Connectors → Oracle

About Oracle Database

Oracle Database is one of the most popular relational database management systems(RDMS) in the world. Oracle Database has an extensive history as a RDMS starting in 1979. It can be configured and managed as an on-premises, cloud, or hybrid installation. Oracle Databases have two computing versions, grid and cloud.

As a RDMS, the logical data structure of an Oracle Database, or schema, is independent of the physical data storage. The schema is a collection of schema objects, or logical data structures. Users define schema objects. Schema objects have many types in an Oracle Database, but the two most common are tables and indexes. A table represents an entity. Attributes of an entity are defined by columns in the table. Rows in the table identify instances of those entities. An index can be added to the columns of a table to increase data retrieval efficiency. Indexes are logically and physically independent of data and as a result can be removed or added without affecting the corresponding table.

All operations on data in an Oracle Database use SQL statements. Oracle Database utilizes a procedural extension (PL/SQL) of SQL. PL/SQL enables the ability to store application logic in the database. Java procedures can also be published as SQL and stored in the database. Java and PL/SQL procedures can be interchangeably called.

Oracle Database grid computing, denoted by a “g” in the version number, uses a distributed architecture over a common network. The grid system assigns individual managers to nodes in the grid system. A single system centralizes all resource control of the grid.

Oracle Database Cloud, denoted by a “c” in the version number, utilizes remote servers to store and manage data. The cloud implementation of Oracle Database centralizes management and resources of the entire cloud network.

Client applications connecting to an Oracle Database connect through the same procedure of client/server process connection.

About the Oracle Database Connector

Incorta loads data from an Oracle database using the Oracle connector. The Incorta Oracle Connector uses the ojdbc8.jar driver. The Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Application Programming Interface (API) is the industry standard in connectivity between Java programming and databases. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is part of the core technology package for Java programming. The other two major packages are the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The Oracle JDBC driver is always compliant with the current JDK version at time of release. You should review Oracle database, JDBC, and JDK version compatibility when preparing to make BI connections. Incorta connects to an Oracle Database using the _thin_ driver type, whcih is a 100% Java driver for client side use. This configuration is specified in the Connection String.

The Oracle connector supports the following Incorta specific functionality:

Feature Supported
Incremental Load
Encryption at Ingest
Performance Optimization
Webhook Callbacks
Load Filter
Note

The Oracle Connector supports two types of incremental load, including support for using a numeric column. To learn more see Types of Incremental Load.

Steps to connect Oracle Database and Incorta

To connect Oracle and Incorta, here are the high level steps, tools, and procedures:

Create an external data source

Here are the steps to create a external data source with the Oracle connector:

  • Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
  • In the Navigation bar, select Data.
  • In the Action bar, select + NewAdd Data Source.
  • In the Choose a Data Source dialog, in Database, select Oracle.
  • In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
  • To test, select Test Connection.
  • Select Ok to save your changes.

Oracle connector properties

Here are the properties for the Oracle connector:

Property Control Description
Data Source Name text box Enter the name of the data source
Username text box Enter the database username
Password text box Enter the database password
Connection Pool text box Enter the connection pool. The default is 30.
Connection String text box Enter the connection string for the Oracle JDBC driver. The format is: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<HOST>:<PORT>:<DATABASE_NAME>
The default JDBC port for Oracle Database is: 1521.
Connection Properties text box Enter the customized key/value properties, as applicable. See below for details on connection properties.

Connection Properties

The connection properties allow for customized connection to your Oracle database. The properties are accepted in a key=value format. The type of connector properties can range from username and password to SSL settings. The ojdbc8.jar driver determines the available connection properties. For a list of connection properties available with Incorta and an Oracle database refer to Configuration Properties for Connector.

Create a schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create an Oracle schema with the Schema Wizard:

  • Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
  • In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
  • In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard.
  • In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:

    • For Enter a name, enter the schema name.
    • For Select a Datasource, select the Oracle external data source.
    • Optionally create a description.
  • In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
  • In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data Panel, first select the name of the Data Source, and then check the Select All checkbox.
  • In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
  • In (3) Finalize, in the Schema Wizard footer, select Create Schema.

