Kurt, From looking at some docs and some comments on other boards from informatica developers, it seems they leverage the direct path OCI APIs directly, which don't require data sourced from a sql statement at all. It's all done in code using the OCI direct path load API. We even ship samples of how to do that. http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28395/oci13obn.htm#i433129 --- On Wed, 5/20/09, Kurt Franke <Kurt-Franke@xxxxxx> wrote: > From: Kurt Franke <Kurt-Franke@xxxxxx> > Subject: Re: Informatica load modes > To: greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 7:18 AM > > Greg, > > > Would someone who is experienced with Informatica > explain what the > > difference is between "bulk mode" and "normal mode" > and when one would > > use either? > > I would like to use PDML as well as direct path loads > (insert /*+ > > append */) and am wondering if this mode controls that > (or what it > > exactly controls). > > Any other advice on how to leverage Informatica for an > Oracle platform > > would be appreciated. > > Direct load insert needs the input from a select statement > and is not possible > with a VALUE clause. > Thus it cannot be used by Tools like Informatica. > (Yes, they are handicapped in comparison to do the work > inside the database) > > If they speek about bulk insert the use something similar > to the PL/SQL "FORALL" clause > and effectively handle an array of rows at once. > This will reduce the number of network round trips and also > reduce the number of switches > into sql mode (soft parse) > > Hence it has more performance than single row inserts. > > But it has much less performance than a direct load insert > which didn't write undo records > and possible can avoid writing redo log when nologging is > set on the target table (this does make > sense for working tables which are truncated after the work > is done and the data are moved to a > real target table) > > Regards > > kf > > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l