Re: Why use MySQL on the i when you have DB2?

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

> I'm curious about the above.   Anyone know why other than to be a "me
> too" environment?

It enables tons of open source PHP stuff to run on the i.  (That stuff 
runs now, but as it uses MySQL for a database, it doesn't use DB2 files 
so it's hard to integrate with native software.)

Say you wanted to use SugarCRM -- a very popular open source CRM package 
-- on the i.  Right now you can run it on a MySQL database -- and that 
works well.

But what happens when you want to write a custom RPG program that
interfaces with the CRM data?  Not easy, because the database isn't a 
native DB2 database.

Err... maybe in your case, RPG is a bad example.   But... so say an SQL 
query...   A REXX SQL query instead of an RPG program...    the fact is, 
in order to use native i5/OS tools, it has to be in an DB2 database. 
Using a DB2 storage engine enables that.


Another benefit (that, perhaps, only I care about) is the fact that 
MySQL clients on other platforms will now have access to DB2 data.  For 
example, I have PHP scripts running on FreeBSD.   I can't use IBM's DB2 
driver from PHP, because IBM doesn't make DB2 for FreeBSD.   But a MySQL 
client is no problem... and then my PHP scripts on FreeBSD can access my 
critical business data that resides on i.