What is the difference between Informatica 7.0 and 8.0 ?

Features of Informatica 8 The architecture of Power Center 8 has changed a lot; 1. PC8 is service-oriented for modularity, scalability and flexibility. 2. The Repository Service and Integration Service (as replacement for Rep Server and Informatica Server) can be run on different computers in a network (so called nodes), even redundantly. 3. Management is centralized, that means services can be started and stopped on nodes via a central web interface. 4. Client Tools access the repository via that centralized machine, resources ar e distributed dynamically. 5. Running all services on one machine is still possible, of course. 6. It has a support for unstructured data which includes spreadsheets, email, Mi crosoft Word files, presentations and .PDF documents. It provides high availability, seamless fail over, eliminating single points of failure. 7. It has added performance improvements (To bump up systems performance, Inform atica has added "push down optimization" which moves data transformation processing to the native relational database I/O engine whenever its is most appropriate.) 8. Informatica has now added more tightly integrated data profiling, cleansing, and matching capabilities. 9. Informatica has added a new web based administrative console. 10.Ability to write a Custom Transformation in C++ or Java. 11.Midstream SQL transformation has been added in 8.1.1, not in 8.1. 12.Dynamic configuration of caches and partitioning 13.Java transformation is introduced. 14.User defined functions How can you improve the performance of Aggregate transformation? we can improve the agrregator performence in the following ways 1.send sorted input. 2.increase aggregator cache size.i.e Index cache and data cache. 3.Give input/output what you need in the transformation.i.e reduce number of inp ut and output ports. Use Sorter Transformation to sort input in aggregrator properties filter the records before Why did you use stored procedure in your ETL Applicati on? usage of stored procedure has the following advantages 1checks the status of the target database 2drops and recreates indexes 3determines if enough space exists in the database 4performs aspecilized calculation What is parameter file? When you start aworkflow, you can optionally enter the directory and name of a parameter file. The InformaticaServer runs the workflow using the parameters in the file you specify. For UNIX shell users, enclose the parameter file name in single quotes: -paramfile '$PMRootDir/myfile.txt' For Windows command prompt users, the parameter file name cannot have beginning or trailing spaces. If the name includes spaces, enclose the file name in double qu otes:

-paramfile $PMRootDirmy file.txt Note: When you write a pmcmd command that includes a parameter file located on a nother machine, use the backslash () with the dollar sign ($). This ensures that the ma chine where the variable is defined expands the server variable. pmcmd startwork flow -uv USERNAME -pv PASSWORD -s SALES:6258 -f east -w wSalesAvg -paramfile '$P MRootDir/myfile.txt' What r the options in the target session of update strategy transsformatioin? Up date as Insert: This option specified all the updaterecords from source to be fl agged as inserts in the target. In other words, instead of updating the records in the target they are inserted asnew records. Update else Insert: This option e nables informatica to flag the records either for update if they are old or inse rt, if they are new records from source. insert,update,delete,insert as update,u pdate else insert.update as update. What is Datadriven? The Informatica Server f ollows instructions coded into Update Strategy transformations within the session mapping to determine how to flag rows for insert, delete,up date, or reject. If the mapping for the session contains an Update Strategy transformation, this field is marked Data Driven by default What is the default source option for update stratgey transformation? DATA DRIVE N What r the basic needs to join two sources in a source qualifier? The both the table should have a common feild with same datatype. Its not neccessary both sho uld follow primary and foreignrelationshi p. If any relation ship exists that wi ll help u in performance point of view. What is the default join that source qua lifier provides? The Joiner transformation supports the following join types, wh ich you set in the Properties tab: Normal (Default) Master Outer Detail Outer Full Outer Inner equil joint is default joint in source qualifier. What is the target load order? A target load order group is the collection of source qualifiers, transfo rmations, and targets linked together in a mapping. Difference between static cache and dynamic cache Static cache Dynamic cache U can not insert or update the cache U can insert rows into the cache as u pass to the target The informaticserver returns a value from the lookup table or cache when the con dition is true.When the condition is not true, informatica server returns the default valu e for connected transformations and null for unconnected transformations. The informatic server inserts rows into cache when the condition is false.This i ndicates that the the row is not in the cache or target table. U can pass these rows to the ta rget table What r the types of lookup caches? Cache 1. Static cache 2. Dynamic cache 3. Persistent cache

