Learning Informatica PowerCenter 9.x
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About this ebook
Informatica PowerCenter provides the perfect platform to utilize and leverage business data. It allows you to easily, conveniently, and efficiently work on different types of data.
This book covers functionality such as creating/importing source and target, identifying errors, and debugging your mapping through a series of comprehensive tutorials. Besides learning about types of Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCDs), you will learn to create and link workflows. As you progress, exhaustive knowledge of transformations and techniques to create folders, migrate code, and optimize system performance will be explored in detail.
The step-by-step approach and adoption of real-time scenarios will guide you through effectively accessing all core functionalities offered by Informatica PowerCenter.
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Learning Informatica PowerCenter 9.x - Rahul Malewar
Table of Contents
Learning Informatica PowerCenter 9.x
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
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Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Starting the Development Phase – Using the Designer Screen Basics
Informatica PowerCenter Designer
The Designer screen's components
Working with sources
Adding a new ODBC data source
Working with relational database tables – the Import option
Working with flat files – the Import option
Working with delimited files
Working with fixed-width files
Working with sources – the Create option
Working with targets
Working with target relational database tables – the Import option
Working with target flat files – the Import option
Working with delimited files
Working with fixed-width files
Working with the target – the Create option
Working with the target – the Copy option
A feel of the data inside the repository – a preview
Previewing the source data – flat files
Previewing the source data – a relational table
Creating a database table
The skeleton – a mapping
Summary
2. Using the Designer Screen – Advanced
Debug me please – the debugger
Reuse me please – reusable transformation
Using Transformation Developer
Making existing transformation reusable
Mapplet
Managing constraints – the target load plan
I hate hardcoding – parameters and variables
Comparing objects
Summary
3. Implementing SCD – Using Designer Screen Wizards
SCD1 – I hate history!
SCD2 (version number) – I need my ancestors!
SCD2 (flag) – flag the history
SCD2 (date range) – marking the dates
SCD3 – store something, if not everything!
Summary
4. Finishing the Development – Using the Workflow Manager Screen Basics
Using Workflow Manager
Creating a workflow
Creating a workflow manually
Creating a workflow automatically
Adding tasks in a workflow
Adding tasks to the workflow directly
Creating nonreusable tasks – Task Developer
Adding tasks to the workflow – Task Developer
Working with the session task – basic properties
Connecting the tasks – links
Assigning Integration Service to a workflow
Deleting a workflow
Trigger – starting a workflow
Running the complete workflow
Running a part of the workflow
Running a task
Working with connection objects
Creating a connection object
Configuring a relational database
Summary
5. Using the Workflow Manager Screen – Advanced
Working with tasks
Configuring a task
The session task
Tabs of the session task
Creating a session task
The command task
Creating a command task
The e-mail task
Creating an e-mail task
The assignment task
Creating an assignment task
The timer task
Creating a timer task
The control task
Creating a control task
The decision task
Creating a decision task
Event tasks – event wait and event raise
Creating an event (wait/raise) task
The link task
Creating a link task
Worklets – groups of tasks
Creating a worklet
Schedulers
File List – the indirect way
Incremental aggregation
The parameter file – parameters and variables
Defining session-level variables
Defining workflow-level variables
Defining mapping-level variables
Creating the parameter file
Mentioning the parameter file at the workflow level
Mentioning the parameter file at the session level
Summary
6. Monitoring Your Code – Using the Workflow Monitor Screen
Using Workflow Monitor
Connecting to the Workflow Manager screen
Opening previous workflow runs
Running or recovering workflows or tasks
Stopping or aborting the workflow or task
The status of workflows and tasks
Viewing the session log and workflow log
Working with the workflow log
Working with the session log
Viewing workflow run properties
Viewing session run properties
Properties of task details
Properties of source/target statistics
Common errors
Summary
7. The Lifeline of Informatica – Transformations
Creating the transformation
Mapping Designer
Mapplet Designer
Transformation Developer
The Expression transformation
Ports in transformations
Using the expression editor
The Aggregator transformation
Using Group By
Using Sorted Input
The Sorter transformation
The Filter transformation
The Router transformation
The Rank transformation
Group by ranking
Rank index
The Sequence Generator transformation
Ports of the Sequence Generator transformation
Properties of the Sequence Generator transformation
The Joiner transformation
Master and detail pipeline
Join condition
Join type
Normal join
Full join
Master outer join
Detail outer join
Union transformation
