"Failed to retrieve the Schema" error configuring IBM DB2 Connector on FIM 2010 R2

We had an issue recently in configuring a IBM DB2 Universal Database Connector which was connecting to a DB Linux server instance.

We followed all the best practices in install the Synchronization Engine Server:

• We locked down Sync Engine Service account.
• We installed the IBM DB2 OLEDB v9.7 FP1 client software.
• We setup a connection to the DB2 server using the OLEDB tools.

While trying to configure the Connector we where continually getting "Failed to retrieve the Schema" and "Cannot Connect to the Database" errors even though we were able to connect to the server using the connectivity tools provided with the OLEDB client. I then monitored the traffic between the two servers using netmon and noticed that the MA was not generating a call to the DB2 Server, but the connectivity tests were.

It seemed that due to the Sync Engine service account lock down, it did not have permissions to access the DB2 Connectivity driver location. Adding the service account to the DB2ADMINS group on the FIM Server. Voila, connectivity was flowing...