Recently, I experienced what I can only describe as a brain mashup.  Four totally unrelated thoughts came together in an unusual way after I started learning how easy it is to change a column name in DB2 LUW 9.7.

Thought #1:  Someone once told me that a lazy person would spend a lot of time finding easier ways to do things.

Thought #2:  I spend a lot of time in New Orleans.  The Big Easy nickname fits the culture of the city perfectly.  Life there is Big and Easy (unless there is a hurricane or an oil spill).

Thought #3:  Sad Clown paintings make me…well…sad.

Thought #4:  Changing a column name is easy.

The mashup outcome?  You can read about it here: http://bit.ly/easychange

Sometimes I start one small article and it leads me to the realization that the topic can’t be covered effectively without much more effort. The whole topic of “knowing” about database security steps could fill several books, but I have to start somewhere.  This time I started with DB2 LUW auditing.

• How do you know about DB2 Auditing?
• Where can you find more information?
• What are some of the ways to investigate DB2 auditing setup?

If you’ve setup and then turned off DB2 LUW auditing in the past, or if you just decided DB2 auditing wasn’t a valid approach for your databases, I would encourage you to reconsider now. Auditing is a foundational security approach for every layer of the architecture and, as of DB2 9.5, DB2 auditing is more robust, easier to manage and a good way to “know” about database activities.

If you’d like to read the article I wrote on “knowing” about DB2 LUW auditing, you can find it here:

http://bit.ly/Audit_knowing