Source Qualifier transformation
Viewing the default query
Overriding the default query
Using the WHERE clause
Joining the source data
Sorting the data
Selecting distinct records
Classification of transformations
Active and passive
Connected and unconnected
The Lookup transformation
Creating a Lookup transformation
Configuring the Lookup transformation
Setting up the Lookup transformation
Lookup ports
Lookup queries
Unconnected Lookup transformations
Lookup transformation properties
The Update Strategy transformation
The Normalizer transformation
Configuring the Normalizer transformation – ports
The Stored Procedure transformation
Importing Stored Procedure transformations
Creating Stored Procedure transformations
Using Stored Procedure transformations in the mapping
Connected Stored Procedure transformations
Unconnected Stored Procedure transformations
Transaction Control transformations
Types of lookup cache
Building the cache – sequential or concurrent
Sequential cache
Concurrent cache
Persistent cache – the permanent one
Sharing cache – named or unnamed
Sharing unnamed cache
Sharing named cache
Modifying cache – static or dynamic
Static cache
Dynamic cache
Tracing levels
Summary
8. The Deployment Phase – Using Repository Manager
Using Repository Manager
Configuring the client tools
Take me to next stage – deployment or migration
Export/Import
Migrating from the designer
Migrating from Repository Manager
The Copy/Paste feature
The drag-and-drop feature
Summary
9. Optimization – Performance Tuning
Bottlenecks
Finding the target bottleneck
Using thread statistics
Configuring the sample target load
Eliminating the target bottleneck
Minimizing the target table deadlocks
Drop indexes and constraints
Increasing the checkpoint interval
Using an external loader
Increasing the network packet size
Using the bulk load
Finding the source bottleneck
Using thread statistics
Test mapping
Using a Filter transformation
Checking the database query
Eliminating the source bottleneck
Increasing the network packet size
Optimizing the database query
Finding the mapping bottleneck
Using thread statistics
Using a Filter transformation
Eliminating the mapping bottleneck
Using a single pass mapping
Avoiding data type conversions
Unchecking unnecessary ports
Processing the numeric data
Using operators instead of functions
Using decode in place of multiple IIF functions
The tracing level
Using variable ports
Optimizing Filter transformations
Optimizing the Aggregator transformation
Optimizing the Joiner transformation
Optimizing Lookup transformations
Eliminating the session bottleneck
Optimizing the commit interval
The buffer memory
Performance data
Eliminating the system bottleneck
Working on partitioning
Partitioning properties
Partition points
The number of partitions
Partition types
Pushdown optimization
Summary
A. Installing Informatica and Using Informatica Administration Console
The Informatica architecture
Domain
Node
Informatica services
The service manager
Repository
Repository services
Integration Services
Informatica installation – the prerequisites
Downloading the Informatica PowerCenter software
Extracting the package – opening the installable
Starting the installation
Installing the server
Configuring the domain and node
Client installation – the graphical interface tools
The administration console – configuration
Repository creation – the first centralized database for Informatica
Creating the Integration Service – the path for data
Informatica user and authentications
Repository Manager – the client configuration
Index
Learning Informatica PowerCenter 9.x
Learning Informatica PowerCenter 9.x
Copyright © 2014 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: December 2014
Production reference: 1231214
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78217-648-0
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Credits
Author
Rahul Malewar
Reviewers
Vikas Agrawal
Ralf Becher
Umamaheswaran T.G
Commissioning Editor
Vinay Argekar
Acquisition Editor
Vinay Argekar
Content Development Editor
Rohit Kumar Singh
Technical Editors
Shiny Poojary
Sebastian Rodrigues
Copy Editors
Neha Karnani
Stuti Srivastava
Project Coordinator
Mary Alex
Proofreaders
Simran Bhogal
Maria Gould
Ameesha Green
Paul Hindle
Indexers
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Tejal Soni
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Rahul Malewar has been working with various data warehousing tools for the past 8 years, mainly with Informatica PowerCenter. He has worked on various versions of Informatica PowerCenter, starting from Version 8.1 to the latest 9.x. He has worked for various MNCs in India, such as UST Global, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Principal Financial Group in Pune. He has worked on the implementation of a data warehouse involving Informatica for Fortune 500 MNCs, such as Wellpoint and Principal. He has experience of working on multiple real-time projects in a couple of MNCs and utilized these skills to write this book. He has been running his own training center named Learnwell Technocraft (www.dw-learnwell.com) since 2010, where they provide training on more than 25 data warehousing technologies over classroom, corporate, and online sessions. He has also written a blog on data warehousing concepts. At the time of writing, he has provided training to more than 1,200 candidates, ranging from freshers to professionals with 20 years of experience.
