I have to giggle whenever I read the title of this entry. No, it’s not because I think I’m the King of Comedy (though, I do look pretty funny). The title came from a quote spoken by a former boss I had in a previous life. We were in a meeting with one of those co-workers who notoriously covers all the details of a topic, but rarely gets to the point. After about an hour of soaking in this increasingly irrelevant series of details, my boss finally said “just bottom line it for me <name removed for obvious reasons>.” The phrase became a favorite joke around the cafeteria table.  

As I expand my understanding of DB2 LUW, I occasionally get stuck in the details. As users and creators of technology, it’s very easy to get so caught up in the details of what we’re doing that we lose sight of the proverbial “big picture.” As I was poking around in Toad for DB2, I noticed a screen I had previously ignored:

What you see, in the above screenshot, is the Database screen from the Database Explorer (requires the Database Administration configuration of Toad for DB2 LUW). I have spent a lot of time in the Database Explorer. How is it that I’ve overlooked this screen so frequently? Well, it’s because I’ve spent most of the time exploring other objects like schemas, tables, buffer pools; in other words, too much time mired in the details. What I enjoy about this screen is that I can use it to help me get back to the “big picture.” Each tab presents high-level information about the database you’ve selected. In the above screenshot, you can see the connection information about your current connection.

 

**The Applications Tab

 

The Applications tab shows me summary information about the currently connected applications in my database. When I select an application, the bottom portion of the screen will show more detailed information, such as Locks and current transactions the application is processing. In fact, you can right-mouse click on an application and Force it!

 

**The Space Usage tab

 

Now I can graphically view space allocation as well as use my right-mouse click to perform operations on the various tablespaces.

 

**The Monitor tab

 

Now I can view lock activity, buffer pool hit rates, connections, and SQL activity over time.

You can probably guess what the Utilities, Grants, and Script tabs are showing you. Don’t forget, you can right-mouse click on the database name, using the left-hand side of the Database Explorer, to perform additional operations on the database:

I feel really silly for having glossed over this jewel for so long.