In an email message dated 30 May, 2024, a customer expresses confusion over the following note in the Db2 connector documentation, which specifies that you must have a nominal entitlement from IBM to IIDR to use the connector, impliying that there is a technical dependency on the ASN libraries:

The connector requires the use of the abstract syntax notation (ASN) libraries, which are available as a standard part of Db2 for Linux. To use the ASN libraries, you must have a license for IBM InfoSphere Data Replication (IIDR). You do not have to install IIDR to use the ASN libraries.

The customer goes on to state that contrary to the quoted admonition, the Java code for the connector has no dependency on on the ASN libraries. Rather, the functional dependency lies in being able to place Db2 into a mode that makes the control and change tables available to the connector. The actual requirement is to have the IBM InfoSphere Change Data Capture software components which provide:

• Unidirectional replication without data transformations between a single Db2 source and no more than two Db2 servers of the same version for HADR.
• Support for shadow table functionality within a single Db2 instance to replicate from row-organized tables into column-organized tables.

Enabling IBM SQL replication on the source database might require additional licensing from IBM, but it appears that this entitlement already exists for customers who use a supported Db2 version.

Update the documentation to state that the connector is dependent on IBM SQL Replication being enabled on the source database, which might require additional licensing from IBM.