1. Where do we use connected and unconnected lookups? If return port is only one then go for unconnected.

More than one return port is not possible with Unconnected. If more than one returns port then go for Connected. 2. What are the various test procedures used to check whether the data is loaded in the backend, performance of the mapping, and quality of the data loaded in INFORMATICA. The best procedure to take a help of debugger where we monitor each and every process of mappings and how data is loading based on conditions breaks 3. What is the difference between ETL tool and OLAP tools ETL tool is meant for extraction data from the legacy systems and load into specified database with some process of cleansing data. Eg: Informatica, data stage ....etc OLAP is meant for Reporting purpose in OLAP data available in Multidimensional model. so that u can write simple query to extract data fro the data base. Eg: Businee objects, Cognos....etc ETL tools are used to extract the data from different sources & OLAP tools are used to analyze the data ETL tools are used to extract, transformation and loading the data into data warehouse / data mart OLAP tools are used to create cubes/reports for business analysis from data warehouse / data mart 4. What is ODS (operation data source)? ODS - Operational Data Store. ODS Comes between staging area & Data Warehouse. The data is ODS will be at the low level of granularity. Once data was populated in ODS aggregated data will be loaded into EDW through ODS. ODS is the Operational Data Source which is also called transactional data ODS is the source of a warehouse. Data from ODs is staged, transformed and then moved to data warehouse.

An updateable set of integrated operational data used for enterprise- wide tactical decisionmaking. Contains live data, not snapshots, and has minimal history retained can we lookup a table from source qualifier transformation. ie. unconnected lookup You cannot lookup from a source qualifier directly. However, you can override the SQL in the source qualifier to join with the lookup table to perform the lookup.

5. What are the different Lookup methods used in Informatica? In the lookup transformation mainly 2 types 1) connected 2)unconnected lookup Connected lookup: 1) It receive the value directly from pipeline 2) It will use both dynamic and static 3) It return multiple value 4) It support user defined value Unconnected lookup: 1)it receives the value : lkp expression 2)it will be use only dynamic 3)it return only single value 4)it does not support user defined values 6. What is a mapping, session, worklet, workflow, mapplet? Session: A session is a set of instructions that tells the Informatica Server how and when to move data from sources to targets. Mapplet : Mapplet is the set of transformation which we can make for reusability.It is a whole logic. Workflow: it is the pipeline, which pass or flow the data from source to target.

7. What is the difference between Power Center & Power Mart? Power Mart is designed for: Low range of warehouses only for local repositories mainly desktop environment. we can connect to single and multiple Repositories, generally used in big Enterprises. Power mart is designed for: High-end warehouses Global as well as local repositories ERP support. Power Mart: we can connect to only a single Repository.
8. What are the various tools? - Name a few

The various ETL tools are as follows. Informatica Data stage Business Objects Data Integrator OLAP tools are as follows. Cognos Business Objects 9. What are snapshots? What are materialized views? Materialized view: Answer 1.Materialized view is a view in which data is also stored in some temp table.i.e if we will go with the View concept in DB in that we only store query and once we call View it extract data from DB. But In materialized View data is stored in some temp tables.
Answer 2. Materialized view means it stores pre calculated data, it is a physical representation and it's occupies the space

Snapshot: Answer 1. A snapshot is a table that contains the results of a query of one or more tables or views, often located on a remote database. Answer 2.Snapshot is a specific interval of data, 10. What is partitioning? What are the types of partitioning?

Partitioning is a part of physical data warehouse design that is carried out to improve performance and simplify stored-data management. Partitioning is done to break up a large table into smaller, independently manageable components because it: 1. Reduces work involved with addition of new data. 2. Reduces work involved with purging of old data. Two types of partitioning are: 1. Horizontal partitioning. 2. Vertical partitioning (reduces efficiency in the context of a data warehouse).