He is also the director of a software firm named Gut Lernen Technocraft Pvt. Ltd.; the company works on data warehousing and mobile-related projects. He provides free assistance on Informatica installation-related issues and other technical issues for which he can be contacted at <info@dw-learnwell.com>.
Acknowledgments
Without a second thought, I would like to dedicate this book to my mother for taking all the pain of my childhood and making me capable enough to write a book, which is something wonderful to happen in anybody's life. I would also like to thank my wife, Swati, for providing suggestions while writing the book. A large share of this book goes out to all my students who took Informatica training from me, which gave me the ability and motivation to write a book to help all those who I cannot reach out to personally. This also calls for a thank you note to all the reviewers of the book for pointing out the mistakes that I made while writing and providing valuable suggestions—as we say, no one is perfect.
Also, a special thanks to Packt Publishing for giving me the opportunity to write this book and for showing confidence in my writing. A big thanks to the readers of the book. I hope you will like it and make a bright career in Informatica.
I wish you all the luck for future. Keep smiling, make others smile, and make our mother earth a better place to live.
About the Reviewers
Vikas Agrawal is a business intelligence evangelist with over 15 years of experience working in multiple industries with clients that include Fortune 500 companies. He has deep expertise and knowledge in the areas of Enterprise and Cloud BI, Big Data and Hadoop architecture and technology, OBIEE, Informatica, Oracle Data Integrator, Enterprise Data Warehousing, and master data management.
He currently manages the BI practice for a prime Oracle partner and has led implementations that have won the industry award for deployment of BI applications. He is also responsible for the development of product offerings and for building BI and Big Data applications.
In his spare time, he enjoys learning about new technologies and the ever-changing social media and marketing use cases, writing new software that helps customers leverage the most out of their investments, and traveling and spending time with his family.
I would like to thank Packt Publishing and the author for giving me the opportunity to review their fantastic book.
Ralf Becher has worked as an IT system architect and data management consultant for more than 15 years in the areas of banking, insurance, logistics, automotive, and retail. He founded TIQ Solutions in 2004 with partners.
The Leipzig company specializes in modern, quality-assured data management. Since 2004, it has been helping its customers process, evaluate, and maintain the quality of company data, helping them introduce, implement, and improve complex solutions in the fields of data architecture, data integration, data migration, master data management, metadata management, data warehousing, and business intelligence.
Ralf started working with PowerCenter in 2002 and has realized many projects with it in the data warehouse realm. He runs his data integration blog at http://tiqview.tumblr.com/.
Umamaheswaran T.G has more than 15 years of experience in information technology, working as a development lead at C1X, which is a fast growing start-up in the Bay area. Before joining C1X, he worked as a senior Java consultant with Yahoo, Wells Fargo USA, Citibank Japan, Bank of America, Fidelity Information Systems, and Kaiser Permanente. He has also reviewed Drools Developer's Cookbook, Packt Publishing.
I want to thank my wife, Chitra, and my two kids, Sivasweatha and Sivayogeith, for their cooperation and support.
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Preface
There has to be a motive behind everything, and there is one behind this book too: to present a technology to the readers in its simplest form. The simple thought behind writing this book is to put all the essential ingredients of Informatica, starting from basic things such as downloading, extraction, and installation to working on client tools and high-level aspects, such as scheduling, migration, and so on, in simple words. There are multiple blogs available across the Internet that talk about the Informatica tool but none present end-to-end answers. We have tried to put up all the steps and processes in a systematic manner to help you start learning easily. In this book, you will get a step-by-step procedure for every aspect of the Informatica PowerCenter tool.
Informatica Corporation (Informatica), which is a multi-million dollar company incorporated in February, 1993, is an independent provider of enterprise data integration and data quality software and services. The company enables a variety of complex enterprise data integration products, which include PowerCenter, PowerExchange, enterprise data integration, data quality, master data management, business-to-business (B2B) data exchange, application information life cycle management, complex event processing, ultra messaging, and cloud data integration.
