Advanced Server Configuration Options

Challenge
Correctly configurbing Advanced Integration Service properties, Integration Service process variables, and automatic
memory settings; using custom properties to write service logs to files; and adjusting semaphore and shared memory
settings in the UNIX environment.

Description
Configuring Advanced Integration Service Properties
Use the Administration Console to configure the advanced properties, such as the character set of the Integration
Service logs. To edit the advanced properties, select the Integration Service in the Navigator, and click the Properties
tab > Advanced Properties > Edit.
The following Advanced properties are included:

Limit on
Resilience
Timeouts

Optional Maximum amount of time (in seconds) that the service holds on to resources for
resilience purposes. This property places a restriction on clients that connect to
the service. Any resilience timeouts that exceed the limit are cut off at the limit. If
the value of this property is blank, the value is derived from the domain-level
settings.
Valid values are between 0 and 2592000, inclusive. Default is blank.

Resilience
Timeout

Optional Period of time (in seconds) that the service tries to establish or reestablish a
connection to another service. If blank, the value is derived from the domainlevel settings.
Valid values are between 0 and 2592000, inclusive. Default is blank.

Configuring Integration Service Process Variables

One configuration best practice is to properly configure and leverage the Integration service (IS) process variables.
The benefits include:
Ease of deployment across environments (DEV > TEST > PRD)
Ease of switching sessions from one IS to another without manually editing all the sessions to change
directory paths.
All the variables are related to directory paths used by a given Integration Service.
You must specify the paths for Integration Service files for each Integration Service process. Examples of Integration
Service files include run-time files, state of operation files, and session log files.
Each Integration Service process uses run-time files to process workflows and sessions. If you configure an
Integration Service to run on a grid or to run on backup nodes, the run-time files must be stored in a shared location.
Each node must have access to the run-time files used to process a session or workflow. This includes files such as
parameter files, cache files, input files, and output files.
State of operation files must be accessible by all Integration Service processes.When you enable an Integration
Service, it creates files to store the state of operations for the service. The state of operations includes information
such as the active service requests, scheduled tasks, and completed and running processes. If the service fails, the
Integration Service can restore the state and recover operations from the point of interruption.

All Integration Service processes associated with an Integration Service must use the same shared location.
However, each Integration Service can use a separate location.
By default, the installation program creates a set of Integration Service directories in the server\infa_shared
directory. You can set the shared location for these directories by configuring the process variable $PMRootDir to
point to the same location for each Integration Service process.
You must specify the directory path for each type of file. You specify the following directories using service process
variables:
Each registered server has its own set of variables. The list is fixed, not user-extensible.

Service Process Variable

$PMRootDir
$PMSessionLogDir
$PMBadFileDir
$PMCacheDir
$PMTargetFileDir
$PMSourceFileDir
$PMExtProcDir
$PMTempDir
$PMSuccessEmailUser
$PMFailureEmailUser
$PMSessionLogCount
$PMSessionErrorThreshold
$PMWorkflowLogCount
$PMWorkflowLogDir
$PMLookupFileDir
$PMStorageDir

Value
(no default user must insert a path)
$PMRootDir/SessLogs
$PMRootDir/BadFiles
$PMRootDir/Cache
$PMRootDir/TargetFiles
$PMRootDir/SourceFiles
$PMRootDir/ExtProc
$PMRootDir/Temp
(no default user must insert a path)
(no default user must insert a path)
0
0
0
$PMRootDir/WorkflowLogs
$PMRootDir/LkpFiles
$PMRootDir/Storage

Writing PowerCenter 8 Service Logs to Files

Starting with PowerCenter 8, all the logging for the services and sessions created use the log service and can only be
viewed through the PowerCenter Administration Console. However, it is still possible to get this information logged
into a file similar to the previous versions.
To write all Integration Service logs (session, workflow, server, etc.) to files:
1.
2.

<!--[endif]-->Log in to the Admin Console.

Select the Integration Service

3.

Add a Custom property called UseFileLog and set its value to "Yes".

4.

Add a Custom property called LogFileName and set its value to the desired file name.

5.

Restart the service.

Integration Service Custom Properties (undocumented server parameters) can be entered here as well:
1.
2.

At the bottom of the list enter the Name and Value of the custom property
Click OK.

Adjusting Semaphore Settings on UNIX Platforms

When PowerCenter runs on a UNIX platform, it uses operating system semaphores to keep processes synchronized
and to prevent collisions when accessing shared data structures. You may need to increase these semaphore
settings before installing the server.
Seven semaphores are required to run a session. Most installations require between 64 and 128 available
semaphores, depending on the number of sessions the server runs concurrently. This is in addition to any
semaphores required by other software, such as database servers.
The total number of available operating system semaphores is an operating system configuration parameter, with a
limit per user and system. The method used to change the parameter depends on the operating system:
HP/UX: Use sam (1M) to change the parameters.
Solaris: Use admintool or edit /etc/system to change the parameters.
AIX: Use smit to change the parameters.

Setting Shared Memory and Semaphore Parameters on UNIX Platforms

Informatica recommends setting the following parameters as high as possible for the UNIX operating system.
However, if you set these parameters too high, the machine may not boot. Always refer to the operating system
documentation for parameter limits. Note that different UNIX operating systems set these variables in different ways
or may be self tuning. Always reboot the system after configuring the UNIX kernel.

IBM AIX
None of the listed parameters requires tuning because each is dynamically adjusted as needed by the kernel.

Configuring Automatic Memory Settings

With Informatica PowerCenter 8, you can configure the Integration Service to determine buffer memory size and
session cache size at runtime. When you run a session, the Integration Service allocates buffer memory to the
session to move the data from the source to the target. It also creates session caches in memory. Session caches

include index and data caches for the Aggregator, Rank, Joiner, and Lookup transformations, as well as Sorter and
XML target caches.
Configure buffer memory and cache memory settings in the Transformation and Session Properties. When you
configure buffer memory and cache memory settings, consider the overall memory usage for best performance.
Enable automatic memory settings by configuring a value for the Maximum Memory Allowed for Auto Memory
Attributes or the Maximum Percentage of Total Memory Allowed for Auto Memory Attributes. If the value is set to zero
for either of these attributes, the Integration Service disables automatic memory settings and uses default values.