Informatica PowerCenter Load Balancing for Workload Distribution on Grid
Informatica PowerCenter Workflows runs on grid, distributes workflow tasks across nodes in the grid. It also distributes Session, Command, and predefined Event-Wait tasks within workflows across the nodes in a grid. PowerCenter uses load balancer to distribute workflows and session tasks to different nodes. This article describes, how to use load balancer to setup high workflow priorities and how to allocate resources.
What is Informatica Load Balancing
Performance Improvement Features
Informatica load Balancing is a mechanism which distributes the workloads across the nodes in the grid. When you run a workflow, the Load Balancer dispatches different tasks in the workflow such as Session, Command, and predefined Event-Wait tasks to different nodes running the Integration Service. Load Balancer matches task requirements with resource availability to identify the best node to run a task. It may dispatch tasks to a single node or across nodes on the grid.
Identifying the Nodes to Run a Task
Load Balancer matches the resources required by the task with the resources available on each node. It dispatches tasks in the order it receives them. You can adjust the workflow priorities and the assign resources needs for tasks, such that load balancer can distribute the tasks to the right nodes and right priority.
Assign service levels : You assign service levels to workflows. Service levels establish priority among workflow tasks that are waiting to be dispatched.
|
|
Assign resources : You assign resources to tasks. Session, Command, and predefined Event-Wait tasks require PowerCenter resources to succeed. If the Integration Service is configured to check resources, the Load Balancer dispatches these tasks to nodes where the resources are available.
Assigning Service Levels to Workflows
Service levels determine the order in which the Load Balancer dispatches tasks from the dispatch queue. When multiple tasks are waiting to be dispatched, the Load Balancer dispatches high priority tasks before low priority tasks. You create service levels and configure the dispatch priorities in the Administrator tool.
Integration service will be limited to run You give Higher Service Level for the workflows, which needs to be dispatched first, when multiple workflows are running in parallel. Service Levels are set up in the Admin console. You assign service levels to workflows on the General tab of the workflow properties as shown below. 
Assigning Resources to Tasks
If the Integration Service runs on a grid and is configured to check for available resources, the Load Balancer uses resources to dispatch tasks. The Integration Service matches the resources required by tasks in a workflow with the resources available on each node in the grid to determine which nodes can run the tasks.
You can configure the resource requirements by the tasks as shown in below image. Below configuration shows that, the source qualifier needs source file from File Directory NDMSource, which is accessible only from one node. Available resource on different nodes are configured from Admin console. 
|
Hope you enjoyed this article and this will help you prioritize your workflows to to meet your data refresh time lines. Please leave us a comment or feedback if you have any, we are happy to hear from you.