Newbie question regarding a debugger

LittelTony · Post by **LittelTony** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:04 am

Hi all,
i worked in the past with SSIS but now i've just started to use Datastage and i'm looking for something similar to the DataViewer of SSIS (an instrument to display data during the execution of job).
Is there something similar to it?
Could you suggest me some link/tutorial to start learning it?

Thanks in advance

Simon

udayk_2007 · Post by **udayk_2007** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:27 am

Refer to DataStage Parallel Job Developer Guide.Its a nice document to start with

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:57 am

Welcome aboard.

The specific functionality you ask about is called the Data Browser in DataStage; it's invoked usually by clicking on a View Data button or link.

There is a tutorial that ships with DataStage software; find the tutorial manual in your documentation set and work with that.

LittelTony · Post by **LittelTony** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:51 am

Hi,
i saw the View Data button but (if i understand well) it works when i'm in design mode and not during the execution like the tool of SSIS.

About the documentation the software is not mine but it's installed at our customer server where we can connect just with remote desktop sofware and on that is installed ONLY Datastage and that's all. So, unfortunately, i cannot look at the tutorial you talked about it.

netgurutoo · Post by **netgurutoo** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:40 am

I think the documentation is part of every install. Just go to programs from the start menu then IBM Information Server... ? Documentation.... If that option is not in the programs menu you can just click on the Help button in any stage properties page or tab... that will get you some documentation

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:26 am

Simon, it looks like you seek functionality that doesn't exist: debugging access to the data being processed while the job is running. DS provides Peek and other debug stages, but I don't see that helping you.

The only workaround I can think of is to insert copy stages at the points where you want to examine the data. The secondary link would be to a file stage. This would give you, at best, a hindsight perspective on the data at those points.

Good luck.

naveen.p · Post by **naveen.p** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:26 am

Hi,

We don't have a functionality of Data Viewer during the execution of the Jobs.

Naveen

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:54 am

The Server product has always had an interactive debugger, thought the same would make it into the PX side of the house eventually but for whatever reason it hasn't happened yet.

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:02 am

chulett wrote:The Server product has always had an interactive debugger, thought the same would make it into the PX side of the house eventually but for whatever reason it hasn't happened yet.

Considering the functionality DS offers, I was honestly surprised that PX did not have interactive debugging. Debug stages feels like an old-timer's solution, like inserting debug/display code into Cobol programs.

That's my comparison point, and why I speculate that interactive debugging is likely far down on anyone's development list: Micro Focus' Cobol development suite has it, in spades, and the accompanying software and hardware footprint is enormous. I don't know of a Cobol developer who bemoans the cost -- indeed, Micro Focus provides economies and efficiencies for Cobol on the same scale as DS does for ETL -- but they had it very early on and kept it a high priority in subsequent versions. If IBM has to do something like it from scratch, I think we are are well-advised to not hold our breaths.

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:09 am

Most (all?) other ETL tools provide one so it surprises me that there still isn't one for DataStage even given the fact that it will need to be scratch-built.

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:19 am

Point taken, Craig. Permit me a moment of cynicism, though: in the ETL world, where does DataStage stand? Is it at risk of losing market share, or would it remain competitive without what the competitors have? If the reality is the latter, I don't see them being motivated to get started.

Before I met Micro Focus, which thankfully was early in my Cobol career, I faced what most other Cobolers faced: massive assembler dumps, cryptic system and other software error messages, and legacy spaghetti code everyone prayed wouldn't break or wouldn't be assigned to them for maintenance or new code. I'm a relative newcomer to ETL and DataStage (four years in a vast realm does not make me a veteran, I would opine), and I've not seen an analogous aspect, certainly not in the DataStage environment. Shrug.

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:37 am

FranklinE wrote:If the reality is the latter, I don't see them being motivated to get started.

Point taken.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:48 pm

DataStage server jobs do have an interactive debugger. Creating one for parallel jobs is on IBM's roadmap, but it's a huge technical exercise - just imagine some of the challenges - for example tracing a row that may suddenly jump to a different machine on the network.