Differences between connected and unconnected lookup? Connected lookup Unconnected lookup Receives input values diectly from the pipe line. Receives input values from the result of a lkp expression in a another transform ation. U can use a dynamic or static cache U can use a static cache. Cache includes all lookup columns used in the maping Cache includes all lookup out put ports in th e lookup condition and the lookup/return port. Support user defined default valu es Does not support user defiend default values what is the look up transformation? Using it we can access the data from a relat ional table which is not a source in the mapping. For Ex:Suppose the source cont ains only Empno, but we want Empname also in the mapping.Then instead of adding another tbl which contains Empname as a source ,w e can Lkp the table and get the Empname in target. What r the joiner caches? Specifies the directory used to cache masterrecords an d the index to these records. By default, the cached files are created in a dire ctory specified by theserver variable $PMCacheDir. If you override the directory, make sure the directory exists and contains enough disk space for the cache files. The directory can be a mapped or mounted drive. There r 2-types of cache in the joiner 1. Data cache 2. Index Cache what r the settiings that u use to cofigure the joiner transformation? Master an d detail source Type of join Condition of the join the Joiner transformation supports the following join types, which you set in th e Properties tab: Normal (Default) Master Outer Detail Outer Full Outer In which condtions we can not use joiner transformation(Limitaions of joiner tra nsformation)? This is no longer valid in version 7.2 Now we can use a joiner eve n if the data is coming from the same source. What r the diffrence between joine r transformation and source qualifier transformation? Source qualifier Homogeneo us source Joiner Heterogeneous source What is aggregate cache in aggregator tran sforamtion? When you run a workflow that uses an Aggregator transformation, the InformaticaServer creates index and data caches in memory to process the transfo rmation. If the Informatica Server requires more space, it stores overflow value s in cache files. Can U use the maping parameters or variables created in one maping into another maping? NO. You might want to use aworkflow parameter/variable if you want it to be visible with other mappings/sessions What r the mapping paramaters and mapin g variables? Please refer to thedocumenta tion for more understanding. Mapping variables have two identities: Start value and Current value Start value = Current value ( when the session starts the execution of the undel ying mapping) Start value <> Current value ( while the session is in progress and the variable

value changes in one ore more occasions) Current value at the end of the sessio n is nothing but the start value for the subsequent run of the same session. Wha t r the unsupported repository objects for a mapplet? Source definitions. Defini tions of database objects (tables, views, synonyms) or files that provide source data. Target definitions. Definitions of database objects or files that contain the ta rget data. Multi-dimensional metadata. Target definitions that are configured as cubes and dimensions. Mappings. A set of source and target definitions along with transformations cont aining business logic that you build into the transformation. These are the instruction s that the Informatica Server uses to transform and move data. Reusable transformations. Transformations that you can use in multiple mappings. Mapplets. A set of transformations that you can use in multiple mappings. Sessions and workflows. Sessions and workflows store information about how and w hen the Informatica Server moves data. A workflow is a set of instructions that describe s how and when to run tasks related to extracting, transforming, and loading data. A sessi on is a type of task that you can put in a workflow. Each session corresponds to a single mappin g. What r the methods for creating reusable transforamtions? You candesig n using 2 methods using transformation developer create normal one and promote it to reus able What r the reusable transforamtions? A transformation can reused, that is k now as reusable transformation You can design using 2 methods using transformati on developer create normal one and promote it to reusable What r the active and passive transforamtions? Transformations can be active or passive. An active tra nsformation can change the number of rows that pass through it, such as a Filter transformation that removes rows that do not meet the filter condition. A passive transformation does not change the number of rows that pass through it , such as an Expression transformation that performs a calculation on data and passes all rows through the transformation. What is the maplet? A mapplet should have a mapplet input transformation which r ecives input values, and a output transformation which passes the final modified data to back to the mapping. when the mapplet is displayed with in the mapping only input & output ports are displayed so that the internal logic is hidden fro mend-user point of view. Which transformation should u need while using the cobol sources as source defin tions? Normalizer transformaiton which is used to normalize the data.Since cobol sources r oftenly consists of Denormailzed data. Which is a transformation? It is a process of converting given input to desired output. How many ways you can update a relational source defintion and what r they? Two ways 1. Edit the defin ition 2. Reimport the defintion Where should U place the flat file to import the flat file defintion to the designer? There is no such restrication to place the source file. In performance point of view its better to place the file inserver local src folder. if you need path please check the server properties availble atworkflow manager. It doesn't mean we should not place in any other folder, if we place in server s rc folder by default src will be selected at time session creation. To provide s upport for Mainframes source data,which files r used as a source definitions? CO BOL Copy-book files What is Data cleansing..? Data cleansing is a two step proce ss including DETECTION and then CORRECTION of errors in a data set. What is Load Manager? I am providing the answer which I have taken it from Informatica 7.1.1

manual, Ans: While running a Workflow,the PowerCenter Server uses the Load Mana ger process and the Data Transformation Manager Process (DTM) to run the workflow and carry out workflow tasks.When the PowerCenter Server runs a workflow, the Load Manager performs the following tasks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Locks the workflow and reads workflow properties. Reads the parameter file and expands workflow variables. Creates the workflow log file. Runs workflow tasks. Distributes sessions to worker servers. Starts the DTM to run sessions. Runs sessions from master servers. Sends post-session email if the DTM terminates abnormally.

When the PowerCenter Server runs a session, the DTM performs the following tasks : 1. Fetches session and mapping metadata from the repository. 2. Creates and expands session variables. 3. Creates the session log file. 4. Validates session code pages if data code page validation is enabled. Checks query conversions if data code page validation is disabled. 5. Verifies connection object permissions. 6. Runs pre-session shell commands. 7. Runs pre-session stored procedures and SQL. 8. Creates and runs mapping, reader, writer, and transformation threads to extra ct,transform, and load data. 9. Runs post-session stored procedures and SQL. 10. Runs post-session shell commands. 11. Sends post-session email. How can we partition a session in Informatica? The Informatica PowerCenter Partiti oning option optimizes parallel processing on multiprocessor hardware by providing a thread-based architecture and built-in da ta partitioning. GUI-based tools reduce the development effort necessary to create data partition s and streamline ongoing troubleshooting and performance tuning tasks, while ensuringd a ta integrity throughout the execution process. As the amount of data within an orga nization expands and real-time demand for information grows, the PowerCenter Par titioning option enables hardware andap plications to provide outstanding perfor mance and jointly scale to handle large volumes of data and users. Explain the informatica Architecture in detail informaticaserver connects source data and target data using native odbc drivers again it connect to the repository for running sessions and retriveing metadata information source------>informatica server--------->target REPOSITORY The PowerCenter Server is a repository client application. It connects to the Re pository Server and Repository Agent to retrieve workflow and mapping metadata f

