🎡⌛SSIS: SQL Server to Oracle Data Export (Second Magic Class)

In a previous post I described the steps needed to be followed in order to export the data from SQL Server to Excel, this time I will describe the steps needed in order to export the data from SQL Server to Oracle. For this is requested to have Oracle database product installed on your computer, or in case you are having already an Oracle database server on the network then you’ll need only the Oracle Client installed locally, and a SQL Development Tool like SQL Developer or TOAD, with a plus for the later.

Like in the previous tutorial we’ll use the Production.Product table from AdventureWorks database coming with SQL Server.

Step 1: Create an Oracle User

If you already have an Oracle User created then you could skip this step, unless you want to create a User only for the current tutorial or for loading other AdventureWorks tables in Oracle. For this we will create first a permanent tablespace (e.g. AdventureWorks), an allocation of space in the database, then create the actual User (e.g. SQLServer) on the just created tablespace, action the will create a schema with the same name as the User, and finally grant the User ‘create session’, ‘create materialized view’ and ‘create table’ privileges.

Open your SQL Developer tool of choice and connect to the Oracle database, then type the following statements and run them one by one, do not forget to provide a strong-typed password in IDENTIFIED BY clause, then create a new connection using the just created User.

 

-- Create TableSpace
CREATE BIGFILE TABLESPACE AdventureWorks
DATAFILE 'AdventureWorks.dat'
SIZE 20M AUTOEXTEND ON; 

-- Create User CREATE USER SQLServer 
IDENTIFIED BY <your_password>
DEFAULT TABLESPACE AdventureWorks 
QUOTA 20M ON AdventureWorks; 

-- Grant privileges
GRANT CREATE SESSION
, CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW
, CREATE TABLE TO SQLServer; 

Step 2: Start SQL Server Import and Export Wizard

From SQL Server Management Studio choose the database from which you want to export the data (e.g. AdventureWorks), right click on it and from the floating menu choose Tasks/Export Data

Step 3: Choose a Data Source

In ‘Choose a Data Source’ step select the ‘Data Source’, SQL Server Native Client 10.0 for exporting data from SQL Server, choose ‘Server name’ from the list of SQL Server available, select the Authentication mode and the Database (e. g. AdventureWorks), then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.

Step 4: Choose a Destination

In ‘Choose a Destination’ step select the Destination, in this case ‘Oracle Provider for OLE DB’ and then click on ‘Properties’ in order to provide the connectivity details, in ‘Data Link Properties’ dialog just opened, enter the Data Source (the SID of your Oracle database), the ‘User name’ (e.g. SQLServer), the ‘Password’ and check ‘Allow saving password’ checkbox, without this last step being not possible to connect to the Oracle database. Then test the connection by clicking the ‘Test Connection’, and if the ‘Test connection succeeded’ proceed to the next step. 

Note:
Excepting ‘Oracle Provider for OLE DB’ there are three other drivers that allows you to connect to an Oracle database: ‘Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle’, ‘.Net Framework Data Provider for Oracle’, respectively ‘Oracle Data Provider for .Net’, each of them coming with their own downsizes and benefits.

Step 5: Specify Table Copy Or Query

In this step choose: ‘Copy data from one or more tables or views’ option.

Step 6: Select Source Tables and Views

In ‘Select Source Tables and Views’ step select the database objects (e.g. Production.vProducts) from which you’ll export the data. You could go with the provided Destination table, though if you are using the current settings Oracle table’s name will be “Product” (including quotes) and not Product as we’d expected. There are two options, go with the current settings and change table’s name and columns, they having also this problem, in Oracle, or create the table manually in Oracle. I prefer the second option because I could use the SQL script automatically generated by Oracle, for this with the just chosen table selected click on ‘Edit Mappings’ button that will bring the ‘Column Mappings’ dialog and click the ‘Edit SQL’ button, the query appearing as editable in ‘Create Table SQL Statement’ dialog. 

