Installing and starting a grid domain controller, the first server in a Data Federation domain, takes only a few minutes. Your Sybase deployment architect will help you plan for and deploy additional servers if you need them, and will guide you through subsequent set-up tasks.
Setting up user accounts is easy—you can create them in the Data Federation domain or import them from an NIS or LDAP-based directory service. After configuring Data Federation servers and user accounts, your next steps are provisioning and integration.
When you are ready to bring data resources into your Data Federation domain, the provisioning tools in the Web UI and in WorkSpace Data Federation walk you through creating database operations (SQL queries or stored procedure calls), sharing file data, and provisioning Web services for easy access.
WorkSpace Data Federation provides a set of drag-and-drop graphical tools you can use to design data flows and set up data services for integration. Even complex flows with multiple inputs and many operations are simple to create. You can pull in data from multiple database, HTTP, and file sources, and combine and transform the data using a set of predefined operators such as aggregate, projection, group by, multiplexer, and iterator—or define your own operators. WorkSpace Data Federation can also help you deploy and manage your custom data services.
WorkSpace Data Federation includes tools to support the progression of Data Federation provisioning and integration resources from development to production. The grid object archiving feature lets you package and store grid objects like database connectors, database operations, and data services. You can deploy archived objects in other grid domains. For example, you can archive objects in your development/test domain and deploy them in your production domain, or share the objects with other domains in your organization. You can also use archives to store backup copies of grid objects that can be redeployed on their original servers or elsewhere if the need arises.
In addition, you can use WorkSpace Data Federation to work with metadata models. You can use metadata models to ensure that new data services you create conform to a particular schema. Metadata models also let you create Data Federation objects like data services that match database tables not only in schema but in name, so you can access the Data Federation objects using the same applications you now use to access database tables.
You can even perform provisioning tasks from within WorkSpace Data Federation, such as defining database connectors and database operations.
For product-related issues, contact Sybase Technical Support at 1-800-8SYBASE. Send your feedback on this help topic directly to Sybase Technical Publications: pubs@sybase.com