PowerCenter Version 8.1.

1
New Features and Enhancements
This section describes new features and enhancements in PowerCenter 8.1.1:
♦ Code Pages, 1
♦ Command Line Programs, 1
♦ Data Analyzer (PowerAnalyzer), 2
♦ Data Profiling, 2
♦ Data Stencil (Visio Client for PowerCenter), 3
♦ Domains, 3
♦ Integration Service, 4
♦ Metadata Manager (SuperGlue), 6
♦ Repository and Repository Service, 7
♦ Security, 7
♦ Transformations and Caches, 7
♦ Unstructured Data, 8
♦ Web Services Provider, 8
♦ Workflow Monitor, 8
♦ XML, 8
♦ PowerCenter Connects, 9
♦ PowerExchange Client for PowerCenter, 10
You can find information about newly supported platforms and databases on
my.informatica.com.

Code Pages
PowerCenter 8.1.1 supports the following code pages:
♦ IBM833
♦ IBM 834
♦ IBM850
♦ IBM933

Command Line Programs

This section describes enhancements to the command line programs.

PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements 1

 infacmd Changes
The infacmd command line programs contain new commands in the following groups:
♦ Alert. Added commands for the following actions: subscribe to, remove from, list or
update SMTP options, and list alert users.
♦ Domain. Added commands related to service levels and domain options.
♦ Folder. Added commands for the following actions: create, get info about, list, move, move
objects between, remove, and update.
♦ Node. Added commands for the following actions: get node name, list node options, and
switch to gateway or worker node.
♦ Service. Added commands for the following actions: list nodes assigned to service, list
services, and create or update SAP BW Service.
♦ User. Added commands for the following actions: add, create, remove users, or reset
password.

infasetup Changes
The infasetup command line program contains a DeleteDomain command.

pmrep Changes
The pmrep command line program contains new commands to manage connections and
versions. New commands are GetConnectionDetails, ListConnections, PurgeVersion, and
DeleteObject. Changed commands include ObjectExport, ObjectImport,
UpdateSeqGenValues, ListAllUsers, and TruncateLog.

Data Analyzer (PowerAnalyzer)

♦ Data Analyzer accessibility. You can use the keyboard to access all areas of Data Analyzer.
♦ Global cache enhancements. Data Analyzer creates a global cache in memory for
repository objects accessed by Data Analyzer users. The global cache uses a locking scheme
to prevent deadlocks from occurring. In a clustered environment, Data Analyzer replicates
the global cache across all nodes in the cluster when you modify an object on one node.
You can manage the size of the global cache by configuring the eviction policy.
♦ Composite reports. You can use the Data Analyzer SDK to access composite reports from
your client application.
♦ Cluster on JBoss Application Server. You can set up a Data Analyzer cluster on JBoss
Application Server.

Data Profiling
♦ Partitioning. You can create multiple partitions for profile sessions containing source-level
and column-level functions.

2 PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements

 ♦ Data Profiling Data Analyzer reports. You can view the Join Complexity Evaluation and
Intersource Structure Analysis Data Profiling reports through Data Analyzer. You can use
the new Data Analyzer Intersource Function Statistics composite report and Intersource
Function Metadata report to view profile statistics for intersource functions.

Data Stencil (Visio Client for PowerCenter)

♦ Name change. Visio Client for PowerCenter is renamed Data Stencil.
♦ Publish template. After you create a drawing in Visio (.vsd) you can publish it. When you
publish a template, you generate a parameter file (param.xml) and a mapping template file
(.xml). You can create a mapping from the published template.
♦ Import mapping template. After you publish a template, you can import and define
parameters for Data Stencil mapping templates. You can create a mapping from the
mapping template using the command line utility mapgen or the Mapping Template
Import Wizard.

Domains
This section describes changes to domains.

Alerts
♦ Subscribe to alerts. You can subscribe to alerts to receive email notification about node
events such as node failure or a master gateway election. When you subscribe to alerts, you
receive notifications for all domains and services you have permission on.

Users
♦ Set permissions by user. You can view and edit permissions and privileges for each user on
the Administration tab. You can assign multiple permissions to a user when you add a user
account or edit the permissions.
♦ Status added to each log event. The User Activity Monitoring report shows the status of
each log event. The report indicates whether each log event succeeded or failed.

