Meta Integration® Model Bridge (MIMB)
"Metadata Integration" Solution

MIMB Bridge Documentation

MIMB Import Bridge from IDERA ER/Studio Repository

Bridge Specifications

Vendor IDERA
Tool Name ER/Studio Repository
Tool Version 5.1 to 19.x
Tool Web Site https://www.idera.com/er-studio-data-architect-software
Supported Methodology [Data Modeling] Multi-Model, Metadata Repository, Data Store (Physical Data Model, Logical Data Model, Stored Procedure Expression Parsing), Graphical Layout via COM API on DM1 File

SPECIFICATIONS
Tool: IDERA / ER/Studio Repository version 5.1 to 19.x via COM API on DM1 File
See https://www.idera.com/er-studio-data-architect-software
Metadata: [Data Modeling] Multi-Model, Metadata Repository, Data Store (Physical Data Model, Logical Data Model, Stored Procedure Expression Parsing), Graphical Layout
Component: EmbarcaderoErStudioRepository version 11.2.0

OVERVIEW
This import bridge imports data models from an ER/StudioTeam Server repository, including logical models with Entities, Attributes, Domains, and physical models with Tables, Columns, Data Types. This import bridge also imports all relationships and their implementation (e.g. PK/FK) as well as the graphical layout of the data models (diagrams). In addition, the import bridge reverse engineers any semantic relationships between the data elements in the logical models (if available) and their corresponding data elements in the various physical models.

REQUIREMENTS
WARNING: This bridge uses the COM API of a Windows based tool client and/or SDK which must be (a) properly installed, (b) licensed on behalf of a Windows user capable of running this tool, and (c) capable of accessing the tool server content. In addition:
(1) As recommended by the tool vendor, the tool server must NOT be installed/coexist on the same machine where the tool client (and the bridge) is installed/running because of potential conflicts of resources, including with respect to COM API.
(2) Windows COM API based tools are notoriously unstable after repeated failures or lack of system resources, which requires a Windows reboot to make that tool COM API work properly again.
(3) If this bridge is running as an application, then it must be logged with the same above Windows user.
If the bridge is running as a Windows service, then go to the services manager of Windows, right-click on the MIMB Application Server service, and go to the "Log On" tab to define an account by name under which the service will run.

ER/Studio installation:
This import bridge connects to the IDERA ER/Studio Repository server using the ER/Studio Data Architect COM API.
Thus, IDERA ER/Studio Data Architect must be fully installed with a valid license on the machine where the import bridge is running.

Make sure that this license is authorizing access to ER/Studio Repository and that this license is the only one, or configured as default.
InstantOn virtualized installations do not register the COM API, and are therefore not supported.
You may check that a key exists in the Windows registry in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ERStudio.Application
The repository server machine name must be specified in ER/Studio Data Architect, in the 'Repository' / 'Repository Properties' menu.
In order to test this, start ER/Studio Data Architect and make sure you can open a model from the ER/Studio Repository.
You may select the check box 'Repository Operation Status' / 'Do Not Show Dialog Again' to hide popup windows.

LIMITATIONS
Refer to the current general known limitations at http://metaintegration.com/Products/MIMB/MIMBKnownLimitations.html or bundled in Documentation/ReadMe/MIMBKnownLimitations.html

SUPPORT
Provide a troubleshooting package with:
- the debug log (can be set in the UI or in conf/conf.properties with MIR_LOG_LEVEL=6)
- the metadata backup if available (can be set in the Miscellaneous parameter with -backup option, although this common option is not implemented on all bridges for technical reasons).

ER/Studio Data Architect saves the repository properties into the Windows registry, for example:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Idera\ER/Studio Data Architect 17.0\Repository
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Embarcadero\ER/Studio Data Architect 10.0\Repository
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Embarcadero\ER/Studio Data Architect 9.5\Repository
The import bridge will use the ER/Studio Data Architect COM API to retrieve the server machine name from the Windows registry.

ER/Studio Windows User:
The import bridge must run on behalf of the Windows user who performed the configuration above.
If the import bridge is running as part of a desktop application, the current Windows login of the application should be the same user.
If the import bridge is running as part of a Windows service, it is important to configure the user running such service, in the service logon tab.
Go to the Windows services and click on the 'Properties' menu of such service, go to the 'Log On' tab, select 'This account' and specify the same user name and password used as Windows session when using ER/Studio, and restart the Windows service.

