DSXchange

Would combine operators merge the three Transformers into one? I would guess that a single Transformer would work best but the easiest way to tell is to design the job both ways and run a test. The one time I would use two or more Transformers in a row is if the first Transformer has a constraint th...

ODBC Enterprise was the version 6 and 7 way of doing connectors - you add a blank stage in each job and add the connection and table details. ODBC Connector is the new version 8 way - you configure and save a connector object with connection parameters and you can add it to any job and use it in oth...

You will find when you import the table definition into DataStage that it defaults most of the varchar fields to 255 - the maximum length before you have to switch to the greedier longvarchar field. You just need to make some common sense guestimates about the lengths of your fields.

I thought you needed something like DB2 Connect to get to a mainframe DB2 database from off the mainframe.

You just run the Information Server install all over again on the new server but only install the repository and domain layers. Leave the server layer alone (DataStage). Once the Metadata Server is reinstalled you can go into the console and hook it into the DataStage server.

I got it running on SQL Server Express but since it's not officially supported you might have trouble getting phone support for your DataStage install problem. You didn't need to reinstall DataStage - you could have just pointed it to the new Metadata Server. I think it's more likely you missed an u...

This installation error on AIX is fixed in software patch e117664 as long as you install it before Fix Pack 1a as it has been configured to only install onto 8.0.1.0 and not the Fix Pack version 8.0.1.1.

You could try What is new for DataStage 8 on the Information Server and IBM has a version 7 to 8 training course.

You need to find out what needs to be masked, why it needs to be masked and how robust that masking needs to be. Credit Card numbers for example need 106 bit encryption or masking that DataStage cannot do, customer names could just be scrambled with an external C++ routine algorithm. There are appli...

I've put the features from the various release notes onto a wiki at http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/DataStage_Enterprise_Edition.

Wait, you have an Oracle DBA? They why aren't they telling you why the load is slow? It's their job to optimize the performance of that database. They should be able to monitor the table while DataStage is running to find out what the bottleneck is. You can disable the index from the DataStage befor...

There is a data masking for DataStage solution which is due in late 2009! IBM Professional Services have already built one using routines but they are not sharing it unless you engage them directly. The main question is whether you really need data masking. Most sites make the ETL server secure and ...

Cost is a complex question and depends on the architecture you are interested in. I'm assuming both databases reside on the mainframe and you don't want to pull the data off, transform it and push it back on again. Without a doubt the cheapest way to use DataStage on the mainframe is Information Ser...

The safest way to use an environment variable in a DataStage job is to add it as a job parameter using the "Add Variable" button from the Job Parameter tab. The easiest way to add multiple variables to a job and map them through to a shared container is by using a Parameter Set. See my blog post Usi...

When I started using Workbench for the first time I got a Word document from IBM that explained how to use the Workbench. It went through all the steps of metadata stitching. I can't find it now (switched jobs and laptops since then) but there is a guide out there! Ask IBM support. I agree the produ...