rom the repository database. When the PowerCenter Server requests a repository c onnection from the Repository Server, the Repository Server starts and manages t he Repository Agent. The Repository Server then re-directs the PowerCenter Server to connect directly to the Repository Agent. How to read rejected data or bad data from bad file and reload it to target? Cor rection the rejected data and send to target relational tables using loadorder u tility. Find out the rejected data by using column indicatior and row indicator. Diff between informatica repositry server & informatica server Informatica Repo sitory Server:It's manages connections to the repository from client application. Informatica Server:It's extracts the source data,performs the data transformatio n,and loads the transformed data into the target How do you transfert the data from data warehouse to flatfile? You can write a mapping with the flat file as a target using a DUMMY_CONNECTION . A flat file target is built by pulling a source into target space usingWarehou se Designer tool. What r the tasks that Loadmanger process will do? Manages the session and batch scheduling: Whe u start the informatica server the load maneger launches and queries the repository for a list of sessions configured to run on the informatica server.When u configure the session the loadmanager maintains list o f list of sessions and session start times.When u sart a session loadmanger fetches the se ssion information from the repository to perform the validations and verifications pri or to starting DTM process. Locking and reading the session: When the informatica server starts a session lo damaager locks the session from the repository.Locking prevents U starting the s ession again and again. Reading the parameter file: If the session uses a parame ter files,loadmanager reads the parameter file and verifies that the session lev el parematers are declared in the file Verifies permission and privelleges: When the sesson starts load manger checks whether or not the user have privelleges t o run the session. Creating log files: Loadmanger creates logfile contains the s tatus of session. The LM also sends the 'failure mails' in case of failure in ex ecution of the Subsequent DTM process.. How can U create or import flat file def inition in to the warehouse designer? U can create flat file definition in wareh ouse designer.in the warehouse designer,u can create new target: select the type as flat file. save it and u can enter various column s for that created target by editing its properties.Once the target is created, save it. u can import it from the mappingdesigner. What r the connected or unconnected transforamations? An unconnected transformat ion cant be connected to another transformation. but it can be called inside ano ther transformation What is a time dimension? give an example. In a relational d ata model, for normalization purposes, year lookup, quarter lookup, month lookup , and week lookups are not merged as a single table. In a dimensional data model ing(star schema), these tables would be merged as a single table called TIME DIM ENSION for performance and slicing data. This dimensions helps to find the sales done on date, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. We can have a trend analysis by comparing this year sales with the previous year or this week sales with the pr evious week. Discuss the advantages & Disadvantages of star & snowflake schema? In a STAR sch

ema there is no relation between any two dimension tables, whereas in a SNOWFLAK E schema there is a possible relation between the dimension tables. Waht are mai n advantages and purpose of using Normalizer Transformation in Informatica? Narmalizer Transformation is used mainly with COBOL sources where most of the ti me data is stored in de-normalized format. Also, Normalizer transformation can be used to c reate multiple rows from a single row of data At the max how many tranformations can be us in a mapping? In a mapping we can u se any number of transformations depending on the project, and the included tran sformations in the perticular related transformatons What is the difference betw een Narmal load and Bulk load? Normal Load: Normal load will write information t o the database log file so that if any recorvery is needed it is will be helpful. when the source file is a text file a nd loading data to a table,in such cases we should you normal load only, else the session will be f ailed. Bulk Mode: Bulk load will not write information to the database log file so that if any recorvery is needed we can't do any thing in such cases. compartivly Bul k load is pretty faster than normal load. What is a junk dimension A "junk" dime nsion is a collection of random transactional codes, flags and/or text attribute s that are unrelated to any particular dimension. The junk dimension is simply a structure that provides a convenient place to store the junk attributes. A good example would be a trade fact in a company thatbrokers equity trades. Can we lookup a table from a source qualifer transformation-unconnected lookup N o. we can't do. I will explain you why. 1) Unless you assign the output of the source qualifier to another transformatio n or to target no way it will include the feild in the query. 2) source qualifier don't have an y variables feilds to utalize as expression. How to get the first 100 rows from the flat file into the target? 1.Use test download option if you want to use it for testing. 2. Putcounter/sequence generator in mapping and perform it. Differe nce between summary filter and details filter? Summary Filter --- we can apply r ecords group by that contain common values. Detail Filter --- we can apply to ea ch and every record in a database. what are the difference between view and mate rialized view? Materialized views are schema objects that can be used to summari ze, precompute, replicate, and distribute data. E.g. to construct a data warehou se. A materialized view provides indirect access to table data by storing the re sults of a query in a separate schema object. Unlike an ordinary view, which doe s not take up any storage space or contain any data Compare Data Warehousing Top-Down approach with Bottom-up approach Top down ODS-->ETL-->Datawarehouse-->Datamart-->OLAP Bottom up ODS-->ETL-->Datamart-->Datawarehouse-->OLAP Discuss which is better among incremental load, Normal Load and Bulk load It dep ends on the requirement. Otherwise Incremental load which can be better as it ta kes onle that data which is not available previously on the target. What is the difference between connected and unconnected stored procedures. Unconnected: The unconnected Stored Procedure transformation is not connected directly to the fl ow of the mapping. It either runs before or after the session, or is called by an expressi on in another transformation in the mapping.

