The default security authorization strategy when connecting to DB2 is that the JDBC driver send the the database password in clear text to the database server. The following is useful when the security mechanism on the server has been changed to be more restrictive and when errors such as the following are reported at connect: 

Connection authorization failure occurred. Reason: Security mechanism not supported.
ERRORCODE=-4214, SQLSTATE=28000

Or:

Caught java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException while initializing EncryptionManager.
ERRORCODE=-4223


Solution 1

The different options for the security mechanism setting are the following, where the default is CLEAR_TEXT_PASSWORD_SECURITY = 3: 

USER_ONLY_SECURITY = 4
CLEAR_TEXT_PASSWORD_SECURITY = 3
ENCRYPTED_PASSWORD_SECURITY = 7
ENCRYPTED_USER_ONLY_SECURITY = 16
ENCRYPTED_USER_AND_PASSWORD_SECURITY = 9
ENCRYPTED_USER_AND_DATA_SECURITY = 12
ENCRYPTED_USER_PASSWORD_AND_DATA_SECURITY = 13
KERBEROS_SECURITY = 11
PLUGIN_SECURITY = 15
TLS_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE_SECURITY = 18

To set the security mechanism in DbVisualizer, open the Properties tab for your DB2 connection and in the list of categories select Driver Properties. In the right grid, add a new row and specify securityMechanism in the Parameter field and in the Value field pick the number for the correct (check with your DBA what level to use) level in the table above. Click OK and connect.


Solution 2

While the first solution above has proven to work for some users while it have no effect for others. The forum topic "Help please! Errors with both DB2 for LUW and DB2 for z/OS" and the solution to change to IBM's Java VM fixed the problem. Check it for more details.


If you still have problems getting connected after trying these two solutions, check with your DBA as this is related to the DB2 setup rather than DbVisualizer.