Backup your repository

When was the last time you backed up your production repository server? Too long? That's what I figured.

It's easy.

Log onto your production server, and sign in with pmrep

pmrep will want your domain name and repository service name. This is why it's helpful to have the admin console loaded so you can reference those names easily. If you're like me, you don't play admin very often, so I tend to forget what the actual names are.

pmrep is kind of an odd command, in that it's an interactive command line program. So, when you run pmrep, you'll have to then run a "connect" command. Once you're connected, then you can run a "backup" command. Type help for a list of possible commands.

For backup, just use -o and give it a filename. Easy.

Another useful command here is "truncatelog" - pass it something like a -t 90 option to remove all logs older than 90 days.

Mystery solved

Well, sort of. I don't know why I couldn't see the "advanced transformations". I re-installed my client, and I have them now.

Apparently, Union and a bunch of other transformations are considered "advanced" and show up in a separate toolbar. I didn't even have an option to show the advanced toolbar. The re-install seems to have fixed it.

I know you were all so worried about it. :)

In case anyone cares, this is what Informatica considers an "Advanced Transformation":

Data Masking
Flexible Target Key
HTTP
Web Services
SQL
Union
Java
XML Parser
XML Generator
Unstructured Data
Salesforce Lookup, Picklist & Merge

Union Transformations?

In a comment to my previous entry, Divya asked me to check out an Informatica quiz here: http://tinyurl.com/infaquiz

Tough quiz. Some of the questions were pretty tough. One in particular threw me for a loop - one about Union transformations.

While trying to answer it, it occurred to me that I had no idea what a Union transformation was. After the quiz, I pulled up Informatica's help on this topic, and found Union Transformation in the help, but couldn't actually add one to any mapping.

I found this:
To create a Union transformation:
1. In the Mapping Designer, click Transformations > Create.
2. Select Union Transformation and enter the name of the transformation.
...

Except that when I try step 2, I fail - because Union Transformation isn't a choice for me in my drop-down. Anyone have any idea what is going on here? Is this a transformation that doesn't come with all default installations of Informatica?