The known limits of using SDO_GEORASTER with a geodatabase is not completely correct: The following is a list of limits to keep in mind when storing raster data in your enterprise geodatabase as SDO_GEORASTER. �?� Oracle does not support piecewise updates for SDO_GEORASTER. Therefore, it is not possible to mosaic image files to an existing raster dataset that is stored as an SDO_GEORASTER. + NOT TRUE : GeoRaster supports mosaicking inside the database. Once the file is loaded, they can be mosaicked together. GeoRaster also supports piecewise raster update - update one using another georaster object. �?� Pyramids cannot be constructed during the insertion of data. After inserting image data into an SDO_GEORASTER, a separate update step is required to construct the pyramid. For this reason, you should always uncheck the Build pyramid check box on the dialog box of any of the ArcGIS geoprocessing tools that create raster datasets or raster catalogs. + TRUE But there are benefits such as that users can always build pyramids afterwards by leveraging oracle server's batch processing and concurrent processing capabilities in a massive way. Otherwise pyramiding could block or slow down loading.If GDAL is used, building pyramids while loading is doable. �?� The image data cannot be currently stored in a compressed format in SDO_GEORASTER if you are using Oracle 10g Release 1 (R1). Oracle added image compression to the SDO_GEORASTER type in Oracle 10g Release 2 (R2). If you are using Oracle 10g R1, you should always set the compression type to NONE on the dialog box of any ArcGIS geoprocessing tools when you use them to create raster datasets or raster catalogs. + TRUE �?� You cannot use SDO_GEORASTER storage in an Oracle 11g R2 database as a result of Oracle bug 12537431. If you want to use SDO_GEORASTER storage, use Oracle 11g R1. + FALSE Bug 12537431 : XMLLOADDOM FAILS WITH LPX-00019 WHEN SESSION IS CREATED WITH OCIENVNLSCREATE. The bug filed by ESRI is not a bug and was closed in May 2012. From the bug db, ESRI should have been advised to change their application code. Esri 10.1 patch 1 does not fix yet the problem. Using NLS_LANG parameter to AMERICAN_AMERICA should fix the problem when loading raster (set variable for the oracle client where the loader is executed). I am able to use SDO_GEORASTER in 11.2.0.3 loaded by gdal and view it into arccatalog.
�?� Oracle implements SDO_GEORASTER as a band-integrated architecture. Therefore, it is not possible to add and delete individual bands of a raster dataset. + FALSE This it true that SDO_GEORASTER supports a band-integrated architecture but this is flexible and efficient. However, users don't have to interleave all bands together. Users can store the rasters band by band too (by specifying bandblocksize = 1). It's simply a special case and is the SIMPLEST use case of a band-integrated architecture. No matter band interleaved or not, users can delete bands by calling sdo_geor.subset and adding bands by calling sdo_geor.mergeLayers. That should be integrated in Esri product �?� ArcGIS does not support multiple raster columns in a table. Tables with multiple SDO_GEORASTER columns should be accessed through views that contain only one SDO_GEORASTER column. Use the sdetable create_view operation to create these views of the table. See the ArcSDE Administration Command Reference for details on using the sdetable command. +TRUE �?� When using SDO_GEORASTER storage in a geodatabase, there is no support for a nodata bitmask. Therefore, it is not possible to build a pyramid on nonsquare regular data. +FALSE GeoRaster stores nodata bitmasks and can build pyramids on it no matter it's square or nonsquare. The storage is tight and is together with the raster object itself so the association is embedded (can be separated too). Users can easily query it through the georaster object. Users don't have to query it separately from another object or metadata.
Can you please adapt the doc for lastest release 10.1, and specify what is supported in Oracle 11.2 that is not supported by Esri yet. Also, documentation to load raster into oracle sdo_georaster is not clear. Could you please confirm that sdo_georaster is supported and what are the real limitations? I am facing problems with bands (x1 only, and not x4), and also with blocksize limited to 128x128. Olivier
