When using DB2 you might want to use the Control Center GUI to query or manage a database that resides on a remote machine, took me a little time to work out and I promised others I would share this.  I am sure there is more then one way to accomplish this, your mileage may vary.

Before you begin you need to collect the following information

1. Fully Qualified Hostname where the DB2 database resides
2. Services file entry for the database – this will include the instance name and port number (default is 50000, but could be different depending on your DB2 Configuration
3. The Database Name to connect to
4. The operating system of the DB2 Install
5. Username & Password to connect to the Database

You can get this information from your friendly Database administrator or find it yourself.  If you have access to the physical machine where DB2 is installed you can get the instance name and port number from the services file on that machine.

Before you begin edit the Services file on the machine with the DB2 Client, simply cut and paste the entry from the DB2 host machine for example this would represent two unique DB2 instances

db2_LC3    50000/tcp
DB2_LC25  60000/tcp

From the DB2 Control center (on the client machine) launch the Configuration Assistant

From the ‘Selected’ dropdown choose Add a Database Using Wizard

Select Manually configure a connections to a database and click Next

Select TCP/IP as the communications protocol

Enter the FQHN of the DB2 server and the Service name (that you added to the services file above) use the “Retrieve” button to fill in the port number (from the services file)

Fill in the database name (in this example I am connecting to an IBM Connections Profiles DB named PEOPLEDB.  Assign an Alias – Aliases must be unique, for example I might connect to a production and test PEOPLEDB, the aliases must be unique (aliases are also limited to 8 characters the first of which must be alpha).  Optionally you can add a descriptive comment.

Simply accept the defaults on this screen

Use the dropdown to fill in your operating system, and fill in the Instance Name, the instance name is the same value you put in the System file

Fill in the system name using the same value as instance name above, the other fields should already be filled in

Keep the default of Use authentication value in server’s DMB Configuration (unless you are using a different authentication method).  Click Finish when you are done

Click on Test Connection to verify your work

Enter your database username and password (username is most likely LCUSER for an IBM Connections database) and click Test Connections

If you see this you have completed the setup successfully, if not go back and double check your work

Once you have successfully created connections to DB2 databases you can back them up, or share them with others.  See Exporting a configuration profile using the Configuration Assistant and Configuring database connections using a client profile with the Configuration Assistant for details on importing and exporting.