INFORMATICA ARCHITECTURE

Informatica provides following components
PowerCenter Repository
PowerCenter Repository Server
PowerCenter Client
PowerCenter Server

PowerCenter Repository : It maintains the metadata. Set of tables are created within repository database to maintain the Informatica metadata. PowerCenter client and server access the repository to access metadata.

PowerCenter Repository Server: It manages connections to the repository from client applications.

PowerCenter Client: This is used to maintain the powercenter objects such as Source, Targets, mappings etc. It has following client tools
Designer : To create mappings that contain transformation instructions for the PowerCenter Server.
Workflow manager: To create, schedule, and run workflows. A workflow is a set of instructions that describes how and when to run tasks related to extracting, transforming, and loading data.
Repository Manager: To administer the metadata repository. You can create repository users and groups, assign privileges and permissions, and manage folders and locks.
Repository Server Admin Console: To administer the Repository Servers and repositories Workflow Monitor: To monitor scheduled and running workflows for each PowerCenter Server.

PowerCenter Server: With help of repository and repository server, powercenter server executes the business logic for extraction, transformation and load.

What is Repository ?
Powercenter repository is maintained in RDBMS . It contains the instruction required to extract, transform and load data. PowerCenter access repository using repository server. Metadata in the repository is added using powercenter client tools. There can be two types of repository
Global Repository: Object created in Global repository can be accessed across different repository.
Local Repository: Object created in local repository can only be accessed within the repository. Global repository are registered to local repository so that global repository objects are accessed in local repository using shortcuts.