connected: The flow of data through a mapping in connected mode also passes thro ugh the Stored Procedure transformation. All data entering the transformation through the input ports affects the stored procedure. You should use a connected Stored Procedure transformation when you need data from an input port sent as an input parameter to the stored procedure, or the results of a stored procedure sent as an output parameter to another transformat ion. Differences between Informatica 6.2 and Informatica 7.0 Yours sincerely Features in 7.1 are : 1.union and custom transformation 2.lookup on flat file 3.grid servers working on different operating systems can coexist on same server 4.we can use pmcmdrep 5.we can export independent and dependent rep objects 6.we ca move mapping in any web application 7.version controlling 8.data profilling What are the Differences between Informatica Power Center versions 6.2 and 7.1, also between Versions 6.2 and 5.1? The main difference between informatica 5.1 a nd 6.1 is that in 6.1 they introduce a new thing called repository server and in place of server manager(5.1), they introduce wor kflow manager and workflow monitor. Whats the diff between Informatica powercenter server, repositoryserver and rep ository? Repository is adatabase in which all informatica componets are stored i n the form of tables. The reposiitory server controls the repository and maintains the data integrity and Consistency across the repository when multiple users use Informatica. Powercent er Server/Infa Server is responsible for execution of the components (sessions) sto red in the repository. How to create the staging area in your database A Staging area in a DW is used a s a temporary space to hold all therecords from the source system. So more or le ss it should be exact replica of the sourcesystems except for the laod startegy where we use truncate and reload options. So create using the same layout as in your source tables or using the Generate S QL option in theWarehouse Designer tab. What does the expression n filter transf ormations do in Informatica Slowly growing target wizard? EXPESSION transformati on detects and flags the rows from source. Filter transformation filters the row s that are not flagged and passes the flagged rows to the Update strategy transf ormation In a filter expression we want to compare one date field with a db2 sys tem field CURRENT DATE. Our Syntax: datefield = CURRENT DATE (we didn't define it by ports, its a system field ), but this is not valid (PMParser: Missing Operator). . Can someone help us. Thanks Briefly explian the Versioning Concept in Power Center 7.1. Thedb2 date formate is "yyyymmdd" where as sysdate in oracle will give "dd-mm-yy " so conversion of db2 date formate to localdat abase date formate is compulsary

. other wise u will get that type of error Briefly explian the Versioning Concep t in Power Center 7.1. When you create a version of a folder referenced by short cuts, all shortcuts continue to reference their original object in the original version. They do not automatically update to the current folder version. For exa mple, if you have a shortcut to a source definition in theMarke ting folder, ver sion 1.0.0, then you create a new folder version, 1.5.0, the shortcut continues to point to the s ource definition in version 1.0.0. Maintaining versions of shared folders can result in shortcuts pointing to diffe rent versions of the folder. Though shortcuts to different versions do not affect theserver, they might prove more difficult to maintain. To avoid this, you can recreate shortcuts pointing to earlier versions , but this solution is not practical for much-used objects. Therefore, when possible, do not version folder s referenced by shortcuts. How to join two tables without using the Joiner Transformation. Itz possible to join the two or more tables by using source qualifier.But provided the tables sh ould have relationship. When u drag n drop the tables u will getting the source qualifier for each table.Delete all the source qualifiers.Add a common source qualifier for all.Right click on the source quali fier u will find EDIT click on it.Click on the properties tab,u will find sql query in that u can write ursq ls You can also do it using Session --- mapping---source--- there you have an option called User Defined Joi n there you can write your SQL Identifying bottlenecks in various components of Informatica and resolving them. The best way to find out bottlenecks iswri ting to flat file and see where the bottle neck is . Can Informatica be used as a Cleansing Tool? If Yes, give examp le of transformations that can implement a data cleansing routine. Yes, we can u se Informatica for cleansing data. some time we use stages to cleansing the data . It depends upon performance again else we can use expression to cleasing data. For example an feild X have some values and other with Null values and assigned to target feild where target feild is notnull column, inside an expression we c an assign space or some constant value to avoid session failure. The input data is in one format and target is in another format, we can change t he format in expression. we can assign some default values to the target to repr esent complete set of data in the target. How do you decide whether you need ti do aggregations at database level or at Informatica level? It depends upon our r equirment only.If you have good processing database you can create aggregation t able or view at database level else its better to use informatica. Here i'm expl aing why we need to use informatica. what ever it may be informatica is a thrid party tool, so it will take more time to process aggregation compared to the database, but in Informatica an option we called "Incremental ag gregation" which will help you to update the current values with current values +new values. No necess ary to process entire values again and again. Unless this can be done if nobody deleted that cache fil es. If that happend total aggregation we need to execute on informatica also.