In this book, we are going to learn about the PowerCenter tool from Informatica. PowerCenter is Informatica's most widely-used tool across the globe for various data integration processes. The Informatica PowerCenter tool helps with the integration of data from almost any business system in almost any format. This flexibility of PowerCenter to handle almost any data makes it the most widely used tool in the data integration world.
While writing this book, we have kept in mind the importance of live, practical exposure of the graphical interface of the tool to the audience and so you will notice a lot of screenshots illustrating the steps to help you understand and follow the process. We have arranged the chapters in such a way that we cover all the aspects of the Informatica PowerCenter tool, and we have also made sure they flow properly in order to achieve functionality.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Starting the Development Phase – Using the Designer Screen Basics, talks about the basics of the Informatica PowerCenter Designer client tool. You will learn how to create/import files and tables as the source and target. You will also learn about the basic components of the client screen, such as the toolbar, navigator, workspace, output panel, and status bar. By the end of this chapter, you will have a clear idea of the look and feel of the PowerCenter tool.
Chapter 2, Using the Designer Screen – Advanced, talks about the advanced topics of the Designer screen. It is an extension of Chapter 1, Starting the Development Phase – Using the Designer Screen Basics. In this chapter, we will discuss debuggers, parameters and variables, target loan plan, reusable transformations, and mapplets.
Chapter 3, Implementing SCD – Using Designer Screen Wizards, covers a single but very important aspect of data warehousing, SCD. We will see the implementation of SCD1, SCD2, and SCD3 using wizards. You should be clear with data warehousing concepts to understand this implementation.
Chapter 4, Finishing the Development – Using the Workflow Manager Screen Basics, describes the basics of the Workflow Manager screen. We will get to learn the different options present on the Workflow Manager screen. We will learn how to create session tasks and workflows. We will also see various connections, such as relations, FTP, and so on, that can be created on the Workflow Manager screen.
Chapter 5, Using the Workflow Manager Screen – Advanced, teaches you the advanced concepts of the Workflow Manager screen. This chapter describes the various tasks present on the Workflow Manager screen. We will also see how to create reusable tasks and mapplets. We will learn some very important concepts, such as scheduling, partitioning and parameter files, file list, and incremental aggregation and workflow recovery options.
Chapter 6, Monitoring Your Code – Using the Workflow Monitor Screen, describes the Workflow Manager screen of PowerCenter. This screen allows you to monitor the process we execute in Workflow Manager. We will see different logfiles, statuses, and statistics on the Monitor screen.
Chapter 7, The Lifeline of Informatica – Transformations, is meant for the most important aspect of the Informatica PowerCenter tool, transformations. We will talk about the various types of transformations in this chapter. We will implement mapping using each transformation so that you get to understand each and every transformation in detail. We will end this chapter with the classifications of transformations.
Chapter 8, The Deployment Phase – Using Repository Manager, teaches you about the fourth client screen, Repository Manager. Repository Manager is basically used for migration (deployment) purposes. We will see the various options to migrate the code from one environment to other. We will also see how to create folders on the client screen.
Chapter 9, Optimization – Performance Tuning, has the contents for the optimization of the various components of the Informatica PowerCenter tool, such as sources, targets, mappings, sessions, and systems. Performance tuning at a high level involves two stages: finding issues called bottlenecks and resolving them.
Appendix, Installing Informatica and Using Informatica Administration Console, describes the detailed steps for the process of installation, starting from downloading the software, extracting the software, and installing the software, to configuring the software. We will also look at the administrator console of the PowerCenter tool and learn about the different services.
What you need for this book
Before you make your mind up about learning Informatica, it is always recommended that you have a basic understanding of SQL and Unix. Though these are not mandatory and you can easily use 90 percent of the Informatica PowerCenter tool without knowledge of these, the confidence to work in real-time SQL and Unix projects is a must-have in your kitty. People who know SQL will easily understand that ETL tools are nothing but a graphical representation of SQL. Unix is utilized in Informatica PowerCenter with the scripting aspect, which makes your life easy in some scenarios.
Who this book is for
Anybody who wishes to make a career in data warehousing or Informatica must go for this book. If you are a college graduate, an IT professional working in other technologies, or a university professor, this