Informatica Developer Tips for

Troubleshooting Common Issues

PowerCenter 8 Standard Edition

Eugene Gonzalez
Support Enablement Manager, Informatica

1
Agenda
Troubleshooting PowerCenter issues require a
combination of basic PowerCenter knowledge and
techniques
• Knowledge
• Understand the PowerCenter architecture and components
• Learn the other building blocks in the system
• Database
• Operating system

• Techniques
• Identify exact error message and search Knowledgebase
• Isolate the issue to a component, scenario or data element

2
Agenda

• Troubleshooting
• Installation and configuration
• Upgrading to PowerCenter 8
• Running Workflows and Sessions
• Performance issues

3
Troubleshooting : PowerCenter 8 -
Installation and configuration

4
Installation Resources

• Documentation
• Installation and Configuration Guide
• Administrator Guide
• Release notes

• “my.informatica.com” Support tab

• Documentation download
• Knowledge Base
• Support user tools
• SupportFlash
• Velocity

5
Before you Install

• Review
• Minimum system and OS patches requirements
• Database requirements
• Code page requirements
• Consistent 32 bit or 64 bit environment
• Open necessary network ports

• Remove old or any PowerCenter Environment

variables
• Don’t install all components at once

6
 PowerCenter 8 Architecture
Domain config
Metadata database
Node Service Manager
(Logging, Licensing,
Sources Domain config)
Targets

Application Services
Integration
Service

Repository
Service

Domain Repository
Repository
Metadata database

7
PowerCenter 8 – New concepts
• Default domain gateway node port
• http protocol 6001
• https protocol 8443
• Default services ports are dynamic with in default range : 6005 –
6105
• New Configuration files
• Domains.infa (Install Directory)
• nodemeta.xml (..\server\config)
• New admin console
• To assist in Administration, Configuration and Upgrades
• Service pack releases
• Integrated patch process

8
Server side Installer steps

• Extract files to temp directory and Copy the

Install files
• Get Domain , node and service information from
user
• Create a node
• Create services
• Start Node

9
Where exactly to look for errors?

• If domain creation/startup fails

• Installation logs (debug, install logs)
• exceptions.log (..\server\tomcat\logs)
• node.log (..\server\tomcat\logs)
• catalina.out (..\server\tomcat\logs)

• If Domain is up, for service level failures

• Domain and service log (Admin console)

10
Collecting log information
• InfaLogs (for PowerCenter 8x)
• InfaLogs aids the user to extract meaningful and necessary
PowerCenter log files (session Logs, repository server and agent
logs, pmserver logs, tomcat logs).
• catalina. Out
• node.log
• services.log
• exceptions.log
• WebServices_Hub.log
• Logs are collected and automatically placed in a zip file.
• The zip file can also be submitted to support
• Use of this tool allows the user to quickly get the logs without
needing the knowledge of where the logs are located.
• Download from “my.informatica” support tools.

11
Common Installation Problems

• Review the Installation steps using the log

• The installation log is located in the PowerCenter installation
directory.

• Identify specific error messages and search the Support

Knowledgebase
• my.informatica.com – Support tab

• Firewall settings
• Domain console hangs.
• Domain services begin to start but shuts down right away.
• Firewall port setting should not block PowerCenter ports.

12
Common Installation Problems

• Environmental variables settings will prevent a

domain service to start
• “path” or “library path” – service may not start because a
command or library may not be found.

• Wrong 32/64 bit-type of database library

• Repository service can fail to start because the database
client (oracle) pointing to the incorrect 64 bit library instead
of the 32 bit library.

13
Common Installation Problems

• LANG setting in UNIX or Database

• LANG, LC_CTYPE, or LC_ALL to set the UNIX code page
• If the local setting is not compatible with an existing
repository code page you can not create a Repository
Service. “local –a” returns the languages installed on the
UNIX system. Windows “mode” command returns the
windows console codepage.

