DSXchange

I need to know if it is possible and if there is any problem in developing jobs/routine/sequencer in datastage 6.2 and then export them in datastage 5.2


thanks for any help!
best regard
AM

there are many things that you need to keep in my nind before doing this. The new features/stages introduced in 6.2 and that were not in 5.2 would defenitely be a problem.

I assume you would have already thought about this. But worth mentioning I guess.

A better option would be to install both 5.2 and 6.2 on your machine and get a copy of the Client Switcher application from someone with a 7.0 disk. Then you can do all your development in 5.2 and switch to 6.2 at any time. Upgrading a component from 5.2 to 6.2 is fully supported by Ascential but going the other way is not.

I haven't tried a downgrade before but my guess is that it would work. Those export text files are fairly simple and they are very similar between versions. You can run an experiment, move one of your 5.2 projects into version 6.2, export this project from both versions, run a text file comparison with a tool like Examdiff. This will show you what changes 6.2 makes to export files and you may need to do some modifications to them before putting them into 5.2.

I would expect sequence jobs and routines to move across okay as they are straight BASIC code. One possible problem is any database stages in your server jobs as the options for those stages often change between DataStage version.

I'd say that moving from version 5.x to anything earlier would be very hazardous but moving from 6.x to 5.x is easier as there is not much difference between these releases. You version 6 upgrade guide gives you a list of feature that were new for that version that will cause downgrade problems.

You cannot import a DS6 job into DS5, you get garbage.

Theoretically you could remove everything specific to 6.x from the DSX file and - as needed - change revision numbers of components and the ToolsVersion designator and it would work. But there is no documentation about what you would need to take out; you could put the hours in studying the same export from a 5.x and a 6.x system for the same job, but would the benefit be worth the cost?