In database we don't have Incremental aggregation facility. How do we estimate t he depth of the session scheduling queue? Where do we set the number of maximum concurrent sessions that Informatica can run at a given time? please be more specific on the first half of the question. u set the max no of c oncurrent sessions in the info server.by default its 10. u can set to any no. Ho w do we estimate the number of partitons that a mapping really requires? Is it d ependent on the machine configuration? It depends upon the informatica version w e r using. suppose if we r using informatica 6 itsupports only 32 partitions whe re as informatica 7 supports 64 partitions. Suppose session is configured with c ommit interval of 10,000 rows and source has 50,000 rows. Explain the commit poi nts for Source based commit and Target based commit. Assume appropriate value wh erever required. Source based commit will commit thedata into target based on commit interval.so, for every 10,000 rows it will commit into target. Target based commit will commi t the data into target based on buffer size of the target.i.e., it commits the d ata into target when ever the buffer fills.Let us assume that the buffer size is 6,000.So,for every 6,000 rows it commits the data. We are using Update Strategy Transformation in mapping how can we know whether i nsert or update or reject or delete option has been selected during running of s essions in Informatica. InDesigner while creating Update Strategy Transformation uncheck "forward to nex t transformation". If any rejected rows are there automatically it will be updat ed to the session log file. Update or insert files are known by checking the tar get file ortable only. What is the procedure to write the query to list the high est salary of three employees? The following is the query to find out the top th ree salaries in ORACLE:--(take emptable) select * from emp e where 3>(select count (*) from emp where e.sal>emp.sal) order by sal desc. in SQL Server:-(take emp table) select top 10 sal from emp Which objects are required by the debugger to create a valid debug session? Inti ally the session should be valid session. source, target, lookups, expressions s hould be availble, min 1 break point should be available for debugger to debug y our session. What is the limit to the number of sources and targets you can have in a mapping As per my knowledge there is no such restriction to use this numbe r of sources or targets inside a mapping. Question is " if you make N number oft ables to participate at a time in processing what is the position of yourdat aba se. I orginzation point of view it is never encouraged to use N number of tables at a time, It reduces database and informatica server performance Which is better among connected lookup and unconnected lookup transformations in informatica or any other ETL tool? If you are having defined source you can use connected, source is not well defined or from different database you can go for unconnected We are using like that only In Dimensional modeling fact table is n ormalized or denormalized?in case of star schema and incase of snow flake schema ? In Dimensional modeling, Star Schema: A Single Fact table will be surrounded b y a group of Dimensional tables comprise of de- normalizeddat a Snowflake Schema: A Single Fa ct table will be surrounded by a group of Dimensional tables comprised of normalized dataThe Star Schema (sometimes referenced as star join schema) is the simplest data warehouse schema , consisting of a single "fact table" with a compound primary key, with one segment for each "dime nsion" and with additional columns of additive, numeric facts.The Star Schema makes multi-dimens ionaldatabase

(MDDB) functionality possible using a traditional relational database. Because r elational databases are the most common data management system in organizations today, implementing mult i-dimensional views of data using a relational database is very appealing. Even if you are usi ng a specific MDDB solution, its sources likely are relational databases. Another reason for using star schema is its ease of understanding. Fact tables in star schema are mostly in third normal form (3NF), but dimensional tables in de-normalized second normal form (2NF). If you want to normalize dimensional tables, they look like snowflakes (see snowflake schema) and the same problems of relational databases arise - you need complex queries and business users cannot easily understand the meaning of data. Although query performance may be improved by advanced DBMS technology and hardware, highly nor malized tables make reporting difficult and applications complex.The Snowflake Schema is a more complex data warehouse model than a star schema, and is a type of star schema. It is called a snowflake schema because the diagram of the schema resembles a snowflake.Snowflake schemas normal ize dimensions to eliminate redundancy. That is, the dimension data has been grouped into multiple tables instead of one large table. For example, a product dimension table in a star schema might be no rmalized into a products table, a Product-category table, and a product-manufacturer table in a snowflake schema. While this saves space, it increases the number of dimension tables and requires more foreign key joins. The result is more complex queries and reduced query performance. What is difference between IIF and DECODE function You can use nested IIF statem ents to test multiple conditions. The following example tests for various condit ions and returns 0 if sales is zero or negative: IIF( SALES > 0, IIF( SALES < 50 , SALARY1, IIF( SALES < 100, SALARY2, IIF( SALES < 200, SALARY3, BONUS))), 0 ) Y ou can use DECODE instead of IIF in many cases. DECODE may improve readability. The following shows how you can use DECODE instead of IIF : SALES > 0 and SALES < 50, SALARY1, SALES > 49 AND SALES < 100, SALARY2, SALES > 99 AND SALES < 200, SALARY3, SALES > 199, BONUS) What are variable ports and list two situations when they can be used? We have m ainly tree ports Inport, Outport, Variable port. Inport representsdat a is flowi ng into transformation. Outport is used when data is mapped to next transformation. Vari able port is used when we mathematical caluculations are required. If any addition i will be more than happy if you can share. How does the server recognise the source and target databases? By using ODBC con nection.if it is relational.if is flat fileF TP connection..see we can make sure with connection in the properties of session both sources && targets How to ret rive the records from a rejected file. explane with syntax or example During the execution of workflow all the rejected rows will be stored in bad files(where y