ER/Studio COM API:
The import bridge uses the ER/Studio Windows COM API. This can be tested using a script:
cd .\conf\MIRModelBridgeTemplate\ERStudio
cscript.exe //E:jscript //Nologo ERStudioRepository.js parameters.xml browse output.xml
If this script fails, then you have an ER/Studio installation or setup issue, and need to contact IDERA support.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
n/a


Bridge Parameters

Parameter Name Description Type Values Default Scope
User name If no password is specified and the user name matches with the current Windows session login, ER/Studio will attempt to log in under the current Windows account. STRING   Admin Mandatory
Password If no password is specified and the user name matches with the current Windows session login, ER/Studio will attempt to log in under the current Windows account. PASSWORD      
Repository subset Specify here a list of Diagrams (DM1 file names), separated by semicolon. E.g.
OrangeMart.DM1
REPOSITORY_SUBSET      
Import UDPs A User Defined Property (UDP) is usually defined with a property definition object that has a default value. The objects that the property applies to may have an explicit value for this property. They may instead have no value assigned at all in which case the default value of the property definition (implicit value) applies.

Control how property definitions and values are imported:

'As metadata'
Import the explicit value as the property value. Implicit values are not imported. The default value is kept on the property type only.

'As metadata, migrate default values'
Import the explicit or implicit values as property value.

'In description, migrate default values'
Append the property name and value, even if implicit, to the object's description property. This allows you to export the UDP values to another tool which does not support the notion of UDP.

'Both, migrate default values'
Import the UDP value, even if implicit, both as metadata and in the object's description.
ENUMERATED
As metadata
As metadata, migrate default values
In description, migrate default values
Both, migrate default values
As metadata  
Import owner schemas Specifies if owner schemas should be imported.

'True'
Owner schema for tables, views and other database objects is imported.

'False'
The owner schema for tables, views and other database objects is ignored. This option may be useful for models where physical names are not unique, to indicate the model should be treated as a logical model (not ready for SQL DDL generation) while physical information is still maintained the model.
BOOLEAN
False
True
True  
Multiple threads Number of worker threads to harvest metadata asynchronously.

- Leave the parameter blank to have the import bridge compute the value, between 1 and 6, based on JVM architecture and number of available CPU cores.

- Specify a numeric value greater or equal to 1 to provide the actual number of threads.
If the value specified is invalid, a warning will be issued and 1 will be used instead.
If you experience out of memory conditions when harvesting metadata asynchronously, experiment with smaller numbers.
If your machine has a lot of available memory (e.g. 10 GB or more), you can try larger numbers when harvesting many documents at once.
Note that setting the number too high can actually decrease the performance due to resource contention.
NUMERIC      
Miscellaneous INTRODUCTION
Specify miscellaneous options starting with a dash and optionally followed by parameters, e.g.
-connection.cast MyDatabase1="MICROSOFT SQL SERVER"
Some options can be used multiple times if applicable, e.g.
-connection.rename NewConnection1=OldConnection1 -connection.rename NewConnection2=OldConnection2;
As the list of options can become a long string, it is possible to load it from a file which must be located in ${MODEL_BRIDGE_HOME}\data\MIMB\parameters and have the extension .txt. In such case, all options must be defined within that file as the only value of this parameter, e.g.
ETL/Miscellaneous.txt

JAVA ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS
-java.memory <Java Memory's maximum size> (previously -m)

1G by default on 64bits JRE or as set in conf/conf.properties, e.g.
-java.memory 8G
-java.memory 8000M

-java.parameters <Java Runtime Environment command line options> (previously -j)

This option must be the last one in the Miscellaneous parameter as all the text after -java.parameters is passed "as is" to the JRE, e.g.
-java.parameters -Dname=value -Xms1G
The following option must be set when a proxy is used to access internet (this is critical to access https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/ and exceptionally a few other tool sites) in order to download the necessary third-party software libraries.
Note: The majority of proxies are concerned with encrypting (HTTPS) the outside (of the company) traffic and trust the inside traffic that can access proxy over HTTP. In this case, an HTTPS request reaches the proxy over HTTP where the proxy HTTPS-encrypts it.
-java.parameters -java.parameters -Dhttp.proxyHost=127.0.0.1 -Dhttp.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.proxyUser=user -Dhttp.proxyPassword=pass

MODEL IMPORT OPTIONS
-model.name <model name>

Override the model name, e.g.
-model.name "My Model Name"

-prescript <script name>

This option allows running a script before the bridge execution.
The script must be located in the bin directory (or as specified with M_SCRIPT_PATH in conf/conf.properties), and have .bat or .sh extension.
The script path must not include any parent directory symbol (..).
The script should return exit code 0 to indicate success, or another value to indicate failure.
For example:
-prescript "script.bat arg1 arg2"

-postscript <script name>

This option allows running a script after successful execution of the bridge.
The script must be located in the bin directory (or as specified with M_SCRIPT_PATH in conf/conf.properties), and have .bat or .sh extension.
The script path must not include any parent directory symbol (..).
The script should return exit code 0 to indicate success, or another value to indicate failure.
For example:
-postscript "script.bat arg1 arg2"

-cache.clear

Clears the cache before the import, and therefore will run a full import without incremental harvesting.