High Availability
♦ Resilience for sources and Lookup transformations. The Integration Service is resilient to
temporary network failures or relational database unavailability when the Integration
Service retrieves data from a database for sources and Lookup transformations. If the
Integration Service loses the connection after making the initial connection, it attempts to
reconnect for the amount of time configured for the retry period in the connection object.
♦ Operating mode. You can run the Integration Service in safe mode to limit access to the
Integration Service during deployment or maintenance. You can enable the Integration
Service in safe mode and you can configure the Integration Service to run in safe mode on
failover.

PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements 3

 Integration Service
This section describes the changes to the Integration Service.

Load Balancer
You can configure the way the Load Balancer dispatches tasks by defining the following
properties:
♦ Resource provision thresholds. You can configure resource provision thresholds for each
node in a grid to cause the Load Balancer to consider or eliminate a node for the dispatch
of a task. You can define the Maximum CPU Run Queue Length and Maximum
Memory % thresholds in addition to Maximum Processes.
♦ Dispatch mode. You can configure the way the Load Balancer dispatches tasks by setting
the dispatch mode for the domain. You can choose round-robin, metric-based, or adaptive
dispatch mode.
♦ Service levels. The Load Balancer uses service levels to determine the order in which to
dispatch tasks from the dispatch queue. You create service levels in the Administration
Console. When you configure a workflow, you assign a service level to the workflow.

Operating Mode
♦ Normal and safe operating mode. You can run the Integration Service in normal or safe
operating mode. Run the Integration Service in safe operating mode to limit access to the
Integration Service during migration and maintenance activities. You configure the
operating mode in the Administration Console.

Parameters and Variables

♦ New sections in parameter files. You can define service variables, service process variables,
workflow variables, session parameters, mapping parameters, and mapping variables in the
following sections in a parameter file:

Section Scope

[Global] Parameters and variables defined in this section apply to all Integration
Services and Integration Service processes in the domain, plus all
workflows, worklets, and sessions.

[Service:Integration_Service_name] Parameters and variables defined in this section apply to the named
Integration Service, plus all workflows, worklets, and sessions the service
runs.

[Service:Integration_Service_name. Parameters and variables defined in this section apply to the Integration
ND:node_name] Service that runs on the named node (the Integration Service process),
plus all workflows, worklets, and sessions the service process runs.

The parameters and variables you define in these sections apply when you run a workflow
or session that uses the parameter file.

4 PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements

♦ Expanded support for parameters and variables. You can use parameters and variables in
the following places:

Place Valid Parameter and Variable Types

Table owner name for relational sources All

Table name prefix for relational targets All

FTP file name and directory All

Lookup cache file name prefix All

Email task (address, subject, and body) Service variables, service process variables,
workflow variables

Suspension email (address, subject, and body) Service variables, service process variables,
workflow variables

Post-session email (address, subject, and body) All

Connection and transaction environment SQL All

Target pre- and post-session SQL commands All

Pre- and post-session shell commands All

Call text for an unconnected Stored Procedure transformation All

Target update overrides All

Table name prefix for relational error logs All

Command tasks Service variables, service process variables,

workflow variables

Workflow log file names Service variables, service process variables,

workflow variables

♦ Workflow variables in sessions. You can use workflow variables in sessions. If you do this,
the Integration Service treats them as parameters. Therefore, the values do not change
when the session runs.

Performance
♦ Pushdown optimization. You can push transformation logic to the source or target
database when the Lookup transformation contains a lookup override. To perform source-
side, target-side, or full pushdown optimization for a session containing lookup overrides,
configure the session for pushdown optimization and select a pushdown option that allows
you to create views. You can also use full pushdown optimization when you use the target
loading option to treat source rows as delete.
♦ Sorter transformation. The Sorter transformation has been enhanced to use a more
compact format which will significantly reduce the temporary disk space necessary to sort
large a data set that does not fit into in-memory sort. In addition, the sort algorithm is
improved to significantly reduce sort time.

PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements 5

 Session Parameters
♦ General session parameter. You can parameterize general session properties such as table
owner name, table name prefix, FTP file name and directory, Lookup cache file name
prefix, and email addresses using the general session parameter “$ParamName.”

Targets
♦ Generate flat file targets by transaction. You can generate a separate flat file target each
time the Integration Service starts a new transaction. You can dynamically name each file.
To generate a separate output file for each transaction, you add a FileName port to the flat
file target definition. When you connect the FileName port in the mapping, the
Integration Service writes a target file at each commit. The Integration Service uses the
FileName port value to name the output file. You can generate output files from source-
based or user-defined commits.

Metadata Manager (SuperGlue)

This section describes changes to the Metadata Manager functionality.