• If all else fails – start over again

14
Support Scan Utility (SSCAN)

• Collects all the system, environment and the product

details on the machine hosting Informatica PowerCenter.
• System Information - OS, Memory, CPU, OS patches, etc.
• PowerCenter Information - environment variables, configuration,
etc.
• Database information – environment settings, library, database
version, etc.

• The output produced by the utility needs to be sent to

Informatica Customer Support for more detailed analysis
• Download from “my.informatica” support tools.

15
Tips and Techniques

• Restart server
• After installing drivers on Windows
• After installing patches

• Make sure the installation folder name does not contain

spaces
• Server host name resolution
• DNS server information may not be up-to-date
• Host file entry may need to be modified to a fully qualified entry.
• Example: server123 is used instead of
server123.europe.informatica.com

16
What info to send to support?
• InfaLogs – Collects relevant logs
• catalina. Out
• node.log
• services.log
• exceptions.log
• SSCAN – Collects system environmental information.
• Creates and xml file as an output
• Collects system, memory, path, and patch level information
• What to look for the tools output
• LANG settings
• System and library path
• Database client library path
• OS Patch information
• Error messages
• Download tools from “my.informatica” support tools.

17
Upgrading to PowerCenter 8 Using the
Upgrade Planner

18
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

• Planning upgrade use the PowerCenter 8.5

multimedia tutorial.
• Available at the “my.informatica” “Online
Support” page.

19
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Topics Covered
•e-learning module
•30 min duration
•Architectural overview
•Upgrade Paths
•Upgrade Process
•Architecture
•Upgrading from PC7.X or
from PC8.1.1
Functional Changes
Upgrade Resources

20
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Multimedia Presentation
Use button to mover
forward or backward

21
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

The Planner will ask questions

about your environment

22
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Multimedia Architectural Overview

23
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Presentation showing a PC7.X

objects relate to PC8.5

24
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining New Domain Security

25
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining System Requirements

26
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

In this example: Step by step upgrade process from

PC7.X to PC8.5

27
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining 32 bit and 64 bit drivers

28
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Walking through the installation process

29
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining upgrade options:

Upgrade Wizard or manually

30
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining Post Upgrade Steps

31
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining functionality changes between release levels

32
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Planner

Explaining available resources

33
PowerCenter 8.5 - Upgrade Resources
• Post-Upgrade Reference Documentation
• Post-Upgrade Summary e.g.

• FAQ: Global Customer Support PowerCenter 8.5

Installation and Upgrade FAQs

34
Tips and Techniques

• Review the installation process through the use

of the Informatica Support Center Upgrade
Planner.
• 30 minuets of your time well spent.

• Take Backup! Upgrade is not reversible.

• If you are upgrading an existing a “live”
repository make sure no agent is running against
that repository.

35
Tips and Techniques

• Compare Utility (New) Compare Utility - test tool to

validate upgrades or simply compare between 2 instances
of PowerCenter.
• Some of the things you may do with the tool include:
• Compare the relational and flat file outputs of any workflows pre
and post upgrade for differences.
• See how your repository objects have been affected by the
upgrade.
• Generate reports detailing any differences that were found.

• Download from “my.informatica” support tools.

36
What info to send to support?

• SSCAN – Collects system environmental

information.
• Creates and xml file as an output
• Collects system, memory, path, and patch level information

• Repository service log

• Domain log
• Old repository backup (if necessary)

37
Troubleshooting PowerCenter

38
Troubleshooting Notes

• First, always verify domain is running

• The domain will not run unless it can access the domain
tables

• Reasons you can’t connect to the repository:

• Domain is running, but Repository Service failed to start
• Domain is not running

• Reasons the Integration Service might not start:

• Its associated repository is not running
• Domain is running, but Integration Service failed to start
• Domain is not running

39
Verify Domain is Running

• Try to log in to the Administration Console

• If you do not see a login screen, start Informatica
Services
• If you still do not see a login screen, use the
domain check, enter this URL:
• http://<hostname>:<portnum>/coreservices/DomainService
• E.g. http://p161585:6001/coreservices/DomainService
• URL is case sensitive
• Returns domain status

40
Domain Check

Domain is running fine in this example.

