StarQuest Technical Documents

Using StarSQL with Informatica PowerCenter

Last Update: 3 March 2016
Product: StarSQL
Version: 5.x
Article ID: SQV00SQ060

Abstract

StarSQL can be used to integrate DB2 data in Informatica PowerCenter's enterprise data integration solution.

This document dicusses issues that may occur when using Informatica PowerCenter with StarSQL and their solutions.

Hints

Informatica on UNIX systems typically use the DataDirect ODBC Driver Manager - see Using StarSQL for UNIX with the DataDirect ODBC Driver Manager for more information.

When using DataDirect, be sure to specify the DD_INSTALLDIR environment variable or InstallDir in the [ODBC] section of your odbc.ini file in order to display error and warning messages from the Driver Manager.

The Informatica-supplied application ssgodbc can be used to verify that the StarSQL driver can be loaded and can connect to the DB2 host.

We have encountered issues on UNIX when using Informatica with the combination of StarSQL 6.x (Unicode driver) and the DataDirect Driver Manager, which may be the result of a warning message returned by the DataDirect Driver Manager when it discovers that StarSQL 6.x is a UTF-16 Unicode driver. We recommend using either StarSQL 5.63 (ANSI driver) with the Informatica-supplied DataDirect Driver Manager, or StarSQL 6.x with the unixODBC Driver Manager supplied with StarSQL.

Issue

A customer using 64-bit Informatica PowerCenter 9.5.1 on a 64-bit Linux server with StarSQL for Linux 5.x noticed that some rows retrieved from DB2 were being displayed as blank.

Solution

Upgrade to StarSQL 5.63 or later.

OR

Configure Informatica PowerCenter as follows:

1. In Administration Console, click on Integration Service
   
2. Expand Custom Properties
   
3. Add a property called OptimizeODBCRead with value No
   
4. Restart Integration Service