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Crawl Informatica PowerCenter assets

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Create a workflow in Atlan to extract lineage from Informatica PowerCenter repository exports. Each workflow processes the repository export archive you upload and publishes the resulting lineage against a single Atlan connection. Review the order of operations for metadata enrichment workflows before starting.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Completed Informatica PowerCenter setup
  • A .zip archive of your repository XML exports ready to upload
  • A .zip archive of parameter files if your mappings use parameters (recommended in almost all cases for accurate lineage)
  • (Recommended) the source and target systems already crawled in Atlan, so lineage resolves to real assets. If they aren't cataloged yet, Atlan still publishes lineage using partial assets that resolve automatically once you crawl those systems

Create crawler workflow​

  1. In your Atlan workspace, click Connectors in the left sidebar.
    • If you are using the Old UI (Classic), click New Workflow in the top navigation.
  2. Click Marketplace.
  3. Search for Informatica PowerCenter and select it.
  4. Click Install.
  5. Once installation completes, click Setup Workflow on the same tile.

Upload repository files​

  1. In the Repository XML export field, upload the .zip archive containing your PowerCenter repository XML exports. This field is required.
  2. In the Parameter files field, upload the .zip archive of parameter files. This field is technically optional, but parameter files are needed for accurate lineage whenever your mappings use parameters, which is the case for most PowerCenter projects.

Configure connection​

  1. Select an existing Connection or create a new one. This connection becomes the root for all lineage assets Atlan publishes from this workflow.
  2. To change who manages this connection, update the users or groups listed under Connection admins.

Configure advanced options​

  1. Leave the Operator overrides (JSON) field empty ({}). This field is reserved for advanced configuration in a future release; a standard crawl requires no input here.

Run crawler​

Choose to run the crawler once immediately or schedule it to run at a recurring interval.

  1. Click Run to run once, or Schedule & Run to run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
  2. Monitor progress in the workflow execution details.
note

Extraction is based on the files you upload, so a scheduled run reprocesses the same archive. It doesn't pick up new PowerCenter changes. Schedule the workflow only when the uploaded input changes. To refresh lineage, re-export and re-upload your files, as described in How do I keep lineage metadata up to date?, which also notes upcoming support for cloud storage-based files.

After the crawler completes, navigate to any resolved source or target asset and open the Lineage tab to view the data flow extracted from PowerCenter.

See also​

What does Atlan crawl from Informatica PowerCenter: Review the lineage assets and supported source types

Need help​

If you encounter issues while crawling Informatica PowerCenter assets, see Crawl and lineage issues. For additional assistance, contact Atlan support by submitting a request.