ETLs

Informatica ICS Connector

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) is a cloud-based data integration platform that provides various features such as business data integration, application integration, and API management between cloud and local applications.

The connector supports the crawling of datasets from ICS (Connection, Connectors, Tasks, Mapping Template Tasks, Mapping Template) and lineage building for ICS (Mapping Template Task).

Informaticaics_arch

Connector  Capabilities

Functionality

Supported Objects

Crawling(ICS)

Connections
Tasks
Mapping Template Task
Mapping Template

Crawl Parameter Files

Informatica uses parameter files to override connection and source/target objects in runtime. We require access to read parameter files to link the correct source or target during the lineage-building process.

Lineage Building

Table lineage
Column lineage
Order By

Prerequisites 

The following are prerequisites required for the connection of Informatica ICS.

1. API Details

2. Service Account Permission

3. Configure environment variables (Optional)

API Details

Edition Version Support
ICS Feb’22 API Version Supported

Service Account with Minimum Permissions

 The minimum privileges required to connect to the source system are as follows:

Operation 

Access Permission

Connection validation

Designer, Read. 

Crawl Folders

Designer, Read.

Crawl Workflows, Mappings, etc

Designer

Lineage Building

Designer

Establish Environment Variables (Optional)

This section describes the settings or instructions that you should be aware of prior to establishing a connection. If your environments have been configured, skip this step.

Configure Environment Names

The Environment Names allow users to select the environment configured for the specific connector from the dropdown list in the Add Connector pop-up window.
You might want to consider crawling the same schema in both stage and production environments for consistency. The typical environments for crawling are PROD, STG, or Temporary, and may also include QA or other environments. Additionally, crawling a temporary environment can be useful for schema comparisons, which can later be deleted, especially during application upgrade assistance. 

Steps to Configure the Environment 

1. Navigate to Administration | Configuration. 

2. Select the Connector tab.

3. Find the Key name “connector.environment”.

4. Enter the desired environment values (PROD, STG) in the value column. 

5. Click ✔ to save. 

Establish a Connection 

To connect to Informatica ICS using the OvalEdge application, complete the following steps:

  1. Log into the OvalEdge application
  2. Navigate to Administration > Connectors module.
  3. Click on the + icon, and the Add Connector with Search Connector pop-up window is displayed.
  4. Select the connection type as Informatica ICS. The Add Connector with Informatica ICS details pop-up window is displayed.

powerics_addconnector

5. The following are the field attributes required for the connection of Informatica ICS.

Field Name

Details

Connection Type*

The selected connection type ‘Informatica ICS’ is displayed by default. 

If required, the dropdown menu allows the user to change the connector type and based on the selection of the connection type, the fields associated with the selected connection type are displayed.

License Add-Ons*

All the connectors will have a Base Connector License by default that allows you to crawl and profile to obtain the metadata and statistical information from a datasource. 

OvalEdge supports various License Add-Ons based on the connector’s functionality requirements.

  • Select the Auto Lineage Add-On license that enables the automatic construction of the Lineage of data objects for a connector with the Lineage feature. 
  • Select the Data Quality Add-On license to identify, report, and resolve the data quality issues for a connector whose data supports data quality, using DQ Rules/functions, Anomaly detection, Reports, and more.
  • Select the Data Access Add-On license that will enforce connector access via OvalEdge with Remote Data Access Management (RDAM) feature enabled

Connection Name*

Enter the name of the connection, the connection name specified in the Connection Name textbox will be a reference to the Informatica ICS connection in the OvalEdge application.

Example: Informatica ICS Connection1

Environment*

The environment dropdown menu allows you to select the environment configured for the connector from the dropdown list. For example, PROD, or STG.

The purpose of the environment field is to help users to understand that the new connector is established in an environment available at the  Production, STG, and QA.

Note: The steps to set up environment variables in explained in the prerequisite section.

Login Via

Select the Authentication type from the drop-down list.

Server

This is the Hostname or IP address of the Informatica ICS. The server name will be one of the below three based on the region of the data center.

Example:
North America - https://dm-us.informaticacloud.com
Asia Pacific - https://dm-ap.informaticacloud.com
Europe - https://dm-em.informaticacloud.com

User Name

Username for Informatica ICS Server account

Password

Password for  Informatica ICS Server account

Parameter Files Directory

Informatica uses parameter files to override connection and source/target objects in runtime. Access is required to read parameter files to link the correct source or target during the lineage-building process.
Example: https://ovaledge.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/OvalEdge+Clients/Twitch+Poc/Documents/Parameters.txt

Default Governance Roles

From the dropdown list, select Stewards, Custodian, Owner, GovernanceRole4, GovernanceRole5, and GovernanceRole6.

