OWB - External Table to Dimension

I have a dev OWB 10g R2 environment into which I want to load up some reference dimensions from production. I don't have a connection to production so I thought I could load the dimensions as files since they are small. However they have a large number of attributes that I wanted to avoid rekeying if I possibly can.

Consequently I was looking for a way to load the dimensions from files with no transformation and minimum effort.

The following approaches don't work:

• Create the file location, create the external table using the import option and create the dimension using the import option. What appears to be a dimension import is actually a reimport of the external table.
• Create the file location, create the external table using the import option and create a mapping to generate the dimension operator. Unbound dimension operators aren't allowed in the mapping.

It looks like I wasn't going to be able to avoid rekeying the huge numbers of attributes until I discovered the Create Dimension expert, a free unsupported wizard that can be added to the OWB IDE.

My way to migrate or upgrade Oracle XE

Start from scratch! (assumes no apex stuff to migrate)

• Backup Oracle XE
• Install Oracle Standard 10.2.0.1
• Install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter
• Disable Microsoft Enhanced Internet Security Configuration
• Restore Oracle XE databases to Standard and test
• Uninstall Oracle XE

Advantages:

• No need to patch Standard to 10.2.0.3
• No need to run the upgrade wizard

Disadvantages:

• Shame about the apex

Oracle patch recursion - down the rabbit hole

I'm trying to migrate my Oracle XE database to Standard. I have Standard 10.2.0.1 and the instructions say they it needs to be 10.2.0.3 before this can be done. So I downloaded the upgrade "patch" (which is larger than the Standard install package). Once I downloaded it, I found that one of the prerequisites for this patch is another patch. So I downloaded that patch, only to find that it has a patch prerequisite also - opatch needs upgrading.

Cue one of those 60's rotating spiral patterns in conjunction with paranoid sound effects...

How difficult would it be to create a one-shot 10.2.0.3 install? I wouldn't mind having to reboot half way through, honest...

One of the patches required disabling of the Distributed Transaction Coordinator. If you don't restart it, you won't be able to do things like connect / as sysdba.

If you can't get restarted with Sqlplus as per instructions, you'll want to get on to the Enterprise Manager site. But you won't be able to without setting up "logon as a batch job" rights for your windows user.