If the model was not changed and the -cache.clear parameter is not used (incremental harvesting), then a new version will not be created.
If the model was not changed and the -cache.clear parameter is set (full source import instead of incremental), then a new version will be created.

-backup <directory>

This option allows to save the bridge input metadata for further troubleshooting. The provided <directory> must be empty.

The primary use of this option is for data store import bridges, in particular JDBC based database import bridges.

Note that this option is not operational on some bridges including:
- File based import bridges (as such input files can be used instead)
- DI/BI repository import bridges (as the tool's repository native backup can be used instead)
- Some API based import bridges (e.g. COM based) for technical reasons.

DATA CONNECTION OPTIONS
Data Connections are produced by the import bridges typically from ETL/DI and BI tools to refer to the source and target data stores they use. These data connections are then used by metadata management tools to connect them (metadata stitching) to their actual data stores (e.g. databases, file system, etc.) in order to produce the full end to end data flow lineage and impact analysis. The name of each data connection is unique by import model. The data connection names used within DI/BI design tools are used when possible, otherwise connection names are generated to be short but meaningful such as the database / schema name, the file system path, or Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The following option allows to manipulate connections. These options replaces the legacy options -c, -cd, and -cs.

-connection.cast ConnectionName=ConnectionType

Casts a generic database connection (e.g. ODBC/JDBC) to a precise database type (e.g. ORACLE) for SQL Parsing, e.g.
-connection.cast "My Database"="MICROSOFT SQL SERVER".
The list of supported data store connection types includes:
ACCESS
APACHE CASSANDRA
DB2/UDB
DENODO
GOOGLE BIGQUERY
HIVE
MYSQL
NETEZZA
ORACLE
POSTGRESQL
PRESTO
REDSHIFT
SALESFORCE
SAP HANA
SNOWFLAKE
MICROSOFT SQL AZURE
MICROSOFT SQL SERVER
SYBASE SQL SERVER
SYBASE AS ENTERPRISE
TERADATA
VECTORWISE
HP VERTICA

-connection.rename OldConnection=NewConnection

Renames an existing connection to a new name, e.g.
-connection.rename OldConnectionName=NewConnectionName
Multiple existing database connections can be renamed and merged into one new database connection, e.g.
-connection.rename MySchema1=MyDatabase -connection.rename MySchema2=MyDatabase

-connection.split oldConnection.Schema1=newConnection

Splits a database connection into one or multiple database connections.
A single database connection can be split into one connection per schema, e.g.
-connection.split MyDatabase
All database connections can be split into one connection per schema, e.g.
-connection.split *
A database connection can be explicitly split creating a new database connection by appending a schema name to a database, e.g.
-connection.split MyDatabase.schema1=MySchema1

-connection.map SourcePath=DestinationPath

Maps a source path to destination path. This is useful for file system connections when different paths points to the same object (directory or file).
On Hadoop, a process can write into a CSV file specified with the HDFS full path, but another process reads from a Hive table implemented (external) by the same file specified using a relative path with default file name and extension, e.g.
-connection.map /user1/folder=hdfs://host:8020/users/user1/folder/file.csv
On Linux, a given directory (or file) like /data can be referred to by multiple symbolic links like /users/john and /users/paul, e.g.
-connection.map /data=/users/John -connection.map /data=/users/paul
On Windows, a given directory like C:\data can be referred to by multiple network drives like M: and N:, e.g.
-connection.map C:\data=M:\ -connection.map C:\data=N:\

-connection.casesensitive ConnectionName

Overrides the default case insensitive matching rules for the object identifiers inside the specified connection, provided the detected type of the data store by itself supports this configuration (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, MySql etc.), e.g.
-connection.casesensitive "My Database"

-connection.level AggregationLevel

Specifies the aggregation level for the external connections, e.g.-connection.level catalog
The list of the supported values:
server
catalog
schema (default)

ER/STUDIO REPOSITORY OPTIONS
STRING      

 

Bridge Mapping

Meta Integration Repository (MIR)
Metamodel
(based on the OMG CWM standard)
"IDERA ER/Studio Repository"
Metamodel
EmbarcaderoErStudio
Mapping Comments
     
