Linux & Unix Commands Every Informatica Support Engineer Must Know

If you are preparing for an Informatica Support Engineer interview, the Linux and Unix section is almost guaranteed to come up.

Interviewers want to know one thing: can you actually sit at a terminal and solve a production problem?

This post covers every command you need - organised by category - with real Informatica use cases so you know exactly why each one matters on the job.

Who This Post Is For

Informatica PowerCenter support engineers preparing for interviews
ETL support engineers who work on Linux/Unix servers
Anyone asked "tell me some Linux commands you use daily" in a data engineering interview

Essential Environment Variables to Know First

Before any command will work correctly, Informatica depends on these environment variables being set. You will be asked about these.

Variable	Purpose
`$INFA_HOME`	Root directory of the Informatica installation (e.g. `/infa` or `/opt/Informatica/10.5.x`)
`$ORACLE_HOME`	Oracle client installation path
`$LD_LIBRARY_PATH`	Shared library path for Informatica and database drivers
`$PATH`	Must include `$INFA_HOME/server/bin` for pmcmd and pmrep to work
`$INFA_DOMAINS_FILE`	Path to `domains.infa` - tells clients where to find the domain gateway
`$INFA_TRUSTSTORE`	Directory containing `infa_truststore.jks` for TLS-secured domains
`$INFA_TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD`	Encrypted password for the truststore (set using `pmpasswd`)

To verify they are set correctly:

BASH

printenv INFA_HOME
env | grep -i infa
echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH

To load them if missing:

BASH

source /home/infa_user/.bash_profile
source $INFA_HOME/infaenv.sh    # or your team's custom env script

Note: infaenv.sh is a site-specific script, not a fixed product path. Make sure infaenv.sh and any pmcmd/pmrep commands run in the same shell invocation, otherwise the environment changes will not be inherited by the child process.

These are the first commands you touch every time you log into the server.

pwd - Print current directory

BASH

pwd

Use it to confirm you are in the right directory before editing config files or running scripts.

ls - List directory contents

BASH

ls -lh /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/
ls -lt | head -20        # Most recently modified files first
ls -la $INFA_HOME        # Include hidden files

Use it to check session logs, parameter files, and landing directories.

cd - Change directory

BASH

cd $INFA_HOME
cd /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs
cd ..                    # Go one level up
cd ~                     # Go to home directory

find - Search for files by name, type, date, or size

BASH

find /infa -name "*.log" -mtime -1           # Logs modified in last 24 hours
find . -name "SDE_*.log" -type f             # Informatica session logs by pattern
find /infa/server -name "pmserver.log"       # Find the main server log
find . -size +100M                           # Files over 100MB (disk space issues)

This is one of the most powerful commands for support work. Know it well.

Interview Tip:

"How would you find all session logs from the last 24 hours?" - find /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs -name "*.log" -mtime -1

2. File Operations

Day-to-day file management on the Informatica server.

cp - Copy files

BASH

cp param_file.txt param_file.txt.bak
cp -r /infa/server/infa_shared /backup/infa_shared_$(date +%F)

Always back up parameter files before editing them in production.

mv - Move or rename files

BASH

mv workflow.log workflow_$(date +%F).log
mv /infa/landing/data.csv /infa/archive/

rm - Remove files

BASH

rm -f *.bad
rm -rf /infa/server/infa_shared/Cache/old_cache/
find . -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;     # Delete logs older than 30 days

Interview Tip:

Be careful with rm -rf. Interviewers may ask how you handle disk space issues - mention cleaning up old session logs, bad files, and cache with find + -exec rm.

mkdir - Create directories

BASH

mkdir -p /infa/landing/project1
mkdir -p /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/archive

touch - Create an empty file or update its timestamp

BASH

touch /infa/landing/trigger.done       # Create a trigger file for file-watcher workflows

3. File Permissions & Ownership

Permissions issues are one of the top causes of Informatica job failures.

chmod - Change file permissions

BASH

chmod 755 start_informatica.sh         # Owner can read/write/execute, others can read/execute
chmod 644 /infa/params/param_file.txt  # Owner can read/write, others can only read
chmod -R 755 /infa/server/bin/         # Apply recursively

chown - Change file owner

BASH

chown infa_user:infa_grp /infa/server/
chown -R infa_user /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/

Interview Tip:

"A session failed with a permission error - what do you check?" Answer: ls -l on the source/target file and directory. Check if the Informatica service account (infa_user) has read/write access. Fix with chmod and chown.