41
If Domain is Not Running
Service Manager Log File

• If domain is not running, read node.log for

gateway node
• /server/tomcat/logs directory
• Stores log events generated during the startup of
the Service Manager on a node
• Use to learn why any Service Manager for a node
failed to start
• E.g., if the Service Manager cannot connect to the domain
configuration database after 30 seconds, the Service
Manager fails to start

42
If Domain is Running

• Verify if application service started

• If application service did not start, check Logs
tab
• Tip: Click the Logs tab for the application service to quickly
search for related log events

• Read ERROR messages for cause of error

• Fix error, then disable and enable application
service

43
Understanding Log Events
• The Service Manager and application services send log events
to the LogManager. The Log Manager generates log events for
each service type. To view the log events in the Log Viewer, you
must configure the type of log events you want to search for in
the Log Viewer.
• You can view the following log event types in the Log Viewer:
• Domain log events.
• Repository Service log events. .
• Integration Service log events.
• Metadata Manager Service log events.
• SAP BW Service log events.
• Web Services Hub log events.

44
Understanding Log Events

• The Log Viewer categorizes events by service type or

domain category based on the type of service you view.
• Severity - The severity level for the log event.
• Time stamp - Date and time the log event occurred.
• Node - Node reporting the event.
• Thread - Identification number or name of a thread started by a
Repository Service process or name of a thread started by an
Integration Service process
• ProcessID - The process identification number for the Windows
or UNIX service process that generated the log event.
• Message code - Troubleshooting Guide
• Message – Message text for logged event.

45
Log Events
Example: Integration Service logged event

46
 Application Service Log Events

Use to search for any log event Returns log events

from domain or any service. for this service only.

47
Application Service Log Events

48
 Application Service Log Events

Display Settings
select columns
to be displayed

49
 Managing Application Service Logs

Default log directory

Log Management

50
Domain Audit Reports

51
Integration Service Changes

52
Integration Service Process(es)
• Manages workflow
scheduling.
• Locks and reads the
workflow.
• Reads the parameter file.
• Creates the workflow log.
• Runs workflow tasks and
evaluates the conditional
links connecting tasks.
• Starts the DTM process
or processes to run the
session.
• Writes historical run
information to the
repository.
• Sends post-session
email in the event of a
DTM failure.
53
Integration Service Load Balancer

• Component of the Integration Service that dispatches

tasks to achieve optimal performance and scalability.
• Dispatches the Session, Command, and predefined Event-
Wait tasks within the workflow.
• The Load Balancer matches task requirements with
resource availability to identify the best node to run a
task.
• On GRID uses dispatch mode, Round-robin, Metric-based,
Adaptive

54
Integration Service DTM
Data Transformation Manager (DTM)
• Retrieves and validates session • Runs pre-session shell commands,
information from the repository. stored procedures, and SQL.

• Performs pushdown optimization • Sends a request to start worker DTM

processes on other nodes when the
• Manages dynamic partitioning. session is configured to run on a
grid.
• Manages partition groups on a grid.
• Creates and runs mapping, reader,
• Expands the service process
writer, and transformation threads
variables, session parameters, and
to extract, transform, and load data.
mapping variables and parameters.
• Runs post-session stored
• Creates the session log.
procedures, SQL, and shell
• Validates source and target code commands.
pages.
• Sends post-session email.
• Verifies connection object
permissions.

55
Integration Service DTM

• The Master thread spawns five different thread

types:
• Mapping
• Pre/Post Processing
• Reader
• Transformation Mapping
Thread

• Writer DTM Master

Thread

Pre-Session Post-Session
Thread Thread
Transformation
Thread
Reader Writer
Thread Thread

56
Troubleshooting :
workflow and session issues

57
Important session settings

• Integration service code page

• Debug settings (Test load, verbose log)
• Error tolerance (Stop on error)
• Memory settings

58
Finding Workflow and Session Information
Using MetaQuery 1.0

• Metaquery is the tool to query against Informatica

PowerCenter repository for some of the key properties in
session, workflow and mapping objects.
• Saves time to gather information regarding properties set
in any of these session or workflow properties across a
repository
• GUI based tool.
• Report can be exported into a readable excel sheet or
notepad file.
• Download the tool from “my.informatica” support page.