Admin Roles

Select the required admin roles for this connector.
  • To add Integration Admin Roles, search for or select one or more roles from the Integration Admin options, and then click on the Apply button. 
    The responsibility of the Integration Admin includes configuring crawling and profiling settings for the connector, as well as deleting connectors, schemas, or data objects.
  • To add Security and Governance Admin roles, search for or select one or more roles from the list, and then click on the Apply button. 
    The security and Governance Admin is responsible for:
    • Configure role permissions for the connector and its associated data objects.
    • Add admins to set permissions for roles on the connector and its associated data objects.
    • Update governance roles.
    • Create custom fields.
    • Develop Service Request templates for the connector.
    • Create Approval workflows for the templates

No Of Archive Objects

Select the toggle button to set the if the user wants to enter the count of no. of the archive objects. 

Select Bridge

With the OvalEdge Bridge component, any cloud-hosted server can connect with any on-premise or public cloud data sources without modifying firewall rules. A bridge provides real-time control that makes it easy to manage data movement between any source and destination. For more information, refer to Bridge Overview.

5. Click on the Validate button to validate the connection details.

6. Click on the Save button to save the connection.  Alternatively, you can also directly click on the button that displays the Connection Settings pop-up window to configure the settings for the selected Connector. The Save & Configure button is displayed only for the Connectors for which the settings configuration is required. 

Note: * (asterisk) indicates the mandatory field required to create a connection. Once the connection is validated and saved, it will be displayed on the Connectors home page. 

Note: You can either save the connection details first, or you can validate the connection first and then save it. 

Connection Validation Details  

S.No.

Error Messages

Description

1

Failed to establish connection, Please check the credentials(User name, Password, Server name, etc.,)

In case of an invalid user name, wrong password, or invalid Server name 

Note: If you have any issues creating a connection, please contact your assigned OvalEdge Customer Success Management (CSM) team.

Connection Settings 

Lineage

For the Informatica PowerCenter Connector, only the Lineage setting option is available, and it is enabled when the Auto Lineage License option is selected.

The purpose of the lineage setting is to serve the option of changing the server/source connection to build the lineage. You can configure multiple servers simultaneously in the  Selecting Source Server Type for lineage and also set the connection priority lists to pick the tables in the Connections Priority to pick the source table for lineage building.

Note: For more information, refer to the Connector Settings.

The Crawling of Schema(s)

You can use the Crawl/Profile option, which allows you to select the specific schemas for the following operations: crawl, profile, crawl & profile, or profile unprofiled. For any scheduled crawlers and profilers, the defined run date and time are displayed to set.

  1. Navigate to the Connectors page, and click on the Crawl/Profile option.
  2. Select the required Schema(s).
  3. Click on the Run button that gathers all metadata from the connected source into OvalEdge Data Catalog. 

Note: For more information on Scheduling, refer to Scheduling Connector

Additional Information

User Authentication for Informatica IICS

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) supports several types of user authentication, including Native, Salesforce, and SAML SSO. 

On the other hand, for users who are authenticated through an external identity provider such as Salesforce, or SAML, IICS acts as a service provider and relies on the identity provider to authenticate the user. These users are typically granted access to IICS through Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with their respective identity providers.

Native

The Native authentication is default authentication where users log in with their own login credentials (Usernames and Passwords). 

Salesforce

Log in with Salesforce credentials to an Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services organization. The user must activate the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services user account before they can log in using the login salesforce.

Use the Salesforce Web Services API to generate a Salesforce session ID and retrieve the Salesforce server URL. 

Field Name

Description

Session ID*

A session ID identifies a user using salesforce UI or API tools, it has a time limit, and users can manually expire it by logging out or by removing it in setup. 

The salesforce session ID is obtained from the Client team. 

Server ID

Salesforce Organization ID is the unique identifier for your Salesforce account. 

The salesforce server ID is obtained from the Client team.

For more information, refer to the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services Guide 

SAML SSO

Users can enable single sign-on (SSO) capability so they do not need to enter their login information every time they access their organization.

Field Name

Description

SAML Token

SAML Token 

It is obtained from the Client team.

Organization ID

Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services organization ID. 

It is obtained from the Client team.

Note: For more information, refer to the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services Guide 

FAQs

1. What features does Informatica ICS support?
Ans: Currently Informatica ICS supports only Cloud Integration from ICS.

2. Can you explain lineage in ICS?

Ans: Connector builds lineage for ICS as mentioned below:
Builds Table Lineage between Sources, Mapping, and Targets.

 

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