4. Viewing File Contents

cat - Display full file contents

BASH

cat /infa/params/param_file.txt
cat pmserver.log

head - Show the first N lines

BASH

head -20 session.log
head -5 /infa/landing/customers.csv     # Check header and first few rows of a flat file

tail - Show the last N lines. -f follows the file live

BASH

tail -100 pmserver.log
tail -f /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/SDE_Customer_Load.log
tail -50 workflow.log | grep -i error

tail -f is one of the most used commands in production support. You use it to watch a session log in real time while a workflow runs.

less - Browse large files without loading them fully into memory

BASH

less /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/SDE_Large_Load.log
less +G file.log      # Open at the end of the file

Inside less: use /error to search, n for next match, q to quit.

wc - Count lines, words, or characters

BASH

wc -l /infa/landing/customers.csv          # Count rows in a flat file
grep -i "error" session.log | wc -l        # Count errors in a log

5. Search & Grep

grep is arguably the most important command for Informatica support work.

grep - Search file contents for patterns

BASH

grep -i "error" SDE_Customer_Load.log
grep -in "fatal\|error\|warning" pmserver.log      # Case-insensitive, with line numbers
grep -r "ORA-" /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/  # Search all logs recursively
grep -v "^#" param_file.txt                         # Skip comment lines in param files
grep "Total rows" session.log                       # Find row count lines

grep with context lines:

BASH

grep -A 5 "ERROR" session.log      # Show 5 lines after each match
grep -B 2 -A 10 "Execution failed" pmserver.log

Interview Tip:

"How do you find errors in a session log?" grep -in "error\|warning\|fatal\|aborted" session.log

6. Text Processing

awk - Extract columns and perform calculations on structured data

BASH

awk -F',' '{print $1, $3}' customers.csv                  # Print columns 1 and 3
awk 'NR>1{sum++} END{print sum}' data.csv                 # Count rows excluding header
awk '/Total rows/{print $NF}' session.log                 # Extract row count from log
awk -F'|' '{print NF; exit}' data.txt                     # Check column count

sed - Stream editor for in-place text modifications

BASH

sed -i 's/OLD_VALUE/NEW_VALUE/g' param_file.txt            # Replace text in a file
sed -n '100,200p' session.log                              # Print lines 100 to 200
sed '/^$/d' file.txt                                       # Remove blank lines
sed 's/\r//' windows_file.txt                              # Remove Windows carriage returns

cut - Extract specific fields from delimited text

BASH

cut -d',' -f1,3 customers.csv
cut -d'|' -f2 transactions.txt | sort | uniq -c

sort and uniq - Sort and deduplicate data

BASH

sort -t',' -k2 customers.csv
sort file.txt | uniq -d                      # Show duplicate lines
sort file.txt | uniq -c | sort -rn           # Count occurrences, most frequent first

tr - Translate or delete characters

BASH

tr ',' '|' < input.csv > output.psv         # Convert delimiter
tr -d '\r' < windows.txt > unix.txt         # Remove carriage returns

7. Process Management

ps - List running processes

BASH

ps -ef | grep pmserver           # Check if Integration Service is running
ps -ef | grep pmrep              # Check repository agent
ps aux | grep -i informatica

top - Real-time process and resource monitor

BASH

top
top -u infa_user                 # Show only Informatica user processes

kill - Stop a process

BASH

kill -9 <PID>                    # Force kill (last resort)
kill -15 <PID>                   # Graceful terminate
killall -9 pmserver

nohup - Run a process that survives terminal logout

BASH

nohup ./start_infa.sh &
nohup pmcmd startworkflow ... > /tmp/wf_run.log 2>&1 &

Use nohup when starting services over SSH so they don't stop when you disconnect.

Interview Tip:

"How do you check if the Informatica Integration Service is running?" ps -ef | grep pmserver - if you see a pmserver process, it is running.

8. Disk & Memory

Disk full is one of the most common causes of Informatica session failures.

df - Check disk space

BASH

df -h                            # All file systems, human-readable
df -h /infa                      # Check the Informatica mount point specifically

du - Check what is using the disk space

BASH

du -sh /infa/server/infa_shared/*
du -sh * | sort -rh | head -10   # Find the largest directories

free - Check memory

BASH

free -h
free -m

Interview Tip:

"A workflow failed - what do you check first?" df -h for disk space. ps -ef | grep pmserver for service status. tail -f session.log for the error message. These three cover 80% of production failures.

