REPOSITORY MANAGER

                  The Informatica repository is a relational database that stores information, or metadata, used by the Informatica Server and Client tools. Metadata can include information such as mappings describing how to transform source data, sessions indicating when you want the Informatica Server to perform the transformations, and connect strings for sources and targets. The repository also stores administrative information such as usernames and passwords, permissions and privileges, and product version.

                You create and maintain the repository with the Repository Manager client tool. With the Repository Manager, you can also create folders to organize metadata and groups to organize users.

The Informatica repository is an integral part of a data mart. A data mart includes the following components:

a) Targets: The data mart includes one or more databases or flat file systems that store the information used for decision support.

b) A server engine: Every data mart needs some kind of server application that reads, transforms, and writes data to targets. In traditional data warehouses, this server application consists of COBOL or SQL code you write to perform these operations. In PowerMart and PowerCenter, you use a single server application that runs on UNIX or Windows NT to read, transform, and write data.

c) Metadata: Designing a data mart involves writing and storing a complex set of instructions. You need to know where to get data (sources), how to change it, and where to write the information (targets). PowerMart and PowerCenter call this set of instructions metadata. Each piece of metadata (for example, the description of a source table in an operational database) can contain comments about it.

d) A repository: The place where you store the metadata is called a repository. The more sophisticated your repository, the more complex and detailed metadata you can store in it. PowerMart and PowerCenter use a relational database as the repository.