ETL AlloyDB in Oracle Data Integrator

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to AlloyDB: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for AlloyDB connects real-time AlloyDB data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with AlloyDB just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the AlloyDB APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article covers a JDBC-based ETL -- AlloyDB to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of AlloyDB entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.alloydb.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.alloydb.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

• UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
• UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
• Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
• Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of AlloyDB data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time AlloyDB data and create mappings based on AlloyDB tables.

1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects. 👁 Create a New Model
   
2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter AlloyDB.
   • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
   • Logical Schema: Enter AlloyDB.
   • Context: Select Global.
   👁 Configuring the Model
   
3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter AlloyDB.
   • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
   • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.alloydb.AlloyDBDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

     The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

     • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
     • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
     • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

     You can also optionally set the following:

     • Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
     • Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

     Authenticating with Standard Authentication

     Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

     No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

     Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

     There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

     Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

     Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

     This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

     Authenticating with SASL Authentication

     This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

     Authenticating with Kerberos

     The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the AlloyDB JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.alloydb.jar
     

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     

     Below is a typical connection string:

     jdbc:alloydb:User=alloydb;Password=admin;Database=alloydb;Server=127.0.0.1;Port=5432
     

   👁 Configuring the Data Server
   
4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
   • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
   • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for AlloyDB, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter AlloyDB.
   • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for AlloyDB, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter AlloyDB.
   👁 Configuring the Physical Schema
   
5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for AlloyDB tables. 👁 Reverse Engineer the Model
   

Edit and Save AlloyDB Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with AlloyDB data in ODI. To edit and save AlloyDB data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes. 👁 Viewing the data.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from AlloyDB. You will load Orders entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

   Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

   sqlplus / as sysdba
   

2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Orders table in AlloyDB:

   CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_ORDERS (SHIPCITY NUMBER(20,0),ShipName VARCHAR2(255));
   

3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_ORDERS table is added to the model.
5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
6. Drag the TRG_ORDERS table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
7. Drag the Orders table from the AlloyDB model onto the mapping.
8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click ORDERS_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
10. In the ORDERS_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab. 👁 SQL-based access to AlloyDB enables you to use standard database-to-database knowledge modules.
    

You can then run the mapping to load AlloyDB data into Oracle.