This document provides a description of the IBM® IMS™ catalog and the way it can be used to expand and consolidate the information about IMS databases and their metadata.

The IMS catalog is an optional system database, available with IMS 12, that stores metadata about your databases and applications. Its comprehensive view of IMS database metadata, fully managed by IMS, allows IMS to participate in solutions that require the exchange of metadata. A type of solution that requires such an exchange is business impact analysis.

The IMS Universal drivers are enhanced to take advantage of the IMS catalog.

In this paper, the following topics are described:

• Overview and objectives of the catalog
• Physical structure of the catalog database
• IMS catalog database installation and management
• Application use of the catalog
• The role of the IMS Enterprise Suite Explorer for Development
• Using IMS Explorer to capture IMS metadata
• Enhancements to the IMS Universal drivers
• Recommended maintenance

This IBM Redpaper™ publication describes the IMS catalog, a trusted online source for both IBM IMS database and application metadata information, and its use by IMS Open Database and IMS Explorer. This paper targets application developers who can benefit from these simplification and integration functions when they are facing any large-scale deployment of the IMS Open Database solution.