Level 1 Course Agenda 1.

An Overview of Informatica PowerCenter 9

Overview of PowerCenter covering areas such as the Architecture, Terminology, Tools GUI, Mappings, Transformations, Sessions, Workflows and Workflow Monitor

2. ETL Fundamentals How to create:

Flat file and relational Sources using the Source Analyzer Flat file and relational Targets using the Target Developer Mappings using the Mapping Designer Workflows using the Workflow Designer Monitor the workflow using the Workflow Monitor Preview Target Data using the PowerCenter Designer

3. Trouble Shooting Understand PowerCenter Log files Use PC log files to:

View and look up error messages Correct mapping and workflow errors

4. PowerCenter Transformations, Tasks and Reusability

Define list of PC Designer Transformations and Workflow Tasks Clarify Active vs. Passive Transformations Use the Expression Transformation and Editor in a mapping which applies a file list to load multiple flat files into a stage table utilizing expression and filter transformations to format and screen erroneous customer data. Use Reusable Designer Transformations to apply same formatting logic to Employee records

5. Joins and Link Conditions

Define Joins Clarify Heterogeneous vs Homogeneous Joins Use a Joiner Transformation to join relational and flat file sources Use the Source Qualify to join two relational sources Make use of Link Conditions to execute one session when the first finishes successfully.

6. Using the Debugger

Outline Debugger Interface Show creation of a break point Show Evaluate the Expression functionality Re-Execute mapping with different values

7. Sequence Generators, Lookups and Caching

Define the Sequence Generator Define the Lookup Transformation What are the different types of Lookups? Clarify Lookup Caching Use a Flat File Lookup to add data to a relational target. Build a Dates Lookup Cache for use in determining start and end dates of target records Utilize Event Wait, Event Timer and Email Tasks to wait for flat files and email users upon successful/failed load.

8. Update Strategies, Routers and Overrides

Build a mapping that uses Update Strategies and Routers to determine insert/update logic for a target. Overrides will be used for incremental (daily) loading of the target.

9. Sorter, Aggregator, Unconnected Lookups, Mapping Parameter/Variables and Mapplets /Worklets.

Define Sorter Transformation Detail Aggregator Transformation and Aggregate Functions Explain Unconnected Lookups and how they are called. Describe Mapping Parameters/Variables and initialization priority Outline Mappets and Worklets Use these Transformations to create a mapping which loads records from warehouse Dimension tables to a Fact table.

10. Workflow Variables and Tasks

Use PC workflow variables to pass information from one point in a workflow to another. Use an Assignment task to establish the value of a workflow variable within a workflow Use a decision task to set criteria by which the workflow will decide which execution branch to follow

11. Parameter Files and Command Tasks

Use a Parameter file to make mappings and workflows more flexible by defining values for mapping variables, source files, database connections for sessions and workflow log files. Command Tasks will be used to run scripts to rename and move files.

12. Dynamic Lookups and Error Logging/Handling

Use Dynamic Lookup, Router and Update Strategy in a mapping do a lookup on the target table and determine if the record should be an insert, update or logged to a file as an error. Use PowerCenter Best Practices to create a mapping to trap fatal and non-fatal errors.

13. More Lookup Functionality

Create a Multiple Row Return Lookup, use Aggregators and Expressions to count the number of orders a Customer has as well as total the sales for that customer. Add those values to a target.

14. Mapping Design Workshop

Business requirements details will be provided so that the student can design and build their own mapping necessary to load a Promotions Aggregate table. The workshop will provide Velocity Best Practices documents that can be used to determine the correct logic for the mapping.

15. Workflow Design Workshop

Business requirements details will be provided so that the student can design and build their own workflow necessary to load all staging tables in a single workflow. The workshop will provide Velocity Best Practices documents that can be used to determine the correct logic for the workflow

Level 2 Course Agenda 1. PowerCenter Overview

Describe the Components of the PowerCenter 9 Architecture and define key terms. Describe PowerCenter's optional and built-in high availability features.

2. User-Defined & Advanced Functions

Describe User Defined Function to Create Entity Types. Describe & implement advanced functions.

3. Pivoting Data

Describe the use of the normalizer and aggregator transformation to normalize and de-normalize date.

4. Stored Procedure & SQL Transformations

Describe the use of the Stored Procedure transformation in a mapping or mapplet. Describe the uses of the SQL Transform.

5. Transaction Processing

Describe Source based & Target based transaction controls with and without high availability option. Describe the use of PowerCenter constraint-based loading in databases with referential integrity constraints.

6. Transaction Control Transform

Describe the use of the transaction control transformation for data-driven transaction control. Describe control when data is committed to disk or the target database.

7. Workflow & Task Recovery

Describe workflow and task recovery with and without the high availability option. Recover tasks and workflows that stop, abort or terminate. Explain and use PowerCenter's built-in recovery capabilities.

Explain the user-designed recovery techniques. Design error handling strategies appropriate for the intended purpose of a workflow.

8. Command Line Utilities

Use pmcmd to start, restart and recover workflows. Use pmrep for object export, mass validation, object import, back-up and EBF migration of a unit or work.

9. Performance Tuning: Methodology

Describe Performance counters. Describe busy percentages & how they help in bottleneck isolation. Describe thread utilization to identify a target bottleneck. Describe thread utilization to identify a transformation bottleneck. Describe thread utilization to identify a source bottleneck. Describe types of target bottlenecks: database, network, disk & PowerCenter. Describe 3 alternatives to the update-else-insert scenario. Describe how transaction control impacts performance. Describe Types of source bottlenecks: database, network, disk & PowerCenter. Describe tune the line sequential buffer. Describe external loader effects on targe bottlenecks.

10. Performance Tuning: Mapping Design

Explain types of data type conversion: port-to-port, expression-to-port and explicit. Identify which transformations increase or decrease the number of rows. Explain the performance implications of the stored procedure vs. the SQL transformation.

11. Performance Tuning: Caching & Memory Optimization

Describe data caching & RAM memory optimization techniques to improve session performance Describe DTM buffer pool optimization.

12. Performance Tuning: Partitions

Describe how pipelines & partitions affect performance. Describe 3 options for merging partitions: sequential, concurrent & file list. Describe how partitioning affects the DTM buffer pool.