our informatica server get installed;C:Program FilesInformatica PowerCenter 7.1Server) These bad files can be imported as flat a file in source then thro' direct maping we can load these fil es in desired format. How to lookup the data on multiple tabels. if the twotab les are relational, the n u can use the SQL lookup over ride option to join the two tables in the lookup properties.u cannot join a flat file and a relatioanl table. eg: lookup default query will be select lookup table column_names from lookup_table. u can now continue this query. add column_names of the 2nd table with the qualifier, and a where clause. if u want to use a order by then use -- at the end of the order by. What is the procedure to load the fact table.Give in detail? Based on the requir ement to your fact table, choose the sources anddat a and transform it based on your business needs. For the fact table, you need a primary key so use a sequenc e generator transformation to generate a unique key and pipe it to the target (f act) table with the foreign keys from the source tables. What is the use of incr emental aggregation? Explain me in brief with an example. Its a session option. when the informatica server performs incremental aggr. it passes new sourcedata through the mapping and uses historical chache data to perform new aggregation c aluculations incrementaly. forperformance we will use it. How to delete duplicate rows in flat files source is any option in informatica U se a sorter transformation , in that u will have a "distinct" option make use of it . How to use mapping parameters and what is their use In designer u will fin d the mapping parameters and variables options.u can assign a value to them in designer. comming to there uses suppose u r doing incremental extractions daily. suppose ur source system contains the day column. so every day u have to go to that mapping and ch ange the day so that the particular data will be extracted . if we do that it will be like a layman's work. there comes the concept of mapping parameters and variables. once if u assign a value to a mappi ng variable then it will change between sessions. in the concept of mapping parameters and variables, the variable value will be saved to the repository after the completion of the session and the next time wh en u run the session, the server takes the saved variable value in the repository a nd starts assigning the next value of the saved value. for example i ran a session and in the end it stored a value of 50 to the repository.next time when i run the se ssion, it should start with the value of 70. not with the value of 51. how to do this. u can do onething after running the mapping,, in workflow manager start-------->session. right clickon the session u will get a menu, in that go for persistant values, t here u will find the last value stored in the repository regarding to mapping variable. then remove it and put ur desired one, run the session... i hope ur task will be done can any one comment on significance of oracle 9i in informatica when compared to oracle 8 or 8i. I mean how is oracle 9i advantageous when compared to oracle 8 or 8i when u

sed in informatica it's very easy Actually oracle 8i not allowed userdefined data types but 9i allows and then blob,clob allow only 9i not 8i and more over list partinition is there in 9i only Can we use aggregator/active transformation after update strategy transformation You can use aggregator after update strategy. The problem will be, once you per form the update strategy, say you had flagged some rows to be deleted and you had performed aggr egator transformation for all rows, say you are using SUM function, then the deleted ro ws will be subtracted from this aggregator transformation. Why dimenstion tables are denormalized in nature ? Because in Data warehousing h istoricaldata should be maintained, to maintain historical data means suppose oneemployee details like where previously he worked, and now where he is working, all details should be maintain in one table, if u maintain primary key it won't allow the du plicaterecords with same employee id. so to maintain historical data we are all going for concept da ta warehousing by using surrogate keys we can achieve the historical data(using oracle sequence for crit ical column). so all the dimensions are marinating historical data, they are de normalized, b ecause of duplicate entry means not exactly duplicate record with same employee number another record is m aintaining in the table. In a sequential Batch how can we stop single session? We can stop it using PMCMD command or in themonitor right click on that perticular session and select stop .this will stop the current session and the sessions next to it. How do you hand le decimal places while importing a flatfile into informatica? while importing f lat file definetion just specify the scale for a neumaric data type. in the mapp ing, the flat file sourcesuppor ts only number datatype(no decimal and integer). In the SQ associated with that source will have a data type as decimal for that number port of the source. source ->number datatype port ->SQ -> decimal datatype.Integer is not supported. hence decimal is taken care. If you are workflow is running slow in informatica . Where do you start trouble shooting and what are the steps you follow? When th e work flow is running slowly u have to find out the bottlenecks in this order target source mapping session system If you have four lookup tables in the workflow. How do you troubleshoot to impro ve performance? There r many ways to improve the mapping which has multiple look ups. 1) we can create an index for the lookup table if we have permissions(stagi ng area). 2) divide the lookup mapping into two (a) dedicate one for insert mean s: source - target,, these r new rows . only the new rows will come to mapping and the process will be fast . (b) dedicate the second

one to update : source=target,, these r existing rows. only the rows which exist s allready will come into the mapping. 3)we can increase the chache size of the lookup. Can anyone explain error handli ng in informatica with examples so that it will be easy to explain the same in t he interview. Go to the session log file there we will find the information rega rding to the session initiation process, errors encountered. load summary. so by seeing the errors encountered during the session running, we can resolve t he errors. There is one file called the bad file which generally has the format as *.bad an d it contains the records rejected by informatica server. There are two parameters one fort the types of r ow and other for the types of columns. The row indicators signifies what operation is going to take p lace ( i.e. insertion, deletion, updation etc.). The column indicators contain information regarding wh y the column has been rejected.( such as violation of not null constraint, value error, overflow etc.) If one rectifies the error in the data preesent in the bad file and then reloads the data in the target,then t he table will contain only valid data. How do I import VSAM files from source to target. Do I need a special plugin As far my knowledge by using powerexchange tool convert vsam file to oracletables t hen do mapping as usual to the target table. Differences between Normalizer and Normalizer transformation. Normalizer: It is a transormation mainly using for co bol sources, it's change the rows into coloums and columns into rows Normalization:To remove the retundancy and inconsitecy What is IQD file? IQD file is nothing but Impromptu Query Definetion,This file i s maily used inCognos Impromptu tool after creating a imr( report) we save the i mr as IQD file which is used while creating a cube in power play transformer.In data source type we select Impromptu Query Definetion. What is data merging, data cleansing, sampling? Cleansing:---TO identify and rem ove the retundacy and inconsistency sampling: just smaple the data throug send t he data from source to target Could anyone please tell me what are the steps req uired for type2 dimension/version data mapping. how can we implement it 1. Deter mine if the incoming row is 1) a new record 2) an updated record or 3) a record that already exists in the table using two lookup transformations. Split the mapping into 3 seperate flows using a router transformation. 2. If 1) create a pipe that inserts all the rows into the table. 3. If 2) create two pipes from the same source, one updating the old record, one to insert the new. Hope this makes sense, With out using Updatestretagy and sessons options, h ow we can do the update our target table? In session properties, There is an opt ion insert update insert as update update as update