9. Network & Connectivity

ping - Test basic connectivity

BASH

ping -c 4 oracle_db_host
ping infa_repository_host

telnet / nc - Test TCP port connectivity

BASH

telnet oracle_host 1521           # Test database listener port
nc -vz infa_host 6005             # Test Integration Service port
nc -vz infa_host 6001             # Test Repository Service port

netstat / ss - Check which ports are listening

BASH

netstat -tlnp | grep 6005
ss -tlnp | grep 6400
netstat -an | grep ESTABLISHED | grep 1521

nslookup - Resolve hostnames

BASH

nslookup oracle_db_host
nslookup infa_repository_host

Interview Tip:

"A workflow failed with a database connection error - what do you check?" ping db_host, then telnet db_host 1521, then netstat -an | grep 1521. This tells you whether the problem is network, port, or connection pool.

10. Archive & Compression

tar - Archive and compress directories

BASH

# Create a compressed archive of session logs
tar -czvf sesslogs_$(date +%F).tar.gz /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/

# Extract an archive
tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz -C /restore/

# List archive contents without extracting
tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz

gzip / gunzip - Compress or decompress single files

BASH

gzip -k session.log              # Compress (keep original)
gunzip data.csv.gz               # Decompress
zcat data.csv.gz | head -5       # View compressed file without extracting

zgrep - Search inside compressed log files

BASH

zgrep -i "ORA-" sesslogs_archive.tar.gz
zcat session_20240101.log.gz | grep -i error

11. SSH & File Transfer

ssh - Connect to the Informatica server

BASH

ssh infa_user@infa_server_host
ssh -i ~/.ssh/infa_key.pem infa_user@server

scp - Copy files securely between servers

BASH

scp param_file.txt infa_user@server:/infa/params/
scp infa_user@server:/infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/session.log .
scp -r /infa/scripts/ infa_user@server:/infa/scripts/

sftp - Interactive secure file transfer

BASH

sftp infa_user@sftp_server
sftp> put /local/data.csv /remote/landing/
sftp> get /remote/file.csv /local/infa/landing/

12. Cron Jobs & Scheduling

crontab - Schedule recurring commands

BASH

crontab -l                                  # List current cron jobs
crontab -e                                  # Edit cron jobs
crontab -l -u infa_user                     # List another user's cron jobs

Cron syntax example:

BASH

# Minute  Hour  Day  Month  Weekday  Command
0    1    *    *     *     find /infa/SessLogs -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;
30   6    *    *     1     /infa/scripts/weekly_cleanup.sh

Informatica support teams commonly use cron for:

Log cleanup and archival
Pre-session file checks (file watcher scripts)
Starting services after scheduled maintenance

13. Informatica-Specific Commands

These are the commands that set an Informatica support engineer apart from a general Linux user.

Key Log File Locations

BASH

Session logs:   $INFA_HOME/server/infa_shared/SessLogs/
Workflow logs:  $INFA_HOME/server/infa_shared/WorkflowLogs/
Node log:       $INFA_HOME/tomcat/logs/node.log
Service logs:   $INFA_HOME/server/infa_shared/log/

pmcmd - Control Workflows from the Command Line

BASH

# Start a workflow
pmcmd startworkflow \
  -sv IntegrationServiceName \
  -d DomainName \
  -u admin -p password \
  -f FolderName \
  WF_Customer_Load

# Stop a workflow
pmcmd stopworkflow \
  -sv IntegrationServiceName \
  -d DomainName \
  -u admin -p password \
  -f FolderName \
  WF_Customer_Load

# Get workflow status
pmcmd getworkflowdetails \
  -sv IntegrationServiceName \
  -d DomainName \
  -u admin -p password \
  -f FolderName \
  WF_Customer_Load

# Start a specific session task inside a workflow
pmcmd starttask \
  -sv IntegrationServiceName \
  -d DomainName \
  -u admin -p password \
  -f FolderName \
  WF_Customer_Load s_Customer_Load

pmrep - Manage the Repository from the Command Line

BASH

# Connect to repository
pmrep connect -r RepositoryName -d DomainName -u admin -p password

# List all workflows in a folder
pmrep listobjects -o workflow -f FolderName

# Export a workflow to XML
pmrep objectexport \
  -n WF_Customer \
  -o workflow \
  -f FolderName \
  -m -s -b -u \
  -e output.xml

# Backup the repository
pmrep backup -o /backup/repo_backup.rep

# Restore the repository
pmrep restore -i /backup/repo_backup.rep

infacmd - Manage Domain and Services

Path note: infacmd and infasetup live at $INFA_HOME/isp/bin/infacmd.sh. If your $PATH does not include that directory, use the full path.

