BASCI Transformer in PX Jobs, not recommended or what ?

Chuah · Post by **Chuah** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:52 pm

Hi,

Just want to sus out what the general opinion is of using BASIC Transformers in PX jobs, is it safe or advisable to use them ?
Does it cause instability in jobs and cause random crashing etc ?
Should I even consider using them or are they to be avoided at all cost?

Cheers
optimus

kumar_s · Post by **kumar_s** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:38 pm

The BASIC Transformer stage in parallel jobs uses the BASIC run machine that used in Server jobs. Hence it need to be loaded when the parallel job is executed.
But it gives you richness of the function set in BASIC.
Do a search on "Basic Transformer",you ll find numerous post.

Chuah · Post by **Chuah** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:15 pm

kumar_s wrote:The BASIC Transformer stage in parallel jobs uses the BASIC run machine that used in Server jobs. Hence it need to be loaded when the parallel job is executed.
But it gives you richness of the function set in BASIC.
Do a search on "Basic Transformer",you ll find numerous post.

Thanks for your reply,Kumar. I had indeed searched on that topic but it does not answer my question. To rephrase that , would you then use that in your PX jobs. Yes or No ?

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:38 am

In SMP environments they can be used, but best plan is not to because of the performance overheads in translating data between environments (Orchestrate Framework to/from DataStage BASIC).

In MPP environments they can only be used on those machines where the full DataStage server is installed. This is probably too great a restriction in most cases.

As a general rule, avoid unless you have a genuine need to use BASIC functionality. And even then, constrain execution to a node pool that includes the Conductor node only.

Klaus Schaefer · Post by **Klaus Schaefer** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:41 am

From my experiences at several customer sites:

Don't use it!
Yes, it may cause instability for the whole system.
Yes, it may even crash your system.
If you're not coming from a previous server site and want to use it just for a migration period: NEVER EVER think about using the BASIC transformer in EE jobs!!

Klaus

rameshrr3 · Post by **rameshrr3** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:05 am

Herr Schaefer , Did i meet you in Novartis Basel sometime last year?

By the way what could i use in a parallel job that would allow me to have a similar functionality as a Transformer in Server would allow me? Or is it dependent on the specific operation on incoming data?

Thanks
Ramesh

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:32 pm

There is a perfectly serviceable Transformer stage for parallel jobs - use that. It doesn't do reference lookups - there is a Lookup stage for that. But it does have stage variables, output link constraints and column derivations. It generates C++ rather than DataStage BASIC, but so what?

rameshrr3 · Post by **rameshrr3** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:52 am

The first time i used a parallel transformer , the job failed compilation, till i fixed the missing c++ compiler problem. :D . Took me a while to figure that out, without using dsxchange. Dont know why , but the install document mentioned that solaris has a sun studio compiler 8 by default, but in my case it was missing and i had to fight a few paper tigers to get the admin staff to install it.

Thanks