like that by using this we will easily solve Two relational tables are connected to SQ Trans,what are the possible errors it will be thrown? The only two possibilities as of I know is Both the table should have primary key/foreign key relation ship Both the table should be available i n the same schema or same database what is the best way to show metadata(number of rows at source, target and each transformation level, error related data) in a report format You can select these details from the repositorytable. you can u se the view REP_SESS_LOG to get these data If u had to split the source level ke y going into two seperate tables. One as surrogate and other as primary. Since informatica does not gurantee keys are loaded properly(order!) into those tables. What are the different ways you could handle this type of situation? foreign key How to append the records in flat file(Informatica) ? Where as in Da tastage we have the options i) overwrite the existing file ii) Append existing f ile This is not there in Informatica v 7. but heard that its included in the lat est version 8.0 where u can append to a flat file. Its about to be shipping in t he market. What are partition points? Partition points mark the thread boundarie s in a source pipeline and divide the pipeline into stages. What are cost based and rule based approaches and the difference Cost based and rule based approache s are the optimization techniques which are used in related to databases, where we need to optimize a sql query. Basically Oracle provides Two types of Optimize rs (indeed 3 but we use only these two techniques., bcz the third has some disad vantages.) When ever you process any sql query in Oracle, what oracle engine int ernally does is, it reads the query and decides which will the best possible way for executing the query. So in this process, Oracle follows these optimization techniques. 1. cost based Optimizer(CBO): If a sql query can be executed in 2 different ways ( like may have path 1 and path2 for same query),then What CBO does is, it basi cally calculates the cost of each path and the analyses for which path the cost of execution is less and then executes that path so that it can optimize the que y execution. 2. Rule base optimizer(RBO): this basically follows the rules which are needed f or executing a query. So depending on the number of rules which are to be applie d, the optimzer runs the query. Use: If the table you are trying to query is already analysed, then oracle will go wi th CBO. If the table is not analysed , the Oracle follows RBO. For the first time, if table is not analysed, Oracle will go with full table sca n. What is mystery dimention? using Mystery Dimension ur maitaining the mystery data in ur Project. What is M icro Strategy? Why is it used for? Can any one explain in detail about it? Micro strategy is again an BI tool whicl is a HOLAP... u can create 2 dimensional rep ort and also cubes in here.......basically a reporting tool. IT HAS A FULL RANGE OF REPORTING ON WEB ALSO IN WINDOWS. Can i start and stop single session in con curent bstch? ya sure,Just right click on the particular session and going to re covery option or by using event wait and event rise I want to prepare a questionnaire. The details about it are as follows: - 1. Ide ntify a large company/organization that is a prime candidate for DWH project. (For example Telecommunication, an insurance company, banks, may be the prime

candidate for this) 2. Give at least four reasons for the selecting the organiza tion. 3. Prepare a questionnaire consisting of at least 15 non-trivial questions to co llect requirements/information about the organization. This information is required to build data warehouse. Can you please tell me what should be those 15 questions t o ask from a company, say a telecom company? First of all meet your sponsors and make a BRD(business requirement document) ab out their expectation from this datawarehouse(main aim comes from them).For example they n eed :customer billing process.Now goto business managment team :they can ask for metrics out o f billing process for their use.Now magament people :monthly usage,billing metrics,sales organization, rate plan to perform sales rep and channel performance analysis and rate plan analysis. So your dimen siontab les can be:Customer (customer id,name,city,state etc)Sales rep;sales rep number,name,ids ales org:sales ord idBill dimension: Bill #,Bill date,Numberrate plan:rate plan codeAnd Fact table can be:Billing details(bill #,customer id,minutes used,call details etc)you can follow star and snow flake s chema in this case.Depend upon the granualirty of your data. what is difference between lookup cashe and unchashed lookup? Can i run the mapp ing with out starting the informatica server? The difference between cache and u ncacheed lookup iswhen you configure the lookup transformation cache lookup it stores all the lookuptable data in the cache when the first inpu t record enter into the lookup transformation, in cache lookup the select statement executes only once a nd compares the values of the input record with the values in the cachebut in uncache lookup the the select statement executes for each input record entering into the lookup transformation and it ha s to connect to database each time entering the new record What is the difference between stop and abort stop:____ ___If the session u want to stop is a part of batch you must stop the batch, if the batch is part of nested batch, Stop the outer most bacth Abort:---You can issue the abort command , it is similar to stop command except it has 60 second time out . If the server cannot finish processing and commiting data with in 60 sec Here's the difference: ABORT is equivalent to: 1. Kill -9 on Unix (NOT kill -7) but YES, Kill -9 2. SIGTERM ABEND (Force ABEND) on Mainframe 3. Windows FORCE QUIT on application. What does this do? Each session uses SHARED/LOCKED (semaphores) memory blocks. The ABORT function k ills JUST THE CODE threads, leaving the memory LOCKED and SHARED and allocated. The good news: It appears as if AIX Operating system cleans up these lost memory blocks. The bad news? Most o

