DSXchange

1) First things first...This may sound elementary but I need to know the exact name of DataStage v8. What I mean to ask here is just like v7 is called IBM WebSphere Enterprise Edition(formerly PX) - correct me if I am wrong here-, what is the corresponding term for v8.

2) Is v8 a scaled up version of v7.5? Is it downward compatible i.e. jobs created in 7.5 runs in v8 or not?

3) IBM has come up with certification exam for version 8. So can I directly go for it or do I need to complete certification for v7.5 yet

1) This week DataStage is called IBM InfoSphere DataStage. It is one of a number of products that run on IBM Information Server.

2) Version 8.0 is a differently architected product that provides all of the functionality of version 7.5 and more (except Version Control, which began life as a third party product), though sometimes in different ways - for example there is no Manager client in version 8; all of the Manager functionality has been moved into the Designer, which is a common designer for DataStage and QualityStage. Jobs created in version 7.5 will run in version 8.0 (all else being equal, like same hardware, same C++ compiler).

3) You don't need 7.5 certification to attempt the 8.0 certification exam. You probably do need lots of preparation and practice.

This week.

Thanks for the reply, Ray. I could not read it fully due to premium content. Anyways, I liked your humour 'This Week'..goes to show IBM's inconsistency. Also I came to know it has a lot of bugs. Is it true?

abhilashnair wrote:Also I came to know it has a lot of bugs. Is it true?

What do you mean by "it"?

I meant to say that the v8 has a lot of bugs. To cite one example that I know of is that the Oracle Load does not work correctly..ie we cant load to an oracle table directly. We have to do an upsert always.
So I was asking whether there are other bugs too?

Odd. I've been able to load Oracle table using Load mode.

Please note that version 8.0 had many issues but it was replaced with 8.0.1. Also, you need Fixpack 1A. It fixes many issues. In the Windows environment, you need the new version of the MKS toolkit otherwise you will received broken pipe errors.

I am planning to go for DS certification, I hear that IBM has come out with certification for v8.0 as well. So should I go for this one or the older one that is v7.5?

abhilashnair wrote:I am planning to go for DS certification, I hear that IBM has come out with certification for v8.0 as well. So should I go for this one or the older one that is v7.5?

Any suggestions on this?

DataStage 8 certification is better since it shows you know the latest version. It does need a bit more study than the 7.5 exam as there are new things to learn such as the slowly changing dimension stage, the MQ connector and the ODBC connector, the new search functions and the new admin console.

The code for it is 418. I took the version 8 certification last month. You need to read the documentation which ships with it for sure. DB2, Oracle and ODBC enterprise stages. NLS, MQ stage, Information Server Administration. Experience with Parallel job development for sure. i liked the paper as its based more on practical experience and is scenario oriented.

I don't know about the rest of the dbms stages, but there are plenty of bugs in the teradata transporter stage. this might be because its something new.