While the IBM Optim teams are excited to see customers adopting InfoSphere Data Architect, everyone recognizes the journey from CA ERwin to IDA can be frustrating.   The Optim team has been working to develop more resource materials for ERwin users and recently emailed a new Tips & Tricks guide developed by Joe Cullen.  If you find this valuable please let us know, and we will let you know when the new materials are released.  Thanks to Joe Cullen for offering to share this with the community!

IDA Tips&Tricks by Joe Cullen

Two new articles and a great demo –

Oops! Restoring your Database with Data Studio Administrator
New capabilities in IBM Data Studio Administrator enable point-in-time recovery
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0904datastudiorecovery/
by Sailaja Bandlamoori and Tawanna Harris
As a DBA, it is crucial that you perform regularly scheduled database system backups as part of your backup and recovery strategy. In the event of an application or hardware failure, you can use these backups to restore your database. This article follows a day in the life scenario for a DBA named Erik, who works at a fictitious company. On this particular day, problems arise when Erik discovers that bad application logic has deleted rows from multiple tables of the company’s GOSALES database. However, because Erik used Data Studio Administrator 2.1 to back up the database, he is able to restore the database to its original state.

Migrating from CA ERWIN to InfoSphere Data Architect
by Norma Mullin
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/long/dm-0904erwin2infosphere/
If you’ve had experience with CA ERwin Data Modeler and now are starting to learn InfoSphere™ Data Architect, this paper will speed up your model migration process and ease your learning process of the new environment. You will learn the differences between the two design environments, and you’ll also learn a set of best practices for using features of InfoSphere Data Architect that will put you on the fast track of working productively in InfoSphere Data Architect.

And, by the way, if you haven’t seen the InfoSphere Data Architect demo, you really should check it out:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/lp/demos/summary/im-idaintro.html

Ron Reuben, IBM’s Data Studio “Enabling Architect”, Frank and I had a discussion a couple weeks ago about developing some specific offerings around Data Studio that will introduce the product – and provide immediate benefit – to existing DB2 customers.  We came up with three offerings and sent them to Ron; this Friday we are scheduled to circle back with him and discuss how these were welcomed by his team.  These ideas reflect, naturally, where we see Data Studio’s capabilities providing the most immediate impact to customers we’ve worked with.  These are ideas – not limitations!

1.  Data Studio Administration Console (DSAC) is a free download with many capabilities, and can be used extensively for Q-Replication real-time monitoring.  We suggested contacting all current Q-Replication customers and offering assistance with the implementation of DSAC.  This should take only a few days and will introduce Q-Rep customers to the Data Studio product family and get them familiar with the look-and-feel of the components.  For more information on DSAC, check out:  http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27007070

2.  Data Studio Developer (DSD) and pureQuery, which, by the way, was recently enhanced with v2.1 last week.  Read More…