What is a Session in Informatica

A session is a set of instructions that describes how and when to move data from sources to targets.

Use the Designer to import source and target definitions into the repository and to build mappings.

Use the Server Manager to create and manage sessions and batches, and to monitor and stop the Informatica Server.

When a session starts, the Informatica Server retrieves mapping and session metadata from the repository to extract data from the source, transform it, and load it into the target.

More about a Session

A session is a set of instructions that tells the Informatica Server how and when to move data from sources to targets. You create and maintain sessions in the Server Manager.

When you create a session, you enter general information such as the session name, session schedule, and the Informatica Server to run the session. You can also select options to execute pre-session shell commands, send post-session email, and FTP source and target files. Using session properties, you can also override parameters established in the mapping, such as source and target location, source and target type, error tracing levels, and transformation attributes. For details on server activity while executing a session.

You can group sessions into a batch. The Informatica Server can run the sessions in a batch in sequential order, or start them concurrently. Some batch settings override session settings.

Once you create a session, you can use either the Server Manager or the command line program pmcmd to start or stop the session. You can also use the Server Manager to monitor, edit, schedule, abort, copy, and delete the session.