59
Using MetaQuery 1.0
Question: What sessions have the DTM buffer set to AUTO?

Database Type (Currently oracle and db2)

Repository Database User ID and Password
Database Connect String form “//hostname:port;SID=sid”

60
Using MetaQuery 1.0
DTM Buffer Size

Record selection
or all records

61
Using MetaQuery 1.0

Excel

Notepad

62
Log files

Check log files for other problems

• Session log
• Workflow log
• Integration service log

63
Tips and Techniques

• Isolate
• Is it the reader, writer or the transformation ?
• Has the session ever worked before?
• If yes, has anything changed since then to cause the
problem?
• Is it the only one session failing ?
• Is it due to a specific data row/feature ?
• Is the issue consistent ?
• Change settings one at a time.

64
Tips and Techniques

• Most reader/writer errors are database errors

• Search knowledgebase (my.informatica.com)
• Search the web ( Google, yahoo )
• Use debugger to verify transformation issues
• Try session operation outside of PowerCenter
• Try Export and re-import

65
What info to send to support?

• Session log, workflow log

• Workflow export from repository manager
• SSCAN output
• Stack trace from core file using pmstack tool
• The pmstack utility is a Unix script file that retrieves the
stack trace from a core file or hanging process and creates
an output file that can be sent to Informatica support for
analysis of the problem.
• Download the tool from “my.informatica” support page.

66
Troubleshooting :
Session performance

67
 Session environment
Node
Service Manager
Session 1 Mapping
Thread
DTM Master
Thread

Pre-Session Post-Session
Thread Thread
Transformation
Thread
Reader Writer
Thread Thread

Session 2 Mapping
Thread
DTM Master
Thread

Pre-Session Post-Session
Thread Thread
Transformation Repository
Thread
Reader Writer
Thread Thread

68
Understanding Session Thread Statistics

• Many factors affect session performance

• Hardware configuration (Network, CPUs, Memory, Disk
I/O, etc,)
• Source and Target data types and configuration (database,
flat file, message que, etc.)
• Session configuration (mapping strategy, transformations,
session parameters, pre/post session processing).

69
Thread Types

Mapping One thread for each session.

Fetches session and mapping information.
Compiles the mapping.
Cleans up after session execution.

Pre/Post Processing One thread each to perform pre- and post-session operations.

Reader (Provider) One thread for each partition for each source pipeline.
Reads from sources.
Relational sources use relational reader threads, and file sources use
file reader threads.

Transformation One or more transformation threads for each partition.

Processes data according to the transformation logic in the mapping.

Writer (Consumer) One thread for each partition, if a target exists in the source pipeline.
Writes to targets.
Relational targets use relational writer threads, and file targets use file
writer threads.

70
Session architecture

Reader Transformation Transformation Writer

***** RUN INFO FOR TGT LOAD ORDER GROUP [1], CONCURRENT SET [1] *****
Thread [READER_1_1_1] created for [the read stage] of partition point
[SQ_ods_invoice_summary_ff] has completed: Total Run Time = [39.875000] secs, Total Idle Time =
[18.359375] secs, Busy Percentage = [53.957680].
Thread [TRANSF_1_1_1] created for [the transformation stage] of partition point
[SQ_ods_invoice_summary_ff] has completed: Total Run Time = [55.046875] secs, Total Idle Time =
[0.562500] secs, Busy Percentage = [98.978144].
Thread [TRANSF_1_2_1] created for [the transformation stage] of partition point [AGGTRANS] has
completed: Total Run Time = [12.187500] secs, Total Idle Time = [2.718756] secs, Busy
Percentage = [77.692261].
Thread [WRITER_1_*_1] created for [the write stage] of partition point [EDW_INVOICE_SUM] has
completed. The total run time was insufficient for any meaningful statistics.

