Re: Which of the SYSIBM tables/views show the row count for

Lukas Beeler wrote:

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 4:08 AM, Tom Liotta <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I described how I used SQL Server to create a trivial database and
then opened it in NotePad to make changes through "native access". I
could've written a C program, but NotePad was just too easy.

You mean you opened the .mdf file associated with the database? Well,
of course you can do that as an administrator. A RDBMS user wouldn't
have access to the database server in the way you specified.

Just the same way an i5/OS RDBMS user wouldn't have access to STRSST /
Display Alter Dump, where you can modify system storage to your hearts
content, without touching the RDBMS.

I can't quite agree with this. NotePad uses Windows native I/O functions to do its reads/writes. I suspect that STRSST D/A/P is well outside of DB2 and even OS/400 or i5/OS. I'd guess that SST D/A/P is a function of the underlying SLIC or LIC.

No simple "administrator" should have access to SST. It is a *SERVICE function. How many sites are likely to have a functional STRSST menu option available to users? Not even operators should have STRSST (though I'm sure many do). Certainly if a DBA position exists, there is no reason for *SERVICE for that job position.

However, every Windows user has NotePad (or edlin or...). The question of permissions applies (more or less) equally between the platforms, but there's a clear disconnect when it's a question of "native I/O".

Oddly enough, SQL Server did _not_ prevent me from making any
changes. You can probably guess the result. Did I misconfigure SQL
Server or miss one of its important features?

No, it just looks like you have never administrated another database
server. Makes for a very narrow POV to argue.

When you include STRSST, you've stepped outside of the RDBMS arena and "native I/O". Try doing in RPG to a PF/TABLE what can be done with NotePad. (How often should users be allowed to create RPG programs?) It's possibly even outside of the operating system. It is unrelated to database administration, IMO.

If I use "native I/O" on one platform, the DBMS is in control. But on the other, AFAICT, it is not. Simple. I'm looking for a description of how that's not true.

Tom Liotta