Copy the query and copy paste it in the Oracle SQL Developer, then do a replace of the quotes and delete the rowguid column as we don’t needed, in plus when attempting to dump the data, given the incompatibility of data types, an error will be raised. There is a second change we’ll have to make, to rename the Size column to ProductSize, this because Size is a reserved keyword.

 

CREATE TABLE sqlserver.Product (
ProductID INTEGER NOT NULL,
Name NVARCHAR2(50) NOT NULL,
ProductNumber NVARCHAR2(25) NOT NULL,
MakeFlag NUMBER NOT NULL,
FinishedGoodsFlag NUMBER NOT NULL,
Color NVARCHAR2(15),
SafetyStockLevel INTEGER NOT NULL,
ReorderPoint INTEGER NOT NULL,
StandardCost NUMBER NOT NULL,
ListPrice NUMBER NOT NULL,
ProductSize NVARCHAR2(5),
SizeUnitMeasureCode NCHAR(3),
WeightUnitMeasureCode NCHAR(3),
Weight NUMBER,
DaysToManufacture INTEGER NOT NULL,
ProductLine NCHAR(2),
Class NCHAR(2),
Style NCHAR(2),
ProductSubcategoryID INTEGER,
ProductModelID INTEGER,
SellStartDate TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
SellEndDate TIMESTAMP,
DiscontinuedDate TIMESTAMP,
ModifiedDate TIMESTAMP NOT NULL) 

Unfortunately this approach has a downside, we have to go two steps back in Choose a Destination, then click on ‘Properties’ again and without doing any change test the connection by clicking the ‘Test Connection’, then proceed forward to the current step, and in ‘Select Source Tables and Views’ step select again the database object (e.g. Production.vProducts) from which you’ll export the data but this time in Destination dropdown control search for the table just created (e.g. sqlserver.Product).

Because we have removed the rowguid column from the table created in Oracle, we’ll have to change the mappings, for this click on ‘Edit Mappings’ and in ‘Mapping’ list box from ‘Column Mappings’, in the Destination dropdown next to rowguid column select ‘’, thus the respective column being ignored from the mapping. Accept the change and proceed to the next step. 

Note:
You could choose to export more than one table, though for this you’ll have to create manually each table in Oracle and then map the created tables in ‘Select Source Tables and Views’ step.

Step 7: Review Data Type Mapping

Step 8: Save and Run Package

In ‘Save and Run Package’ check the ‘Run immediately’, respectively the ‘Save SSIS Package’ and ‘File System’ option, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.

Step 9: Save SSIS Package

    In ‘Save SSIS Package’ step provide the intended Name (e.g. Export Products To Oracle) or Description of the Package, choose the location where the package will be saved, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.

Step 10: Complete the Wizard

Step 11: Executing the Package

Step 12: Checking the Data

If the previous step completed successfully, then you can copy the following statement in Oracle SQL Developer and execute it, the table should be already populated.

SELECT * 
FROM sqlserver.Product 

Note:
If you used other schema to connect to, then you’ll have to replace the above schema (e.g. SQLServer) with your schema.

🎡SSIS: Wizarding an SSIS Package (First Magic Class)

I'm sorry to disappoint you, this it’s not another story about Harry Potter! It’s about how to create an SSIS package without any knowledge about SSIS or the components of an SSIS Package with the help of ‘SQL Server Import and Export Wizard’ available from the SQL Server 2008 Management Studio. Here are the steps needed to be followed in order to create a Package that exports the data from a local table to an Excel file.

