Understanding Infosphere Metadata Workbench

What is Metadata Workbench?

Metadata Workbench is part of the Information Server suite of products, which all share a common repository and set of services. By default the Information Server Repository is DB2, but Oracle, and other database systems are also supported.

In order to work effectively with Metadata Workbench, we need to have an understanding of Information Server and the suite of products it hosts.

It is a tool for managing metadata; it manages all three types of metadata –

• Business – Business rules, Definitions, Terminology, Glossaries, Algorithms and Lineage using business language. Audience: Business users.
• Technical – Defines Source and Target systems, their Table and Fields structures and attributes, Derivations and Dependencies. Audience: Specific Tool Users –BI, ETL, Profiling, Modeling.
• Operational – Information about application runs: their frequency, record counts, component by component analysis and other statistics. Audience: Operations, Management and Business Users.

It is a product within the Information Server suite of products. Which manages metadata assets produced by the products within Information Server, including –

• Mapping specifications created by FastTrack
• ETL jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Data quality jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Business terms defined in Business Glossary
• Data reports generated by Information Analyzer

It manages metadata assets linked to Information Server metadata assets, including –

• Data resources (relational tables, data files, applications) accessed by DataStage ETL jobs and used for Information Analyzer reports
• Data modeling tool documents
• BI reports

It also enables us to understand the relationships between the different metadata assets through graphs and reports.

Metadata Workbench functionality –

Metadata Workbench supports three different categories of functionality. We can use it to gain information about the metadata within the Repository (Explore).

We can also use it to examine associations and dependencies between the metadata assets (Analyze).

In addition, there are capabilities for capturing additional metadata and then integrating it with other existing metadata (Capture).

The Capture functionality is available within the InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager (IMAM) tool, which is an Information Server tool that works in conjunction with Metadata Workbench.

This tool is used to capture metadata that is consumed by Information Server applications such as DataStage.

Explore –

1. Explore metadata assets, including jobs, reports, databases, models, terms, stewards, systems, specifications, data quality rules
2. Easy navigation of assets
3. Simple and advanced search capabilities
4. Robust query builder
5. Integrated cross-view of Information Server and external linked assets
6. Graphical view of asset relationships

Analyze –

1. Analyze dependencies and relationships between metadata assets, including jobs, BI reports, and data models
2. Trace data lineage through DataStage jobs and to and from databases, jobs, and reports
3. Assess the impact of change across information assets
4. Graphical display of data lineage and impact analysis

Capture –

1. Capture information, relationships, and operational data to enhance information reports and analyses
2. Use Metadata Asset Manager to integrate external metadata assets with Information Server metadata assets
3. Extend data linkages to data resources and applications outside of Information Server
4. Enhance data lineage and impact analysis reports through user-defined linkages

Most of the metadata explored, analyzed, and managed within Metadata Workbench is metadata produced or consumed by Information Server products.

Exploring in Metadata Workbench –

We can use Metadata Workbench to explore all the metadata stored within the Information Server Repository. This includes metadata produced by Information Server applications such as DataStage, as well as metadata capture into the Repository to be consumed by Information Server applications.

All metadata assets are accessible to simple and advanced search capabilities and robust query capabilities. The asset information can be presented in several ways: reports, standard asset window, and a graphic window of information.

Asset information can be enhanced in a number of ways: assets can be linked to business terms, stewards, and labels. Notes can be added to explain and document the assets.

• Explore metadata assets including jobs, reports, databases, files, tables, columns, terms, stewards, servers
• Simple and advanced search capabilities
• Robust query capabilities
• Multiple ways to search by asset class, name, property
• Save results in various supported formats of reports
• View graphs of asset relationships
• Create and edit descriptions of assets