Create a schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create an Oracle schema using the Schema Designer:

  • Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
  • In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
  • In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
  • In Name, specify the schema name, and select Save.
  • In Start adding tables to your schema, select SQL Database.
  • In the Data Source dialog, specify the Oracle table data source properties.
  • Select Add.
  • In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
  • To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

Oracle table data source properties

For a schema table in Incorta, you can define the following Oracle specific data source properties as follows:

Property Control Description
Type drop down list Default is SQL Database
Data Source drop down list Select the Oracle external data source
Incremental toggle Enable the incremental load configuration for the schema table. See Types of Incremental Load.
Incremental Extract Using drop down list Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select between Last Successful Extract Time and Maximum Value of a Column. See Types of Incremental Load.
Incremental Column drop down list Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select the column to be used in a Maximum Value of a Column. The loader will track and use the greatest value, most recent timestamp, for each load operation.
Query text box Enter the SQL query to retrieve data from the Oracle database
Update Query text box Enable Incremental to configure this property. Enter the SQL update query to use during an incremental load.
Incremental Field Type drop down list Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select what the format of the incremental field type is: Timestamp, Unix Epoch (seconds), or Unix Epoch (milliseconds).
Fetch Size text box Used for performance improvement, fetch size defines the number of records that will be retrieved from the database in each batch until all records are retrieved. The default is 5000.
Chunking Method drop down list Chunking methods allow for parallel extraction of large tables. The default is No Chunking.
Enable Spark Based Extraction toggle Enable the configuration of a Spark job to parallelize the data ingest.
Max Number of Parallel Queries text box Enable Spark Based Extraction to configure this property. In a Spark job, specify the maximum number of parallel queries.
Column to Parallelize Queries on drop down list Enable Spark Based Extraction to configure this property. Select the numerical column in the source table that Spark will parallelize the extraction queries from.
Memory Per Extractor text box Enable Spark Based Extraction to configure this property. In a Spark job, allocate the amount of memory per extractor. Units are in gigabytes.
Callback toggle Turn this option on to enable the Callback URL field
Callback URL text box This property appears when the Callback toggle is turned on. Enter the URL.

View the schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

  • Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
  • In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
  • In the list of schemas, select the Oracle schema.
  • In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the Oracle schema using the Schema Designer:

  • Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
  • In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
  • In the list of schemas, select the Oracle schema.
  • In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Load Now → Full.
  • To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the schema

With the full load of the Oracle schema complete, you can use the Analyzer to explore the schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the schema, follow these steps:

  • In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
  • In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the Oracle schema.
  • In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.

Additional Considerations

Types of Incremental Load

You can enable Incremental Load for a Oracle table data source. There are two types of incremental extracts:

Last Successful Extract Time Fetch updates since the last time the tables were loaded. Determined by the difference between the current time and the database timestamp.

Maximum Value of a Column The column-based strategy depends on an extra column called “Incremental Column” in each table. The Oracle connector supports both timestamp and numeric columns. A timestamp column is of the type date or timestamp. A numeric column is of the type int or long.

Note

Changing the incremental load strategy requires a full load to ensure data integrity.

Incremental Load Example

In this example, the invoices table must contain a column of the type Date or Timestamp in order to load the table incrementally with a last successful extract time strategy. In this case, the name of the date column is ModifiedDate and the format of the column is Timestamp.

Here are the data source property values for this example:

Incremental is enabled

Query contains SELECT * FROM `invoices`

Update Query containsSELECT * FROM `invoices` WHERE `ModifiedDate` > ?

Note

? is a variable in the update query that contains the last schema refresh date.

Incremental Field Type = Timestamp

Note

If running an update query for an incremental load, you are able to use the ? reference character. The ? character will be replaced with the last incremental reference to construct a valid query to the database. The ? reference character is not valid in a standard query.

Valid Query Types

When creating a query for your Oracle Connector only SELECT statements are valid. You are not able to use INSERTS or UPDATES as a query in your Oracle Connector.


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