Step 1: Start SQL Server Import and Export Wizard

From SQL Server Management Studio choose the database from which you want to export the data (e.g. AdventureWorks), right click on it and from the floating menu choose Tasks/Export Data. This action will bring the ‘SQL Server Import and Export Wizard’ used, as its name indicates, for importing and exporting data on the fly from/to SQL Server or any other source.
Step 2: Choose a Data Source

In ‘Choose a Data Source’ step select the ‘Data Source’, SQL Server Native Client 10.0 for exporting data from SQL Server, choose ‘Server name’ from the list of SQL Server available, select the Authentication mode and the Database (e. g. AdventureWorks), then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 3: Choose a Destination

In ‘Choose a Destination’ step select the Destination, in this case ‘Microsoft Excel’, browse for the Excel file to which you want to export the data (e.g. Products.xls) and check ‘First row has column names’ in case you want to include the column names, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 4: Specify Table Copy or Query

In ‘Specify Table Copy or Query’ step there are two options you could choose: ‘Copy data from one or more tables or views’ or ‘Write a query to specify the data to transfer’ – their names are speaking for itself. The second option allows for more flexibility and you could just copy paste the query used for your expert. In this example just go with the first option and then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 5: Select Source Tables and Views

In ‘Select Source Tables and Views’ step select the database objects (e.g. Production.vProducts) from which you’ll export the data, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’. If the destination allows it, it’s possible to choose more than one database object.
Step 6: Review Data Type Mapping

In ‘Review Data Type Mapping’ typically you could go with the provided defaults thus you can proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 7: Save and Run Package

In ‘Save and Run Package’ step you could choose to ‘Run immediately’ the package and/or ‘Save SSIS Package’ to the ‘SQL Server’ or locally to the ‘File System’. Saving the package locally allows you to modify and rerun the package at a later date. For this example check the ‘Run immediately’, respectively the ‘Save SSIS Package’ and ‘File System’ option, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 8: Save SSIS Package

In ‘Save SSIS Package’ step provide the intended Name (e.g. Export Products) or Description of the Package, choose the location where the package will be saved, then proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 9: Complete the Wizard

The ‘Complete the Wizard’ step allows reviewing the choices made in the previous steps and eventually navigating to the previous steps in order and to the needful changes. Therefore once you proved the details proceed to the next step by clicking ‘Next’.
Step 10: Executing the Package

In ‘Executing the Package’ step the Package is run, the progress being shown as each step. Just close the Package once you reviewed the steps.
If the package run successfully you can go on and check the exported data, apply additional formatting, etc.

Step 11: Inspecting the Package

The package can be reopened and modified in Microsoft Visual Studio or SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio, for this just open one of the two environments and from the Main Menu select File/Open File, then browse for the location where the Package (e.g. Export Products.dtsx) was saved and open the file. Here is the package created by the Wizard:
As can be seen the package contains two tasks, the ‘Preparation SQL Task 1’ which creates the table (e.g. vProducts) in the Excel file, and ‘Data Flow Task 1’ which dumps the data in the created table. By double clicking the ‘Data Flow Task 1’ you could see its content: - the ‘Source - vProducts’ OLEDB Data Source holding the connectivity information to the SQL Server and the list of Columns in scope. - the ‘Data Conversion’ Transformation that allows converting the data between Source and Destination given the fact that Excel has different data types than SQL Server - the ‘Destination - vProducts’ Excel Destination holding the connectivity information for the Excel file and the Mappings in place.
You could explore the properties of each object in order to learn more about its attributes used and the values they took.

Ok, so you’ve open the package, how do you run it again? For this is enough to double click on the locally saved Package (e.g. Export Products.dtsx), action that will bring the ‘Execute Package Utility’, and click on the ‘Execute’ button to run the Package.
If you haven’t done any changes to the Excel file to which you moved the data (e.g. Products.xls) and haven’t moved the file, then the package will fail when it attempts to run the ‘the ‘Preparation SQL Task 1’ task because a table with the expected name already exists in the file.
In order to avoid this error to appear you’ll have to delete from the Excel file the sheet (e.g. vProducts) where the data were dumped and save the file. Now you could execute again the package and it should execute without additional issues.

If you’ve removed/deleted the Excel file, even if you get a warning that the Excel file is not available, the package will run in the end without problems. Instead of deleting the sheet manually you could use the File System Task to move the file to other location, though that’s a topic for another post.