Differences between Packages, Scenarios, and Load Plans ?

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.



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.




Working with Variables in Load Plans


Project and Global Variables used in a Load Plan are declared as Load Plan Variables in the Load Plan editor. These variables are automatically available in all steps and their value passed to the Load Plan steps.

The value of the variables are passed to the Load Plan on startup as startup parameters. At a step level, you can overwrite the variable value (by setting it or forcing a refresh) for this step and its child steps.


Note: At startup, Load Plans do not take into account the default value of a variable, or the historized/latest value of a variable in the execution context. The value of the variable is either the one specified when starting the Load Plan, or the value set/refreshed within the Load Plan.