RE: Characterset Question

Catching up on these messages.

The characterset of the source (PeopleSoft) database is AL32UTF8. The characterset of the ultimate destination (Data Warehouse) database is AL32UTF8. In between them is Informatica. That is running in Windows using a SQL Server database. It used to be Oracle, but my previous boss decided that he wanted it using SQL Server, so he had it converted. I don’t have access to the Informatica app server. I suspect that’s where the issue is.

Another related issue is that we are in the process of migrating from Red Hat 7 to Red Hat 8. Most of the databases in Red Hat 7 are US7ASCII, but the new databases in Red Hat 8 are AL32UTF8, as it is the default now. If there is a “special” character in the US7ASCII database, when it is datapumped into the Red Hat 8 database, it takes 2 bytes instead of one, which sometimes causes the import to error with an “ORA-12899: value too large for column” error. I made sure the environment running the impdp command (over the network) has the NLS_LANG set to AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8. I’m not sure how to fix that without going backward to US7ASCII, which I don’t want to do.

Scott Canaan ‘88
Sr Database Administrator
Information & Technology Services
Finance & Administration
Rochester Institute of Technology
o: (585) 475-7886 | f: (585) 475-7520
srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu> | c: (585) 339-8659

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From: Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com> Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 6:56 PM
To: dimensional.dba_at_comcast.net; joncrisler_at_gmail.com; Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com Cc: Scott Canaan <srcdco_at_rit.edu>; oracle-l_at_freelists.org Subject: RE: Characterset Question

If memory serves, the utility was csscan, and I *thought* it was upgraded at some point to flag bytes not (supposed to be) in the source database characterset.

That’s probably moot for this case, since Scott identified that inserts from informatica into the new server are the apparent problem, and as Clay pointed out, checking the NLS_LANG (I think) on the client running informatica should be checked.

If the client and server nls language values versions are identical, I *think* no translation is done, which if Scott is correct they are both AL32UTF8, then the translation is the no-op, which should both work correctly and be infinitesimally faster.

Scott, at your convenience please let us know how you make out.

From: dimensional.dba_at_comcast.net<mailto:dimensional.dba_at_comcast.net> [mailto:dimensional.dba_at_comcast.net] Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 6:03 PM
To: joncrisler_at_gmail.com<mailto:joncrisler_at_gmail.com>; Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com<mailto:Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com> Cc: srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu>; 'Mark W. Farnham'; oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: RE: Characterset Question

The tool works great all charactersets except for databases that are set to us7ascii and have 8bit bytes too.

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> <oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org>> On Behalf Of Jon Crisler Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 2:22 PM
To: Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com<mailto:Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com> Cc: srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu>; Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com<mailto:mwf_at_rsiz.com>>; oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Re: Characterset Question

There is a utility that is part of the Oracle characterset conversion program, that can scan the existing DB and the proposed characterset. It will report back on any problem tables / columns and if the result is lossless, losey and/or info about manual cleanup. The exact name escapes me, but check out Oracle DocIDs relating to converting from one characterset to another and it should be mentioned. I will try to find it as well.

On Fri, Mar 22, 2024 at 4:38 PM Clay Jackson <dmarc-noreply_at_freelists.org<mailto:dmarc-noreply_at_freelists.org>> wrote: Check the Oracle client NLS settings that the Informatica server is using. 😊

Clay Jackson
Database Solutions Sales Engineer
[cid:image001.jpg_at_01DA7EA0.5BD5DB20]<https://www.quest.com/solutions/database-performance-monitoring/> clay.jackson_at_quest.com<mailto:clay.jackson_at_quest.com> office 949-754-1203 mobile 425-802-9603

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> <oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org>> On Behalf Of Scott Canaan Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 11:54 AM
To: Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com<mailto:mwf_at_rsiz.com>>; oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: RE: Characterset Question

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Interesting that the source is also AL32UTF8, but the data is transferred via Informatica. My guess is that’s where the issue is.

Scott Canaan ‘88
Sr Database Administrator
Information & Technology Services
Finance & Administration
Rochester Institute of Technology
o: (585) 475-7886 | f: (585) 475-7520
srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu> | c: (585) 339-8659 CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: The information transmitted, including attachments, is intended only for the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and destroy any copies of this information.

From: Mark W. Farnham <mwf_at_rsiz.com<mailto:mwf_at_rsiz.com>> Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 2:50 PM
To: Scott Canaan <srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu>>; oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: RE: Characterset Question

That should be a lossless conversion with the possible exception of clob/blob.

However, figuring out the appropriate NLS_PARAMETER values for the client and the server have to be set right.

How are you bringing data from Peoplesoft over to your new database?

IF it is application to database, setting the client and server parameters should take care of it.

IF it is database (old) to database (new), then there is possibly some data in the (old) database that is not actually US7ASCII and some cleanup may be required.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/19/nlspg/supporting-multilingual-databases-with-unicode.html

should give you a leg up, and there are more similar documents on Oracle.

I’m a bit rusty on this, my friend, but I think that is about correct.

mwf

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Scott Canaan ("srcdco") Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 2:23 PM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Characterset Question

We are in the process of migrating all of our Oracle databases from Red Hat 7 to Red Hat 8. In creating the new databases in Red Hat 8, we’ve been going with the default characterset of AL32UTF8. Many of the old databases are US7ASCII. We are having trouble with applications trying to insert into text fields in the new database. In one case, bringing data from Peoplesoft that has a degree symbol fails because that comes over as 2 bytes instead of one. I thought that AL32UTF8 should handle those characters. What needs to be done to accommodate this?

Scott Canaan ‘88
Sr Database Administrator
Information & Technology Services
Finance & Administration
Rochester Institute of Technology
o: (585) 475-7886 | f: (585) 475-7520
srcdco_at_rit.edu<mailto:srcdco_at_rit.edu> | c: (585) 339-8659 CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: The information transmitted, including attachments, is intended only for the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and destroy any copies of this information.

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