BASH

# List all services in the domain
infacmd.sh ListServices -dn DomainName -un admin -pd password

# Start a service
infacmd.sh StartService -dn DomainName -sn IntegrationServiceName -un admin -pd password

# Stop a service
infacmd.sh StopService -dn DomainName -sn IntegrationServiceName -un admin -pd password

# Get service status
infacmd.sh GetServiceStatus -dn DomainName -sn IntegrationServiceName -un admin -pd password

Starting and Stopping Informatica Services

BASH

# Start the Informatica node
$INFA_HOME/tomcat/bin/infaservice.sh startup

# Stop the Informatica node
$INFA_HOME/tomcat/bin/infaservice.sh shutdown

# Verify the service started
ps -ef | grep pmserver

# Watch the startup log
tail -f $INFA_HOME/tomcat/logs/node.log

pmpasswd - Encrypt Passwords for Scripts

BASH

pmpasswd MyPassword

Never store plain-text passwords in shell scripts. Use pmpasswd to generate an encrypted value and use that in pmcmd/pmrep scripts.

14. Log Analysis Workflow

This is the process you should walk through in any "workflow failed" scenario question.

Step 1 - Check if the service is running:

BASH

ps -ef | grep pmserver

Step 2 - Check disk space:

BASH

df -h /infa

Step 3 - Find the session log:

BASH

find /infa/server/infa_shared/SessLogs -name "SDE_*.log" -mtime -1

Step 4 - Check for errors:

BASH

grep -in "error\|fatal\|warning\|aborted" session.log

Step 5 - View surrounding context:

BASH

grep -A 10 "Execution failed" session.log

Step 6 - Monitor a live run:

BASH

tail -f session.log | grep -i "error\|rows affected\|success"

Step 7 - Check network connectivity (if database error):

BASH

telnet oracle_db_host 1521

Quick Reference Table

Task	Command
Check disk space	`df -h`
Find large directories	`du -sh * \| sort -rh \| head -10`
Check if pmserver is running	`ps -ef \| grep pmserver`
Monitor session log live	`tail -f session.log`
Find errors in log	`grep -in "error\|warning" session.log`
Count rows in flat file	`wc -l file.csv`
Test database port	`telnet db_host 1521`
Back up a directory	`tar -czvf backup.tar.gz /infa/server/infa_shared/`
Set INFA_HOME	`export INFA_HOME=/infa` (installation root, not `/infa/server`)
Start a workflow	`pmcmd startworkflow -sv ... -f Folder WF_Name`
Check service status	`infacmd.sh GetServiceStatus -dn Domain -un User -pd EncryptedPwd -sn Service`
Archive old logs	`find . -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -exec gzip {} \;`

Conclusion

Linux and Unix skills are not optional for an Informatica support engineer - they are fundamental to the job.

Every production issue you solve will involve a terminal. Whether it is checking disk space, reading a session log, testing database connectivity, or running pmcmd to restart a failed workflow, the command line is where the real work happens.

The commands in this post cover what you will actually use day to day. Focus on the log analysis section and the Informatica-specific commands - those are what interviewers care most about.

If this post was useful, check out the companion post: What to Prepare for an Informatica Admin Interview (PowerCenter + IDMC)

Tags: #Informatica #Linux #Unix #ETL #PowerCenter #DataEngineering #SupportEngineer #pmcmd #pmrep

Linux & Unix Commands Every Informatica Support Engineer Must Know

Who This Post Is For

Essential Environment Variables to Know First

1. Navigation & File System

2. File Operations

3. File Permissions & Ownership

4. Viewing File Contents

5. Search & Grep

6. Text Processing

7. Process Management

8. Disk & Memory

9. Network & Connectivity

10. Archive & Compression

11. SSH & File Transfer

12. Cron Jobs & Scheduling

13. Informatica-Specific Commands

Key Log File Locations

pmcmd - Control Workflows from the Command Line

pmrep - Manage the Repository from the Command Line

infacmd - Manage Domain and Services

Starting and Stopping Informatica Services

pmpasswd - Encrypt Passwords for Scripts

14. Log Analysis Workflow

Quick Reference Table

Conclusion

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