2i.  This engine uses DB2 on the IBM i to store data.  This provides the possibility of downloading and installing a free LAMP application, and being able to access the data using DB2 SQL, or even viewing the data as physical and logical files.

Are you ready to get started?

Install MySQL using the Zend DBi installer with Zend Server

References:

Zend Dbi product page

MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual

MySQL Storage Engines Reference

MySQL IBMDB2I Reference

Wikipedia Database Engine reference

IBM i reference: SQE and CQE engines

Redbook: Using IBM DB2 for i as a Storage Engine of MySQL

Redbook: Discovering MySQL on IBM i5/OS

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