Migration considerations

In translating character data to the target CCSID, there are two major differences between Replication Agent version 12.0 and earlier versions:

The target CCSID for Replication Agent versions earlier than 12.0 is CP819. Replication Agent version 12.0 supports all Replication Server character sets as target character sets, including double-byte character sets.

For the source CCSID value, Replication Agent versions earlier than 12.0 use the value of the Codepage configuration parameter. Replication Agent version 12.0 and later uses the CCSID value of the DB2 database in which a table was created as the source CCSID, unless this value is zero. (To obtain the CCSID value of the DB2 database in which a table was created, see your DB2 database administrator). If the source CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent version 12.0 and later obtains the source CCSID from the Replication Agent Codepage configuration parameter.

If the value of the source CCSID is a non-zero value for Replication Agent version 12.0 and you want to override this value, you must reset the CCSID value in the Codepage configuration parameter value using the force option, as shown in the following example:

Codepage=CP037,force

WARNING! If you had an earlier version of Replication Agent with the Codepage configuration parameter set to a value different from the DB2 database value, you may see differences in character translations with the new version.

Table 3-1 illustrates how Replication Agent obtains the source CCSID with respect to the DB2 CCSID value for the DB2 database in which the primary table was created (referred to here as the DB2 CCSID value) and the value of the Replication Agent Codepage parameter. The value of the Codepage parameter is represented as cpNNN.

**Table 3-1: CCSID values used by Replication Agent**
Codepage parameter	DB2 version 5, version 6, and version 7
`Codepage=`cpNNN	If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value. If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses DB2 CCSID value for source CCSID value.
`Codepage=`cpNNN`,force, utf8`	If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value. If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value. If the replication definition for the column in the primary database specifies a Unicode datatype (unichar or univarchar) then the utf8 option for the Codepage configuration parameter enables replication from DB2 using a Unicode character set.
Codepage parameter commented out of the configuration file or not present in the configuration file	If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses default source CCSID value of cp500. If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses DB2 CCSID value for source CCSID value .

Table 3-1: CCSID values used by Replication Agent

Codepage parameter

DB2 version 5, version 6, and version 7

Codepage=cpNNN

If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value.
If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses DB2 CCSID value for source CCSID value.

Codepage=cpNNN,force, utf8

If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value.
If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses cpNNN as source CCSID value.
If the replication definition for the column in the primary database specifies a Unicode datatype (unichar or univarchar) then the utf8 option for the Codepage configuration parameter enables replication from DB2 using a Unicode character set.

Codepage parameter commented out of the configuration file or not present in the configuration file

If DB2 CCSID value is zero, Replication Agent uses default source CCSID value of cp500.
If DB2 CCSID value is greater than zero, Replication Agent uses DB2 CCSID value for source CCSID value

With DB2 versions 5, 6, and 7, the value Replication Agent uses for the source CCSID is obtained from the CCSID of the DB2 database for the table being replicated. In most cases, this CCSID value will be greater than zero.