71
PowerCenter Performance Features

• Pipelined transformation-read/write/transform in
parallel
• Parallelism at data level by partitioning
• Bulk load support/Native drivers support
• High speed, memory-based binary search for
Lookup transformations
• Aggregations, sorting done fully in memory

72
PowerCenter 8 – New concepts

• Pushdown optimization
• Concurrent lookup caching
• Auto memory settings
• Lookup – any row matching, lookup override
• Session on grid
• Repagent caching
• Concurrent workflows
• Bigint Precision of 19

73
Performance Tuning – Iterative process

• Set realistic goals on Performance Tuning

• Establish a baseline before starting Performance Tuning
• Tuning requires a simple, iterative approach
• 1) Find the biggest performance bottleneck
• 2) Eliminate or reduce it
• 3) Go back to step 1

74
 Performance Tuning Areas
PowerCenter Performance and Tuning Guide
• Covers the following areas:
• Identify Bottlenecks
• Optimizing:
• Mappings
• Sources / Targets
• Transformations
• Sessions
• Grid Deployment
• Partitioning
• Use of performance counters

75
#1: Reduce Network traffic and Disk I/O

• Network traffic
• Move target database to ETL server
• Local disk is faster than network

• Disk I/O
• Reduce paging
• Reduce I/O contention (spread source, target and cache)

76
#2: Optimizing Mappings

• Extract only what you need

• Filter as soon as possible
• Minimize Error rows
• Use flat files for staging temporary data
• Reducing Disk I/O (Aggregate, Joiner)
• Use Update strategy instead of Update else Insert
• Avoid using Sequence Generators with no. of cached
value as 1

77
#3: Optimizing Sessions

• Analyze session to log look for transformation cache

memory usage
• Cache Memory Settings – Try ‘Auto’ first
• KB article : 20919 – “HOW TO: Improve session performance
using Automatic Memory Settings in PowerCenter 8.1”

• Bulk loading – For Insert with no constraints

• Reduce Error Tracing
• Run concurrent sessions

78
#3: Optimizing Sessions - Session Logs
Statistics
Thread [READER_1_1_1] created for [the read stage] of partition point [SQ_ods_invoice_summary_ff] has completed:
Total Run Time = [39.875000] secs, Total Idle Time = [18.359375] secs, Busy Percentage = [53.957680].
Thread [TRANSF_1_1_1] created for [the transformation stage] of partition point [SQ_ods_invoice_summary_ff] has
completed: Total Run Time = [55.046875] secs, Total Idle Time = [0.562500] secs, Busy Percentage =
[98.978144].
Thread [TRANSF_1_2_1] created for [the transformation stage] of partition point [AGGTRANS] has completed: Total
Run Time = [12.187500] secs, Total Idle Time = [2.718756] secs, Busy Percentage = [77.692261].
Thread [WRITER_1_*_1] created for [the write stage] of partition point [EDW_INVOICE_SUM] has completed. The
total run time was insufficient for any meaningful statistics.

• Busy Percentages can identify potential bottlenecks

• Adjust your mappings to level out the bottlenecks
• Here the transformation is of bottleneck – consider partitioning
• Don’t need 100% utilization but should be high and close
together

79
#4: Optimizing Sources/Targets

• Review the database constraints and indexes

• Eliminate database (transaction) logging
• Update database statistics regularly and use
cost based optimizer
• Align DB partitioning with session partitions
• Create tables with optimal storage parameters

80
Performance Analyzer 1.0

• The purpose of the Performance Analyzer is:

• To Read the mapping XML
• To Calculate the required cache and DTM size
• To Analyze the amount of memory allocated
• To generate a XML, based on which the performance is
analyzed. The analysis is done at two levels Mapping and
Session level.
• Mapping level – calculates cache sizes
• Session level – calculates DTM buffer

81
 Performance Analyzer 1.0

Export mapping in xml

•Specify precision
•Enter the number of row
•to be processed
•Enter the nubmer of partitions
•Select the “Analyze Mapping”
button

82
Performance Analyzer 1.0

83
Summary

• Q&A

84
85