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Assess an Informatica export

Before you plan a migration, import an export once into a scratch folder and read the report. It costs one command, changes nothing on the Informatica side, and tells you which mappings convert and where the work is in each.

1. Export​

  • PowerCenter: in Repository Manager, export the folders to migrate, with their mappings and the workflows that run them, as XML. One file per folder is fine: the importer reads every mapping in a repository export, and the sessions give it the flat-file names.
  • IICS: export the synchronization and replication tasks, and unzip the export, so the task folders (*.DSS, *.DRS) and the SYS folder with the connections are side by side.

2. Import into a scratch folder​

<hop>/hop-import.sh -t informatica -i <export-folder> -o /tmp/informatica-assessment

Check the first lines of the log: Found <n> PowerCenter mapping(s) in <m> XML file(s) and <k> IICS task dir(s) should match what you exported.

3. Read the report​

Open /tmp/informatica-assessment/informatica-migration-report.md:

  1. Structural functionality: how many pipelines hold together as converted, how many need review and how many cannot. Holding together is not running: count the Expressions in the Components table too, since they need a person today.
  2. Each non-functional mapping, with the transforms that break it. Group them by issue and by transformation type: the same issue across fifty mappings is one piece of work, done fifty times.
  3. Status counts and the Components table: every transformation, its type, its status and the Hop transform it became. Sort it by type to see what your estate is made of.

conversion-metadata.json holds the same data as JSON, if you want to load it into a spreadsheet or a database.

4. Size the work​

For each kind of issue, decide who fixes it and how long one takes, then multiply. Add what the report does not see: sessions and workflows (with their pre- and post-session commands and emails), parameter files, schedules, and validation. Expressions deserve extra time: a mistranslated expression runs without error and computes the wrong answer.