Association Relationship/Foreign Key  
Aggregation Relationship Type True if Identifying
Description Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
DesignLevel Type of Data Model  
Name Name  
AssociationRole Relationship/Foreign Key  
DesignLevel Type of Data Model  
ExtraConstraint Parent Action/Child Action  
Multiplicity Cardinality, Existence  
Name Verb Phrase, Inverse Verb Phrase  
Source   Parent/Child information
AssociationRoleNameMap ForeignKeyColumn  
Attribute Attribute/Column  
Comment Column Definition  
Description Attribute Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
DesignLevel Type of Data Model  
ExtraConstraint Check Constraint, Rule  
InitialValue Declared Default, Default  
Name Attribute Name Logical Rolename if set
Optional Allow Nulls  
PhysicalName Column Name Physical Rolename if set
Position Sequence  
BaseType Domain, User Datatype, Attribute  
DataType Datatype See datatype conversion array
Name   Derived from the datatype
PhysicalName   Derived from the datatype
CandidateKey Key/Index  
Name Name  
UniqueKey Key Type True for Primary Key/Alternate Key
Class Entity/Table  
Comment Table Definition  
CppClassType   Set to ENTITY
CppPersistent   Set to True
Description Entity Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
DesignLevel Type of Data Model  
DimensionalRole Dimensional model Table Type  
DimensionalType Dimension Table Type  
Name Entity Name  
PhysicalName Table Name  
ClassDiagram Submodel  
Description Definition The Definition property is available only since version 8.0 . optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Name Name  
DatabaseSchema Entity/Table, View  
Name Owner  
DerivedType Domain, User Datatype, Attribute  
DataType Datatype See datatype conversion array
Description Description optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
InitialValue Default, Declared Default  
Length Length  
LowerBound Reference Value Minimum  
Name Name Derived from the datatype if Attribute based
PhysicalName   Derived from the datatype
Scale Scale  
UpperBound Reference Value Maximum  
UserDefined   True for User Datatype and Domain
DesignPackage Data Model  
Description   optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
DesignLevel Type  
Name Name  
UserDefined   set to TRUE
ForeignKey ForeignKey  
Name Name  
Generalization Supertype/Subtype Cluster  
Description   optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
GeneralizationRole Supertype/Subtype Relationship  
Identity Sequence, Identity properties  
Cycle Cycle  
IncrementValue Increment By  
MaximumValue Max Value  
MinimumValue Min Value  
StartValue Start Value  
Index Key/Index, ForeignKey  
Clustered Index Type  
Description   optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Name Name  
IndexMember IndexColumn  
Position Sequence  
SortOrder Sort Ordering  
Projection Element Display Graphical information
BackgroundColor background color  
Height height  
Width width  
X x  
Y y  
PropertyElementTypeScope Attachment Type  
Scope Usage  
PropertyType Attachment, Attachment Type  
DataType Data type  
Description Description  
Group Attachment Type Name  
InitialValue Value  
Name Name  
PropertyValue Attachment Binding  
Value Value  
RelationshipProjection Relationship Display not supported
SQLViewAssociation View Table  
Name Alias  
SQLTableSequence Sequence  
SQLViewAttribute View Column  
Description   optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Expression Expression  
Name Alias, Parent Column Name  
Position Sequence  
SQLViewEntity View  
Description Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Name Name  
WhereClause DDL  
Sequence Sequence  
DataType Datatype  
Length Datatype  
Name name  
NativeDataType Datatype  
Scale Datatype  
Shape Shape  
BackgroundColor Shape Background Shape Editor -> Color and Fonts -> Background
Bold Font Style  
FontColor Text Color Color dropdown in Colors and Fonts -> Text
FontName Font Font typeface name
FontSize Text Font Size  
Height   Height of the shape
Italic Text Font Style  
LineColor Shape Outline  
LinePoints   Vertex coordinates for pentagon, hexagon and octagon, or endpoints for straight line
Name Shape Name Accessible in Shape Editor, Name
ShapeType Shape Type Type of the shape according to the Drawing Shapes toolbar
Strike Text Font Strikeout  
Underline Ttext Font Underline  
Width   Width of the shape
X   X coordinate of the shape center
Y   Y coordinate of the shape center
Z   Z order of the shape
StoreModel Diagram The model is built using the elements contained in the ERStudio file
Description Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Name Name  
SystemType Database Platform  
SystemTypeOld Database Platform  
StoredProcedure Procedure  
Description description  
Name name  
Semantics SQL  
Synonym Synonym  
Description Description  
Name Name  
Trigger Trigger  
Description Definition optional: Attachment values can be added to the description
Name Name  
Semantics Value  
TriggerType information parsed from Value  
TypeValue Reference Value  
Name Value Description  
Position Sequence  
Value Value  

Last updated on Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:44:18

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