New Informatica Interview Questions

1.       Name some Informatica Application Services

·         Repository Service

·         Integration Service

·         Data Integration Service

·         Metadata repository service.

·         Analyst Service.

2.       What is a Service Manager?

·         The service manager is the main service of Informatica which is responsible for running of other application services. When we start the Informatica services on the node, we are actually starting the Service manager. Default port 6005.

3.       From where can we call SQL functions in Informatica.

·         Pre/Post session level SQL

·         Source Qualifier override.

4.       What is the minimum number of ports required to Install Informatica.

·         6000 to 6113.

5.       Name the environment variables required to be set at Informatica level.

·         TNS_ADMIN

·         ORACLE_HOME

·         ORACLE_BASE

·         LD_LIBRARY_PATH

·         NLS_LANG

6.       Can you implement High Availability Architecture without a grid?

·         Yes, by adding nodes as primary and backup nodes under the same domain.License should have HA property.

7.       How do you configure a WSDL connection at session level?

·         As an application connectionà WSDL consumer-àAuthentication type Basic.

8.       Should the client and server for Informatica , be of the same version?

·         Yes

9.       What is Target Load Plan?

·         Please study from the guide and understand that the load can be prioritized even if the pipes are originating from the same source.

10.   How to switch off/start Informatica services?

·         Informatica/9.5.1/tomcat/bin infaservice.sh startup/shutdown.

11.   Give an example of usage of shell scripts in pre-post session.

·         Used to FTP the flat file on a particular folder in the unix box from where informatica could read it.

·         Do a validation check, pre-post count check of the feed being processed.

Update Strategy with WSDL target

While importing the Web Service (consumer) as a target we need to specify that the WSDL will be for :

1. insert
2. delete- select delete multiple not used delete record
3. Update

and then use Update strategy with different targets for different kind of DML operations.

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

We create virtual machines using the AWS EC2 component. We can create the instances in the following manner:

1.       Create a new instance (remote machine)

2.       Use the image of an existing image and customize it as per the need.

Creating a new EC2 instance

·         Click on instances.

·         Navigate to the page below

We can see two already created instances. For creating a new instance click on Launch instance.

Follow as per the snapshots below:

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)

Core Idea: Using the above link we will create a folder and upload the following software in this folder

·         Informatica Server – for windows 64 bit or 32 bit

·         Informatica Client  – for windows 64 bit or 32 bit

We shall be creating and shall be installing the Informatica server and clients on different virtual machines using the AWS. Once a VM is created in would use Internet Download manager to download the Informatica server or client from the folder created in S3, which would act as a central/global folder for such installations.

As a best practice it is advised to upload all the important s/w in the folder created using S3

AWS User guide.

Algorithm

Step 0 – Start

Step 1 – Access the link of the AWS

Step 2 – Creating a folder with re-usable components-S3

Step 3 - Creating an independent Virtual Machine

Step 3.1 - Creating a Virtual Machine from an image (AMI)

Step 4 – Creating a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).                 

Step 4.1   – Creating instances in a VPC

Step 5 – Creating/Associating/Dis-associating Elastic IPs

Step 6 - Precautions before shutting down work at AWS.

Step 7 – End

Below is the snapshot of all the services under the AWS environment that we see on first time login.

The system navigates to the above screen. i.e. The AWS Home Page. The three links to be explored here are (marked with green arrows):

11   S3 – (Simple Storage Service)

12   EC2 – (Elastic Compute Cloud)

13   VPC – (Virtual Private Cloud)

How to make an Oracle Relation Connection in Informatica

This was one of the most challenging parts.

Problem – You need to make an Oracle connection at Informatica level so that you may use the same for read/write.

Solution

1.       For Linux and Windows , you need to Install Oracle client (admin version) freely downloadable from the OTN.

a.       Be careful about the bit compatibility, the oracle client and Informatica server bit should be same i.e. 64 bit or 32 bit

2.       Once you have installed the oracle client in the Windows/Linux box along with the Informatica server, you need to make the following environment variable entries:

1. PATH=$PATH/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/client_1/bin
2. ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/client_1
3. ORACLE_BASE=/home/oracle/app/oracle
4. LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/oracle/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/client_1/lib
5. TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

Preferably you may make these entries at Informatica Administrator>Repository Services>Process tab>Env variables level.

3.       Now to connect to oracle database from Informatica, we can either use ODBC connection or Oracle connection.

a.       Connecting using Oracle drivers

                                                               i.      Make the TNS entry in the tnsnames.ora file,assuming the connection string name=Conn_string

                                                             ii.      At the workflow manager level you need to Connections>Relational Connections>Make new Connection

1.       You will have option of Oracle or ODBC connection, make Oracle connection for TNS entry

2.       Type in the credentials and make the connection string as  Conn_string same as TNS entry.

b.      Connecting using ODBC drivers (Approach not applicable for Linux only for Windows)

                                                               i.      You need to go to> Start>Administrative Tools>ODBC Data Sources>System DSN

                                                             ii.      Make a new System DSN give the DSN Name as Conn1

                                                            iii.      At the workflow manager level you need to Connections>Relational Connections>Make new Connection

1.       You will have option of Oracle or ODBC connection, make ODBC Connection

2.       Name the Connection String as Conn1

                

PMWS_33016--Informatica Authorization error

I have often faced difficulty in configuring a WSDL connection in the workflow manager.Hence listing down the steps:

1. Import the WSDL source/target as Import>WSDL Consumer.-Designer
2. navigate through the options of the import.-Designer
3. Make an application connection in workflow manager as a Web Service consumer connection.
4.Make sure of setting the connection authentication mode as Basic and not PEM. 
5.Enter username and password, Domain need not be entered.