Load Knowledge Module Oracle to Oracle using database links

March 11, 2011

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ODI comes with an LKM to extract data from another Oracle database instance using db links via a view that is created at the source system.
The existing LKM Oracle to Oracle (DBLINK)
I see two problems with the way this KM is implemented.
1. It creates a database link on the fly. What if you want to run multiple interfaces in parallel that rely on this db link? You are fecked.
2. This is bad practice as far as I am concerned. What if the source DBA does not give you privileges to create views?
In summary this LKM is not usable.
I have created an LKM Oracle to Oracle using a db link that creates a view on the target rather than the source. It also does not generate the db link on the fly. A C$ view is used rather than a C$ table as this is similar to extracting from another Oracle schema and in theory no LKM should be required at all.
How to use the improved LKM Oracle to Oracle (DBLINK View Target)
You need to create a database link in the work schema of your target.
You then need to append the name of this db link to the Resource Name of your source data store(s). In the example below our db link is @PVPROD.
db_link_odi
That is it. Now download the LKM Oracle to Oracle (DBLINK View Target) and use it.
If you don’t want to hard code the name of the database link into the Resource name in your datastore you can use the following technique.
Declare the variable in your Interface Diagram, e.g.
odi_dblink0
And in your Resource name print out this variable
odi_dblink
For various reasons you can’t use ODI variables in the Resource name. One of them is that the getfrom() method in the ODI substitution API does not give you the full control that would be needed to set this up correctly. So you are stuck with the technique above.

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