Tier relationships

The tiers provide services, job execution, and storage of metadata and other data for the product modules that you install.

The following diagram illustrates the tier relationships.
Figure 1. Tier relationships
This figure is described in the surrounding text.
The tiers relate to one another in the following ways:
  • Relationships differ depending on which product modules you install.
  • Client programs on the client tier communicate primarily with the services tier. The IBM® InfoSphere® DataStage® and QualityStage® clients also communicate with the engine tier.
  • Various services within the services tier communicate with agents on the engine tier.
  • Metadata services on the services tier communicate with the metadata repository.
  • ODBC drivers on the engine tier communicate with external databases.
  • InfoSphere Metadata Integration Bridges on the client tier can import data from external sources. Some bridges can also export data.
  • With the IBM InfoSphere Information Analyzer product module, the engine tier communicates directly with the analysis databases on the repository tier. The InfoSphere Information Analyzer client also communicates directly with the analysis databases.