XTIVIA BLOG
Looping Construct for ETL – Simplified by Talend DI
I am not a regular ETL developer but I do "dabble" in developing code from time to time. One requirement that I come across is looping (while, for, infinite) in a job and performing a task based on condition and then going to sleep for a period of time. This certainly can be...
The Importance of a Security Audit
Often I am asked about the importance of a security audit, with the majority of these questions being asked by representatives of smaller organizations. The questions are centered around if there is a need to perform a security audit when the organization has taken some...
Excel Chart Portlet
Microsoft Excel is the de facto standard spreadsheet tool used by businesses around the world and houses some of the most critical business information. However businesses often struggle to make this information available to employees and other stakeholders that would benefit...
SQL Server Key Performance Metrics – Page Life Expectancy
One of the important performance metrics we monitor for our Virtual-DBA and consulting customers is Page Life Expectancy (PLE). We look for low values as well as values that are trending lower over time. A drop in PLE is a prime indicator of memory pressure. PLE is how many...
Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Agent Installation Linux
We had a Virtual-DBA customer request that we install and configure a new Grid Control agent on a new server with existing databases. While there are several ways to do this, we wanted the customer to be able to perform this task by themselves in the future. The...
DB2 and Lawson Application Lessons Learned
At XTIVIA, we monitor and support multiple clients that use Lawson applications with a DB2 LUW (Linux, Unix and Windows) database back end. I wanted to share some of my experience and lessons learned over the years. Schema Layout: Out of the box, Lawson uses four main...
BI Semantic Model in SQL Server 2012 – What is it?
It is refreshing to see Microsoft finally acknowledging the business as well as technical framework under which Business Intelligence projects are typically run. By taking this approach, Microsoft is definitely building upon the core competence it has gained over the last...
Gartner Magic Quadrant Report for BI and Analytics Platforms 2013 is out…Should you care?
Absolutely! The reports from Gartner are great (at least from my perspective) and there is a lot of useful information in them. I found the latest one particularly engaging. As I read through the report, I started thinking about what it means to us (as practitioners in the...
Informatica – PowerCenter Aggregator Transformation Tips
Two bits of Information I picked up from our principal Informatica Architect. When I used these, it did really work wonders. Aggregators and joiners should have sorted input. The Sorter Transformation sorts rows more efficiently that the Aggregator...
Open Source ETL – To use or not to use.
Lately, we at XTIVIA have seen a marked uptick for interest in open source ETL tools. Each customer situation is unique, but I would like to propose a few factors that you should review before making the decision: Incumbent Tool Set: Decisions around your choice of an ETL...