Difference Between Datastage 7.x and 8.x

The Main Differences are :

1) No Manager Client :

  we don't have client manager tool in version 8,its incorporated with Designer itself..

2) Parameter Set :

 There is no need of hardcoding the parameters for every job and we have a option called Parameter set.if we create the parameter set,we can call the parameter set for whole project or job,sequence..

 3) Lookup :

     Range LookUp introduced in Lookup stage and Lookup has it's own UI.

4) Database Repository  :

      > In Datastage 7.x repository used to be a file system but in 8.x we can use the Database as a    Repository.

Note the database compatibility for the Metadata Server repository is the latest versions of the three DBMS engines. DB2 is an optional extra in the bundle if you don't want to use an existing database.

• IBM UDB DB2 ESE 9
  -IBM Information Server does not support the Database Partitioning Feature (DPF) for use in the repository layer
  -DB2 Restricted Enterprise Edition 9 is included with IBM Information Server and is an optional part of the installation however its use is restricted to hosting the IBM Information Server repository layer and cannot be used for other applications
• Oracle 10g
• SQL Server 2005

5) Languages
     Foreign language support for the graphical tools and product messages:  


Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

6)  Removed Functions:

   These are the functions that are not in DataStage 8, please imaging the last waltz playing in your head as   you  peruse this list:

• dssearch command line function
• dsjob "-import"
• Version Control tool
• Released jobs
• Oracle 8i native database stages
• ClickPack

The loss of the Version Control tool is not a big deal as the import/export functions have been improved. Building a release file as an export in version 8 is easier than building it in the Version Control tool in version 7.

7) New Functions Existing Stages

• Complex Flat File Stage: Multi Format File (MFF) in addition to existing cobol file support.
• Surrogate Key Generator: now maintains the key source via integrated state file or DBMS sequence.
• Lookup Stage: range lookups by defining checking high and low range fields on the input or reference data table. Updatable in memory lookups.
• Transformer Stage: new surrogate key functions Initialize() and GetNextKey().
• Enterprise FTP Stage: now choose between ftp and sftp transfer.

8) New Stages

    A new stage from the IBM software family, new stages from new partners and the convergence of              Quality Stage functions into Datastage. Apart from the SCD stage these all come at an additional

cost.

• WebSphere Federation and Classic Federation
• Netezza Enterprise Stage
• SFTP Enterprise Stage
• iWay Enterprise Stage
• Slowly Changing Dimension: for type 1 and type 2 SCDs.
• Six QualityStage stages.