Folks,

 I want to move the databases I have on a HP-UX system running DB2 UDB 7.2
 to and AIX box running DB2 UDB 8.1. Because they are on different versions
 and different OS I cannot backup on HP and restore on AIX.

 Here is what I am thinking:

 1) Run db2look utility on HP and get database definition.
 2) Re-create database/tables on AIX
 3) Stop application.
 4) export data on HP in ixf format.
 5) load data on AIX
 6) Update client to udb 8.1 and point it to AIX system.
 7) re-bind the packages.
 8) Start application.

 This will require significant down time for exporting and loading data,
 even if I do one database at a time. I have one database per instance.

 Is there a way to use replication to move the data between the systems?

 I could re-create database on AIX, then turn on replication from HP to AIX.
 once replication is complete:
 1) I can stop the application upgrade the client to UDB 8.1
 2) point it to the new database.
 3) Stop replication.
 4) re-bind packages.
 5) start application.

 This will only require atmost 1 hour of down time.

 Is there a better way to move the data?