DSXchange

Hi guys,

I have some questions regarding DataStage 8.5, hope someone can help me with.

1. Is it straightforward and smooth to Migrate jobs from 8.1 DS to 8.5?
2. IBM have told me that stages like "Oracle Enterprise" have been removed for good due to technical issues, and they recommend using Connector stage instead. The question is, if I have 200+ jobs, and they use Enterprise stages, will I face jobs importing/compiling issues? What's the best practice?
3. Anyone had really tried 8.5 heavily yet? Your feedback/notes please.

Appreciate it.

With the installer you also get a utility that automatically converts your Enterprise stage types to equivalent Connector stages.

The Enterprise stages are still in version 8.5, they have not yet been removed. Connector stages are preferred as they are more robust, have better exception handling and are easier to share between jobs. The connector migration wizard makes it easy to migrate jobs from the Enterprise stage to the connector. Even if you do not use Connectors you can still use the Connector metadata import wizard to bring in table definitions as this can give a better quality of metadata than the Enterprise import. I found the Oracle Enterprise import used to have problems with date fields.

That's why I always use Orchestrate Schema to import metadata for Oracle Enterprise stage.

Last time I checked the Orchestrate schema import process was painful as it didn't let you choose a bunch of tables in one go. Connector import is the best of both worlds, multi table select and import as well as the right parallel data types.

ray.wurlod wrote:With the installer you also get a utility that automatically converts your Enterprise stage types to equivalent Connector stages. ...

Yeah I've seen that, never worked with it though. Hopefully gonna be a straightforward simple process.

vmcburney wrote:The Enterprise stages are still in version 8.5, they have not yet been removed. Connector stages are preferred as they are more robust, have better exception handling and are easier to share between jobs. The connector migration wizard makes it easy to migrate jobs from the Enterprise stage to the connector. Even if you do not use Connectors you can still use the Connector metadata import wizard to bring in table definitions as this can give a better quality of metadata than the Enterprise import. I found the Oracle Enterprise import used to have problems with date fields.

Oh it has been removed buddy, I'm pretty sure of that. I've done 8.5 installation last week for one of our clients, all went smooth but I got surprised there is no Enterprise stages. I googled, and got nothing, not even on IBM website. Had to call IBM and they started to mumble for a few days, unless confronted "YES IT IS NOT THERE ANYMORE".

The installation binaries was 8.5 64-bit for Windows 2003.

So let's make this topic more comprehensive, everyone who used it please mention the good and bad things so far:

As for myself I had a great installation experience. It was the most smooth, easy and reliable installation ever. The installer does everything from checking to configuration. No more painful checks. However, it's a bit slow, took around 6 hours (on high specs server).

Please add any experience you had here (installation, development, etc..).. And why do you think it's better than the older version?

Thanks

iHijazi wrote:Oh it has been removed buddy, I'm pretty sure of that. I've done 8.5 installation last week for one of our clients, all went smooth but I got surprised there is no Enterprise stages. I googled, and got nothing, not even on IBM website. Had to call IBM and they started to mumble for a few days, unless confronted "YES IT IS NOT THERE ANYMORE".

It might now be visible to you in current project's palette but Enterprise stages are available...

Click on View -> Customize Palette and got to Stage Types in project... you can add the stage to palette from there...

ersunnys wrote:

iHijazi wrote: Oh it has been removed buddy, I'm pretty sure of that. I've done 8.5 installation last week for one of our clients, all went smooth but I got surprised there is no Enterprise stages. I googled, and got nothing, not even on IBM website. Had to call IBM and they started to mumble for a few days, unless confronted "YES IT IS NOT THERE ANYMORE".

It might now be visible to you in current project's palette but Enterprise stages are available...

Click on View -> Customize Palette and got to Stage Types in project... you can add the stage to palette from there...

That is.. very correct actually! Never noticed that, and IBM just wanted to get rid of me Typical

Thanks man.

Ditto to the easier install comment above. I've installed 8.5 on various machine configurations about 15 times and each of them has been a far more smooth and enjoyable experience than times in the past with earlier releases. Average is about three hours for me so far....and without holding my breath. The pre-req checks are great, and I had one install pause for me while I went out and corrected something I left laying around (I had to delete a file used by WAS).

Ernie

I have to say 8.5 is significantly better than 8.0 or 8.1 in all regards, not just installation. Product is more stable and only has a few patches so far, most of which add new features.

The patching process is significantly easier as well, especially since you can add all your patches "at one go". So far what I've seen is 3 - 4 hours for initial install and about 30 - 45 minutes to add all significant patches.

I very much recommend using the (free to download) ISALite product if you are going to 8.5. It is a new customer service tool that (among other things) can check the pre-requisites for 8.5 and tell you what needs to be fixed before you install. It is about 98% accurate, only missed a couple of things the real install complained about.

The 8.5 install package also includes ISALite, but it's not necessarily the latest version.

Great info from all of you guys.

But, any new updates to the stages? Anything that significantly solves previous issues and make developer's life easier?

Please share, a lot would like to know (including me).

Here are a few to consider...

Multiple input links to a single Connector, such as DB2. That's a biggie, allowing me to do single connections with multiple SQL statements and one unit of work. A nice way of doing something that has been in Server for a long time.

The new XMLStage. Lots of info on that in devWorks, my blog (below), and Tony Curcio's blog (find his link at the right of my blog main page).

Enhancements to DTS. MQ to MQ and MQ to ODBC for distributed transactions. Adds to the power of doing this with DB2 and Oracle.

Ernie