Future of BODI / BODS?

What do you think is the future of BODI / BODS?

I have almost stopped working on BODS. Well, almost… except for a fix here or there… once in a while. Most of my focus is now on SAP BI.  

But I have a soft side towards BODI/BODS. It is a tool that I know very well. It is also a tool that has a lot of potential, but is underestimated a lot. It has undergone a sea of changes since the ACTA days. And it equates well with the Informatica’s and IBM Information Server’s of the world.

Personally, I feel that this tool has a good future. It has shaped up pretty well, has added more functionality, and integrates well with SAP R/3, but more importantly is non-SAP in focus. It should do well in the next few years.

Okay, here is an interesting discussion on the same. And Werner’s comments are promising. Need to keep a tab on the developments.

Decfloat datatype not supported in BODI / BODS

Recently I was working with a few DB2 UDB 9.5 tables and discovered that decfloat datatype columns were not recognized even though I had checked the option to recognize unsupported datatypes as varchar.

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Get BODI job schedule info from repository

Here is a query that you can run on the BODI repository to fetch the job schedule details.

Select upper (al_lang.NAME) as jobname,
upper (al_sched_info.sched_name) as schedule_name,
al_sched_info.start_time as start_time,
al_sched_info.host_name host_server
from di_edw.al_lang al_lang full outer join di_edw.al_sched_info al_sched_info on al_lang.guid = al_sched_info.job_guid
where active = 1
and al_lang.object_type = 0
and TYPE = 0
and al_lang.object_key =
(SELECT MAX (object_key)
FROM di_edw.al_lang l
WHERE l.NAME = al_lang.NAME AND l.object_type = 0 AND l.TYPE = 0)
ORDER BY 1, 2

Migration of a DW solution from Oracle to DB2

Recently we migrated an entire DW module from Oracle to DB2. And our ETL was done using Business Objects Data Integrator.

Below is a sequence of steps that we followed to migrate the entire solution (including data structures, ETL code and universe)

Assumption:
–>All estimates done for 4 DB2 databases, 3 federated systems, 62 tables, 33 indexes, 6 DI jobs, 110 data flows, 151 transformations, 16 SQL transforms, 34 SQL() scripts, 220 objects in 23 classes and 2 reports.
–>Add 20% time as buffer for unexpected issues.
–>Some tasks can be executed in parallel, while some have strong dependency on completion of previous tasks.

Work breakdown of migration and rough estimation:

1. Initiation & planning : 40 Hrs
Establish objectives and goals
Requirements gathering
Establish scope
Plan resources
Identify development environment

2. Assessment : 40 Hrs
Assess tool and technology needs
Assess and understand technical requirements
Establish technical guidelines
Finalize tools and development environment

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BO Data Services XI 3.0

BO Data Services is a new offering from Business Objects.

Well, it looks like a new bundling and not a new product by itself.

BO Data quality + BO Data Integrator = BO Data Services.

I tried to gather some information regarding this. Here is what I have found so far.

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Times.. they are changing.

Looks like traditional data warehousing will soon be taken over by a sea of changes.

(Click on underlined words to open the links)

Integration of OLTP with DW? Read about it here.

Here is a discussion on new approaches in DW.

If you want to know Werner’s opinion on the future of Business Objects Data Integrator (BODI), see here.

Appears like BO Data quality + BO Data Integrator = BO Data Services. A discussion on it here.

And is Informatica the next acquisition target? Some say maybe… some say no.

Query to get timing for DataFlows in Data Integrator

select dataflow_name, ROW_COUNT, to_date(START_time,’yyyy.mm.dd hh24:mi:ss’), to_date(end_time,’yyyy.mm.dd hh24:mi:ss’), trunc((EXECUTION_TIME/3600))’ Hr ‘trunc((EXECUTION_TIME - trunc((EXECUTION_TIME/3600))*3600)/60)’ Min’ as execution_time
from ALVW_FLOW_STAT
where OBJECT_TYPE = ‘Oracle Loader’
And dataflow_name =’&DF_NAME’
order by end_time desc