By default, the Integration Service builds a cache in memory when it processes the first row of data in a cached Lookup transformation. The Integration Service creates each lookup cache in the pipeline sequentially. The Integration Service waits for any upstream active transformation to complete processing before it starts processing the rows in the Lookup transformation. The Integration Service does not build caches for a downstream Lookup transformation until an upstream Lookup transformation completes building a cache.

For example, the following mapping contains an unsorted Aggregator transformation followed by two Lookup transformations:

The Integration Service processes all the rows for the unsorted Aggregator transformation and begins processing the first Lookup transformation after the unsorted Aggregator transformation completes. When it processes the first input row, the Integration Service begins building the first lookup cache. After the Integration Service finishes building the first lookup cache, it can begin processing the lookup data. The Integration Service begins building the next lookup cache when the first row of data reaches the Lookup transformation.

You might want to process lookup caches sequentially if the Lookup transformation may not process row data. The Lookup transformation may not process row data if the transformation logic is configured to route data to different pipelines based on a condition. Configuring sequential caching may allow you to avoid building lookup caches unnecessarily. For example, a Router transformation might route data to one pipeline if a condition resolves to true, and it might route data to another pipeline if the condition resolves to false. In this case, a Lookup transformation might not receive data at all.