Several Data Warehouse Center mechanisms can be used to populate the data warehouse. The simplest to implement uses the SQL processing capability of the database engine to select the desired data from the source or sources, transfer the data to the target database, and transform the data on insert. Further transformation can be specified through the Data Warehouse Center by stored procedure invocations of transformations at the target.

The Data Warehouse Center also supplies a set of programs that use file extracts, file transfers, and table loads to provide higher-speed data movement. These programs allow some transformation as part of the data movement. Another option is to take advantage of the data replication capability built in to DB2 Universal Database to capture the changes in the source data and to transfer only those changes to the warehouse target.

You can also write your own Data Warehouse Center program in any language that supports one of the following program types: executable, batch program, dynamic load library, or stored procedure.