Unable to import sequential file metadata into IA

[chuckd248]

I am at a customer site... using IA 8.1... trying to run analysis against sequential text files (.txt)... Windows XP environment... I create the ODBC for the source... I create the data store, data source in IA... I go to 'Import Metadata' and 'Identify Next Level' where it DOES show me the Data Source name and that there is a schema below it... however, when I hilite the schema name and click 'Identify Next Level' it says it is 'Finished' but none of the columns appear and 'Import' continues to be grayed out... I've changed and re-changed to ODBC many times trying to get it to work... I've tried many different delimeters, column headers and not, .TXT and .CSV, etc.... and I always end up at the same spot... am I missing something???... is there a little-known trick to make this work???... accessing DB tables works just fine... as an FYI, I do NOT have access to DataStage or any other IS product to try to bring the metadata in differently... if anyone can help or make suggestions, it would be appreciated...

[lstsaur]

Did you put your QETXT.INI file in the same directory with your .txt files?

[chuckd248]

Did you put your QETXT.INI file in the same directory with your .txt files?

My IA installation is completely on my Windows XP desktop PC... the IA server and client are installed to my local C: drive... the source files are located in my local D: drive...

When I set up the ODBC connection to access the file, a QETXT,ini file is generated automatically and placed in the same directory location as the file itself...

All required services were up and running...

I remain baffled...

[sjfearnside]

Did you check to make sure both agents are up? If not, try the commands in my previous post to verify the agents are up.

[chuckd248]

Did you check to make sure both agents are up? If not, try the commands in my previous post to verify the agents are up.

Are these Windows agents/services???... if they are, I do not see either 'LoggingAgentSocketImp' or 'AgentImpl' in Administrative Tools> Services...

It DOES show 'Logging Agent' running ("C:\IBM\InformationServer\ASBNode\bin\LoggingAgent.exe" -Z "LoggingAgent")... I also have ASB Agent, WAS, and DB2 running...

Thoughts???...

[sjfearnside]

Sorry but I have not worked in a windows server environment and can not translate the agent names. This is a solution passed to me from the vendor where I had a similiar situation and it worked for me. You may need to dig around to find the complemntary name in the windows environment.

I was also informed by the vendor that there were allot of rollup patches for Information Analyzer. There have been quite a few bug fixes and added functionality in the Rollups. Check your version.xml to see if you have the latest patch installed.

[chulett]

So... your server is installed on a Windows XP box? Since the only 'supported' Windows O/S for IA is Server 2003 SP2, I wonder if that could be the problem? Or at least a problem.

[lstsaur]

Chuckd248,
Since you said that you have no problems with DB tables, so that means your IA is up and running just fine. Your problem is only against the .txt file. That's why you need to bring in the QETXT.INI file in order to do the column anaysis against the .txt file. Browse your QETXT.INI file to see the .txt files definitions are defined correctly. BTW, what you mean by your QETXT.INI was created automatically when you created an ODBC DSN? No such thing.

[chuckd248]

Chuckd248,
Since you said that you have no problems with DB tables, so that means your IA is up and running just fine. Your problem is only against the .txt file. That's why you need to bring in the QETXT.INI file in order to do the column anaysis against the .txt file. Browse your QETXT.INI file to see the .txt files definitions are defined correctly. BTW, what you mean by your QETXT.INI was created automatically when you created an ODBC DSN? No such thing.

Right... I have no trouble accessing DB tables... my issue is with a .TXT file... very basic file... 5 rows, 8 columns/fields...

And YES, when I set up the ODBC for that file, it DOES create a QETXT.ini in the same directory where the file resides... to make sure I wasn't crazy after reading your posting, I went into the directoy, deleted the existing QETXT.ini file, deleted the existing ODBC DSN for that file, created a brand new ODBC DSN for the file, and when I closed that down, there was a new QETXT.ini file in the directory with the file... this is what it looks like:

[Defined Tables]
PRODUCT.TXT=PRODUCT
[PRODUCT]
FILE=PRODUCT.TXT
FLN=0
DC=|
TT=Character
Charset=ANSI
DS=.
FIELD1=Producuct_ID,NUMERIC,10,0,10,0,
FIELD2=Product_Name,VARCHAR,50,0,50,0,
FIELD3=Product_Description,VARCHAR,200,0,200,0,
FIELD4=Product_Category_ID,NUMERIC,10,0,10,0,
FIELD5=Insert_Time,VARCHAR,26,0,26,0,
FIELD6=Last_Update_Time,VARCHAR,26,0,26,0,
FIELD7=Last_Update_By,VARCHAR,50,0,50,0,
FIELD8=IS_Taxable,VARCHAR,1,0,2,0,

And here is the flat file:

1|Email Marketing|Email Marketing|1|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|billing|Y
2|Survey|Survey|1|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|billing|Y
3|Image Hosting|Premium Image Hosting|2|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|2007-04-14 05:27:01.499599|billing|Y
4|Archive|Archive|2|2007-10-06 06:21:42.871629|2007-10-06 06:21:42.871629|R2007-CC-005|Y
5|Event Planning|Event Planning|1|2009-01-17 06:55:40.662986|2009-01-17 06:55:40.662986|R2009-CC-001|Y

Anything wrong jump out at you???...

[sjfearnside]

After researching the Information Server Administration Guide - page 59, I found the following which appears to reference the agents in the windows environment.

'...IBM Information Server components:
a. Stop the following services: ASB Agent, Logging Agent, DataStage Telnet Service, DSRPC Server, and DataStage Engine Resource Service.

Windows: Select Control Panel → Administration Tools → Services or stop the services from the command line using the following commands: sc stop ASBagent sc stop Logging Agent sc stop dsrpc sc stop dstelnet sc stop DSEngine.

Maybe this would be of assistance to you to verify the agents are up and running. At least you could eliminate that from the possible problems.

Reference to Information Server V8.0.1

[chuckd248]

After researching the Information Server Administration Guide - page 59, I found the following which appears to reference the agents in the windows environment.

'...IBM Information Server components:
a. Stop the following services: ASB Agent, Logging Agent, DataStage Telnet Service, DSRPC Server, and DataStage Engine Resource Service.

Windows: Select Control Panel → Administration Tools → Services or stop the services from the command line using the following commands: sc stop ASBagent sc stop Logging Agent sc stop dsrpc sc stop dstelnet sc stop DSEngine.

Maybe this would be of assistance to you to verify the agents are up and running. At least you could eliminate that from the possible problems.

Reference to Information Server V8.0.1

Thanks... all those services are up and running

[sjfearnside]

Great. The service kept falling over on me and I incurred close to the same problems you are describing. At least now we know that it not the issue. Have a good weekend.