Informatica Way - Restoring lost Informatica file system

One of our servers crashed and we had lost the complete file system and the Informatica folder. However,the repository database was on another server and it was intact. It was a challenge for the Informatica Administration Team to restore & recover several components including:-

• Powercenter Services
• Data Quality / Analyst Services
• Data Transformation Projects
• Data Validation Option for the Server
• Data Virtualization Services

Server Characteristics:-

• Powercenter & DQ Metadata was available in the databases which were configured for the corresponding Repositories
• Number of Users in the server = 10
• Number of Folders in Powercenter = 25
• Number of Projects in DQ = 10
• Data Transformation Projects = 5

We leveraged the “Content Already Exists in the Specified Database” feature available in the Informatica Administrator Tool during the re-installation process to re-install the server (Domain) & to re-establish connection with the existing repository.

Using the steps mentioned below, we could restore all the data successfully except the previously created users (we re-created the users)

Informatica Debugger – Expression Evaluator

Expression Evaluator is mainly useful during debugging, when one wants to know the value of a particular expression at that point of debugging:

Before implementing this we generally face difficulty in computing the result of any expression at a given point of debugging. Earlier when required to find the value of a given expression during debugging, we required to try out manually using the current record values from the instance windows. In cases of complex expressions, manual calculations resulted in incorrect values in addition to time loss.

After implementing the best practice i.e. using expression evaluator, computing the values of any expression will be simpler no matter how complex the expression is and the time spent on debugging gets reduced. Below are the steps to follow.

1. While running the debugger, go to the desired transformation (Say expression)
2. Copy the desired complex expression available in the transformation (any of the ports).
3. Right click the transformation and choose expression evaluator.
4. In the editor, paste the copied expression and validate it and then click the “Evaluate” button.
5. It gives the computed value of the expression by using the current record values.

 

 

Highlights:

•  Evaluates the given expression against the current processing record in the transformation.
• The same rules as in expression editor will apply over here.

Benefits:

•  Will be able to compute complex expressions at any point during debugging.
• Expression Evaluator always uses the current record values from the ports of the transformation while computing the expression.
• Manual computation is completely removed during debugging.
• Less effort is applied for understanding what values are getting passed over a given transformation.

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Oracle R12 Applications Using LoadRunner

The Challenge

We recently load tested our first Oracle R12 release (All modules for nationwide and international wide of Oracle ERP R12). The company was upgrading to R12 from 11.5.8 largely for performance reasons.

We knew we’d be “cutting new ground” with LoadRunner on R12. This became evident with our first testrecord-and-playback, which failed even after finding and fixing all the missing correlations. We raised a ticket with HP (SR# #4622615067), and with their initial help, step by step we overcame all the nuances of coaxing vugen to record successfully, and then creatively working around its inability to recognize the full set of identifiers for a new java ITEMTREE object.

Configuring Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) 11g as a Directory Server

I used Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) Version 11.1.1.5.0 during my test deployment locally here. I tried to collect as much information possible in this post for configuration.

Ideally, there are three possible configuration options for OUD:

• as a Directory Server
• as a Replication Server
• as a Proxy Server

Directory Server provides the main LDAP functionality in OUD. Proxy server can be used for proxying LDAP requests. And Replication Server is used for replication from one OUD to another OUD or even to another ODSEE (earlier Sun Java Directory) server. You can my previous posts on OUD here and here.

HP DIAGNOSTICS

Overview
Identifying and correcting availability and performance problems can be costly, time consuming and risky. IT organizations spend more time identifying an owner than resolving the problem.
HP Diagnostics helps to improve application availability and performance in pre-production and production environments. HP’s diagnostics software is used to drill down from the end user into application components and cross platform service calls to resolve the toughest problems. This includes slow services, methods, SQL, out of memory errors, threading problems and more.