Informatica PowerExchange can integrate PowerCenter with i5/OS. PWX listener job which runs on I5/OS (as/400, iseries) takes part in code page conversion. Setting CCSID for the job equal to 65535 causes peculiar errors. It is due to lack of the code page conversion when there is no interaction witch physical files. For instance, following sql sentence written in Source Qualifier SQL Overide

select  'something'  from existingtable

returns to PowerCenter string 'something' but as HEX representation of the string being in EBCDIC code page. It means we receive not 9 chatacters but 18. Therefore, we can have erros informing about field to long while reading data or confusing, unexpected string of characters (for instance HEX string).

The soluting is setting code page other then 65535. Of cource the code page should be compatible with data read from the i5/OS machine.    

The "unable to create new native Thread" error can be caused by linux maximum number of allowed processes. Check ulimit -a.

In a well known financial institution was developed workflow with 47 concurrently running sessions. Each session was populating one table by doing table copy between source and target. The purpose of the workflow was to make full target refresh, which is usually required before incremental replication. As full refresh is a very rare operation, the workflow had not been run for months. One day, the workflow was going to be used. As there was no modification to the workflow, no one expected any errors.

Our workflow was ended with following error:

[Informatica][SCLI PWX Driver] PWX-33312 xxxxxxxxx:42915 : Partially completed network transmission timed out after 1322 seconds (bytes completed: 72484 mode: R)

Database driver error...

Function Name : Fetch

SQL Stmt : …..

PowerExchange (PWX) can be configured to capture changes from journal located on as/400. In the case I am writing, it was necessary to change just journal and tables library from which data were to be read. Let's say old library was named OLDLIB and new library was named NEWLIB. Data library that is library with CFG file was named DATALIB. Mention above configuration change can achieved by following update

UPDATE DATALIB/cct SET CCTDTA=

replace(CCTDTA ,'"OLDLIB.','"NEWLIB.')

There is additional condition. Length of CCTDTA must be the same before and after update.

The above update is not mentioned in any manual I am aware of. Additionally, there are two locations where journal name and library is configured and it must be updated to new value:

• dbmover member in cfg file.
• Condense configuration in condense library.

In case of error 67 on Windows while connecting to IFS on i5/OS check if following Windows local policy is set properly:

Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) clients

Suggested value:"No minimum".

Changes of the value are reflected after system restart.

In some cases, we seems to experience code page issue. Once, I had to run PowerCenter workflow which read data from db2 database to a flat file.  The problem was with vargraphic field defined as nstring in source qualifier. Changing nstring type to string solved the problem. Nstring and string are treated differently by Integration Service.

Authentication to i5/OS NetServer can be setup to "Encrypted Password" or "Encrypted Password/Network Security". In case of "Encrypted Password", logging to NetServer is simple to configure but does not use LDAP to authenticate user. "Network Security" allows to use Kerberos to logon. Configuring for "Encrypted Password/Network Security" first tries to find LDAP. If LDAP is not found then "Encrypted Password" method is used. When LDAP is not available extremely long logging time can be experienced. It should be keep in mind especially when moving machine to new environment through backup/Recovery of operating system.