Working with a Scenario from a Different Repository

14 Working with Load Plans 14-1 14 Working with Load Plans This chapter gives an introduction to Load Plans. It describes how to create a Load Plan and provides information about how to work with Load Plans. This chapter includes the following sections: ■ Section 14.1, Introduction to Load Plans ■ Section 14.2, Creating a Load Plan ■ Section 14.3, Running Load Plans ■ Section 14.4, Using Load Plans in Production

14.1 Introduction to Load Plans

Oracle Data Integrator is often used for populating very large data warehouses. In these use cases, it is common to have thousands of tables being populated using hundreds of scenarios. The execution of these scenarios has to be organized in such a way that the data throughput from the sources to the target is the most efficient within the batch window. Load Plans help the user organizing the execution of scenarios in a hierarchy of sequential and parallel steps for these type of use cases. A Load Plan is an executable object in Oracle Data Integrator that can contain a hierarchy of steps that can be executed conditionally, in parallel or in series. The leaves of this hierarchy are Scenarios. Packages, interfaces, variables, and procedures can be added to Load Plans for executions in the form of scenarios. For more information, see Section 14.2, Creating a Load Plan . Load Plans allow setting and using variables at multiple levels. See Section 14.2.3, Working with Variables in Load Plans for more information. Load Plans also support exception handling strategies in the event of a scenario ending in error. See Section 14.2.4, Handling Load Plan Exceptions and Restartability for more information. Load Plans can be started, stopped, and restarted from a command line, from Oracle Data Integrator Studio, Oracle Data Integrator Console or a Web Service interface. They can also be scheduled using the run-time agent’s built-in scheduler or an external scheduler. When a Load Plan is executed, a Load Plan Instance is created. Each attempt to run this Load Plan Instance is a separate Load Plan Run. See Chapter 14.3, Running Load Plans for more information. A Load Plan can be modified in production environments and steps can be enabled or disabled according to the production needs. Load Plan objects can be designed and viewed in the Designer and Operator Navigators. Various design operations such as create, edit, delete, and so forth can be performed on a Load Plan object if a user connects to a development work repository, but some design operations will not be 14-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Developers Guide for Oracle Data Integrator available in an execution work repository. See Section 14.2.2.2, Editing Load Plan Steps for more information. Once created, a Load Plan is stored in the work repository. The Load Plan can be exported then imported to another repository and executed in different contexts. Load Plans can also be versioned. See Section 14.4.3, Exporting, Importing and Versioning Load Plans for more information. Load Plans appear in Designer Navigator and in Operator Navigator in the Load Plans and Scenarios accordion. The Load Plan Runs are displayed in the Load Plan Executions accordion in Operator Navigator.

14.1.1 Load Plan Execution Lifecycle

When running or scheduling a Load Plan you provide the variable values, the contexts and logical agents used for this Load Plan execution. Executing a Load Plan creates a Load Plan instance and a first Load Plan run. This Load Plan instance is separated from the original Load Plan, and the Load Plan Run corresponds to the first attempt to execute this instance. If a run is restarted a new Load Plan run is created under this Load Plan instance. As a consequence, each execution attempt of the Load Plan Instance is preserved as a different Load Plan run in the Log. See Section 14.3, Running Load Plans for more information.

14.1.2 Differences between Packages, Scenarios, and Load Plans

A Load Plan is the largest executable object in Oracle Data Integrator. It uses Scenarios in its steps. When an executable object is used in a Load Plan, it is automatically converted into a scenario. For example, a package is used in the form of a scenario in Load Plans. Note that Load Plans cannot be added to a Load Plan. However, it is possible to add a scenario in form of a Run Scenario step that starts another Load Plan using the OdiStartLoadPlan tool. Load plans are not substitutes for packages or scenarios, but are used to organize at a higher level the execution of packages and scenarios. Unlike packages, Load Plans provide native support for parallelism, restartability and exception handling. Load plans are moved to production as is, whereas packages are moved in the form of scenarios. Load Plans can be created in Production environments. The Load Plan instances and Load Plan runs are similar to Sessions. The difference is that when a session is restarted, the existing session is overwritten by the new execution. The new Load Plan Run does not overwrite the existing Load Plan Run, it is added after the previous Load Plan Runs for this Load Plan Instance. Note that the Load Plan Instance cannot be modified at run-time.

14.1.3 Load Plan Structure

A Load Plan is made up of a sequence of several types of steps. Each step can contain several child steps. Depending on the step type, the steps can be executed conditionally, in parallel or sequentially. By default, a Load Plan contains an empty root serial step. This root step is mandatory and the step type cannot be changed. Table 14–1 lists the different types of Load Plan steps and the possible child steps.