Administration
♦ Authentication. You can use LDAP for Metadata Manager on JBoss Application Server,
WebLogic Application Server, or WebSphere Application Server.
♦ Clustering. You can use clusters for the Metadata Manager application on JBoss
Application Server, WebLogic Application Server, or WebSphere Application Server. You
use clusters to distribute the Metadata Manager application load across multiple machines.
Clustering may increase performance when the application has a large number of
concurrent users.
♦ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). You can configure Metadata Manager to use the SSL protocol
to provide a secure and authentic connection between the Metadata Manager server and a
web browser client.

Installation
♦ Sybase ASE. You can install the Metadata Manager Warehouse and PowerCenter
repository for Metadata Manager on Sybase ASE.

Utilities
♦ EAR Repackager utility. The EAR Repackager utility extracts files from and repackages
customized files to the Metadata Manager EAR file. You may need to customize files in the
Metadata Manager EAR file to customize the Metadata Manager images, color schemes,
style sheets, or configuration files.
♦ License Update utility. The License Update utility updates the Metadata Manager license.
You may need to update an existing license with a new license key to extend the expiration
date.

6 PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements

 ♦ Repository Backup utility. The Repository Backup utility backs up and recovers a
Metadata Manager repository.
♦ Update System Accounts utility. The Update System Accounts utility modifies the user
name and password for the Metadata Manager system administrator and system daemon.

XConnects
♦ Business Objects XConnect. The Business Objects XConnect extracts metadata from
Business Objects XI.
♦ PowerCenter XConnect. You can configure the PowerCenter XConnect to capture
information about flat file sources, lookups, and targets that are specified in parameters
files. You can view the flat files in data lineage and where-used analysis.

Repository and Repository Service

This section describes changes to the repository functionality.
♦ Cancel auto-reconnect. In the Designer, Workflow Manager, and Repository Manager,
you can temporarily disable PowerCenter Client resilience to prevent the client from
attempting to reestablish a repository connection during the resilience timeout period. You
cancel automatic reconnection if you do not want to wait for the 180-second resilience
timeout period to expire.
♦ Purge object versions. You can purge object versions from the repository or folder. You can
purge versions of all deleted objects or objects deleted before a specified end time. You can
also purge specified versions of active objects based on a cutoff time. You specify the
versions by designating the number of checked-in versions to keep, by setting a purge
cutoff time, or both. You can preview the purge results to verify that the purge criteria
produce the expected results. You can also save the purge results to an output file.

Security
♦ IBM DB2 client authentication. You can use IBM DB2 client authentication to
authenticate database users. IBM DB2 client authentication lets you log in to an IBM
DB2 database without specifying a database user name or password if the IBM DB2 server
is configured for external authentication or if the IBM DB2 server is on the same machine
hosting the Integration Service process. PowerCenter uses IBM DB2 client authentication
when the connection user name is PmNullUser and the connection is for an IBM DB2
database.

Transformations and Caches

♦ HTTP transformation. You can connect to an HTTP server to use its services and
applications. When you run a session with an HTTP transformation, the Integration
Service connects to the HTTP server and issues a request to retrieve data from or update
data on the HTTP server, depending on how you configure the transformation.

PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements 7

 ♦ SQL transformation. You can process ANSI SQL queries midstream in a pipeline. You can
insert, delete, update, and retrieve rows from a database. When you create an SQL
transformation, you configure it to run in script mode or query mode. Script mode allows
you to run scripts that are external to the transformation. Query mode allows you to run
queries that you define in the transformation. You can use an existing database connection
or you can pass database connection information to the SQL transformation as input data
at run time.
♦ Configure caches. When you configure caches sizes, you can use a cache calculator to
estimate the amount of memory required to process the transformation. Based on the type
of mapping object, you provide information such as the number of groups, the number of
source rows, or the number of ranks.

Unstructured Data
♦ Unstructured Data transformation. You can run the Unstructured Data transformation
on a 64-bit Integration Service on HP-UX (Itanium) and Solaris.