ther operating systems DO NOT CLEAR THE MEMORY, leaving the memory "taken" from the system. The only way to clear this memory is to warm-boot/cold-boot (restart) the informatica SERVER mac hine, yes, the entire box must be re-started to get the memory back. If you find your box running slower and slower over time, or not having enough m emory to allocate new sessions, then I suggest that ABORT not be used. So then t he question is: When I ask for a STOP, it takes forever. How do I get the sessio n to stop fast? well, first things first. STOP is a REQUEST to stop. It fires a request (equivalent to a control-c in SQL*PLUS) to the source database, waits for the source database to clean up. The bigger the data in the source query, the more time it takes to "roll-back" the source query, to mai ntain transaction consistency in the source database. (ie: join of hugetables, big group by, big o rder by). It then cleans up the buffers in memory by releasing the data (without writing t o the target) but it WILL run the data all the way through to the target buffers , never sending it to the target DB. The bigger the session memory allocations, the longer it takes to clean up. Then it fires a request to stop against the target DB, and waits for the target to roll-back. The higher the commit point, the more data the target DB has to "r oll-back". FINALLY, it shuts the session down. WHAT IF I NEED THE SESSION STOPPE D NOW? Pick up the phone and call the source system DBA, have them KILL the source quer y IN THE DATABASE. This will send an EOF (end of file) downstream to Informatica, and Infa will tak e less time to stop the session. If you use abort, be aware, you are choosing to "LOSE" memory on the server in w hich Informatica is running (except AIX). If you use ABORT and you then re-start the session, chances are, not only have you lost memory - but now you have TWO competing queries on the source system after the same data, and you've locked ou t any hope of performance in the source database. You're competing for resources with a defunct query that's STILL rolling back. Can we run a group of sessions without using workflow manager ya Its Posible usi ng pmcmd Command with out using the workflow Manager run the group of session. a s per my knowledge i give the answer. If a session fails after loading of 10,000 records in to the target.How can u load the records from 10001 th record when u run the session next time in informatica 6.1? Running the session in recovery m ode will work, but the target load type should be normal. If its bulk then recov ery wont work as expected Explain use of update strategy transformation To flag source records as INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE or REJECT for target database. Default flag is Insert. This is must for Incremental Data Loading. What are mapping para meters and varibles in which situation we can use it If we need to change certai n attributes of a mapping after every time the session is run, it will be very d ifficult to edit the mapping and then change the attribute. So we use mapping pa rameters and variables and define the values in a parameter file. Then we could edit the para meter file to change the attribute values. This makes the process simple. Mapping parameter values remain constant. If we need to change the parameter val ue then we need to edit the parameter file . But value of mapping variables can be changed by using variable function. If we need to increment the attribute val ue by 1 after every session run then we can use mapping variables . In a mapping

parameter we need to manually edit the attribute value in the parameter file af ter every session run. What is worklet and what use of worklet and in which situ ation we can use it A set of worlflow tasks is called worklet, Workflow tasks means 1)timer2)decesion3)command4)eventwait5)eventrise6)mail etc...... But we r use diffrent situations by using this only What is difference between dimention table and fact table and what are different dimention tables and fact tables In the fact table contain measurable data and less columns and meny rows, It's contain primarykey Diffrent types of fact tables: additive,non additive, semi additive In the dimensions table contain textual descrption of data and also contain meny columns,less rows Its contain primary key How do you configure mapping in informatica You should configure the mapping wit h the least number of transformations and expressions to do the most amount of work possible. You should minimize the amount of data moved by de leting unnecessary links between transformations. For transformations that use data cache (such as Aggregator, Joiner, Rank, and L ookup transformations), limit connected input/output or output ports. Limiting the num ber of connected input/output or output ports reduces the amount of data the transformations stor e in the data cache. You can also perform the following tasks to optimize the mapping: Configure sing le-pass reading. Optimize datatype conversions. Eliminate transformation errors. Optimize transformations. Optimize expressions. You should configure the mapping with the least number of transformations and expressions to do the most amount of work possible. You should minimize the amou nt of data moved by deleting unnecessary links between transformations. For transformations that use data cache (such as Aggregator, Joiner, Rank, and L ookup transformations), limit connected input/output or output ports. Limiting the num ber of connected input/output or output ports reduces the amount of data the transformations stor e in the data cache. You can also perform the following tasks to optimize the mapping: Configure sing le-pass reading. Optimize datatype conversions. Eliminate transformation errors. Optimize transformations. Optimize expressions. What is the logic will you implement to laod the data in to one factv from 'n' n umber of dimension tables. Noramally evey one use !)slowly changing diemnsions 2)slowly growing dimensions