Power Center repository & Repository Server

                The Power Center repository resides on a relational database. The repository database tables contain the instructions required to extract, transform, and load data. Power Center Client applications access the repository database tables through the Repository Server.

            You add metadata to the repository tables when you perform tasks in the PowerCenter Client application, such as creating users, analyzing sources, developing mappings or mapplets, or creating workflows. The PowerCenter Server reads metadata created in the Client application when you run a workflow. The PowerCenter Server also creates metadata, such as start and finish times of a session or session status.

You can develop global and local repositories to share metadata:

Global repository. The global repository is the hub of the domain. Use the global repository to store common objects that multiple developers can use through shortcuts. These objects may include operational or Application source definitions, reusable transformations, mapplets, and mappings.

Local repositories. A local repository is within a domain that is not the global repository. Use local repositories for development. From a local repository, you can create shortcuts to objects in shared folders in the global repository. These objects typically include source definitions, common dimensions and lookups, and enterprise standard transformations. You can also create copies of objects in non-shared folders.

Version control. A versioned repository can store multiple copies, or versions, of an object. Each version is a separate object with unique properties. PowerCenter version control features allow you to efficiently develop, test, and deploy metadata into production.

You can connect to a repository, back up, delete, or restore repositories using pmrep, a command line program. For more information on pmrep, see “Using pmrep”.

Repository Server -

                   The Repository Server manages repository connection requests from client applications. For each repository database registered with the Repository Server, it configures and manages a Repository Agent process. The Repository Server also monitors the status of running Repository Agents, and sends repository object notification messages to client applications.

                 The Repository Agent is a separate, multi-threaded process that retrieves, inserts, and updates metadata in the repository database tables. The Repository Agent ensures the consistency of metadata in the repository by employing object locking.