Web Services Provider

♦ Stateful services. All services hosted by the Web Services Hub are now stateful services.
This state is the same state as in version 7.1.4. Stateful operations available in version 7.1.4
are also available in version 8.1.1. A client application must call the Login operation to
access the repository before it calls other web service operations.
♦ Advanced properties. On the Administration Console, two additional advanced properties
are available for the Web Services Hub:
− SessionExpiryPeriod. The number of seconds that a session can remain idle before the
session times out and the session ID becomes invalid.
− MaxLMConnections. The maximum number of connections to the Integration Service
that can be open at one time for the Web Services Hub.
♦ Web Services Hub URL. The URL for the Web Services Hub can use the context name
PowerCenter or wsh:
http://<hostname>:<portnum>/PowerCenter

http://<hostname>:<portnum>/wsh

Workflow Monitor
♦ View binary log files. You can view existing binary log files for sessions and workflows in
the Log Events window.

XML
♦ XML foreign key column names. You can configure the Designer to prefix generated
foreign key columns with the name of the XML view and the name of the primary key
column.

8 PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements

PowerCenter Connects
This section describes enhancements to PowerCenter Connect products.

PowerCenter Connect for IBM MQSeries

♦ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. You can configure IBM MQSeries to use the SSL
protocol to provide a reliable end-to-end secure and authentic connection between the
Integration Service and MQSeries.

PowerCenter Connect for JMS

♦ Durable subscriptions. PowerCenter Connect for JMS uses durable subscriptions to
enable a JMS subscriber receive messages, even if the subscriber is inactive. Using durable
subscriptions, the Integration Service retains the messages that are published when the
subscriber is not active and delivers the messages after the subscriber becomes active again.
♦ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). PowerCenter Connect for JMS uses SSL to encrypt
information and authenticate data. SSL creates a secure connection between a client and a
server, over which data is transmitted securely. When you configure PowerCenter Connect
for JMS, add the SSL properties to the jndi.properties file. The SSL properties are specific
to JMS providers. You need to add the SSL properties to the jndi.properties file and copy it
to the Integration Service source files directory.

PowerCenter Connect for Salesforce.com

♦ HTTP proxy server support. PowerCenter Connect for Salesforce.com supports HTTP
proxy server authentication. You can create a pmsfdc.ini file to configure the PowerCenter
Client to connect to Salesforce using an HTTP proxy server. Similarly, you can configure
the Integration Service to connect to Salesforce using an HTTP proxy server during a
session.

PowerCenter Connect for SAP NetWeaver BW Option

(PowerCenter Connect for SAP BW)
♦ Certification. PowerCenter Connect for SAP NetWeaver BW Option is certified with SAP
BW 7.0.

PowerCenter Connect for SAP NetWeaver mySAP Option

(PowerCenter Connect for SAP R/3)
♦ Certification. PowerCenter Connect for SAP NetWeaver mySAP Option is certified with
SAP ECC 6.0.

PowerCenter Connect for TIBCO

♦ 64-bit support. You can read messages from a TIB/Rendezvous source or write messages to
TIB/Rendezvous when the Integration Service runs on 64-bit Solaris.

PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements 9

 ♦ Secure connections. You can read and write TIB/Rendezvous messages using a secure
daemon. TIB/Rendezvous uses SSL to read and write TIB/Rendezvous messages. You must
configure the secure daemon if clients in your network use SSL to connect to the secure
daemon. TIB/Rendezvous supports the following modes of communication through its
Rendezvous daemons:
− Non-secure TCP connections
− SSL connections, allowing secure client communication over non-secure networks
Each secure daemon instance authorizes a set of trusted users. The secure daemon allows a
client transport to connect if the client presents valid identification as an authorized user.

PowerCenter Connect for Web Services

♦ WSDL parsing. When you import a web service source or target definition, you can prefix
the XML view name to every foreign key column. Prefixing the XML view name to foreign
key columns prevents foreign key conflicts. You can generate a foreign key with the format
FK_<nameOfChildView>_<nameOfPKView_nameOfPKColumn>. The foreign key
naming convention is applicable as long as the generated name is less than 80 characters
long.

PowerExchange Client for PowerCenter

♦ Target support. You can write to ADABAS databases, sequential files, and VSAM datasets.
♦ Restart token file. You can automatically keep numerous versions of the Restart token file
by specifying the number to keep in the new CHANGE CAPTURE connection attribute
Number of Runs to Keep Restart Token File.
♦ Restart token file directory. You no longer need to pre-allocate the Restart token file
directory. There is a new default of $PMRootDir/Restart in the CHANGE CAPTURE
connection attribute “Restart Token File Folder” which will be automatically created if it
does not exist.
♦ Real-time extraction. You can stop real-time extraction at the end of the current log data
by setting the idle time to 0 in the CHANGE CAPTURE connection object.

10 PowerCenter Version 8.1.1 New Features and Enhancements