Latest Contributions by VinceAngelo

At some point, you need to leave 10.8.x behind. I'm an extreme late adopter, and I've been using Pro exclusively for years, even for hobby projects. Python 3 is worth the transition cost, and clinging to an unsupported platform is just no fun. - V ... View more

You may need to time the upgrade process carefully, because I don't think it's possible to upgrade a 10.4 geodatabase directly to 10.9.  You probably need to upgrade to 10.7 geodatabase first, then upgrade the SQL Server, then upgrade the geodatabase to 10.9.  Even 10.9 is a couple of revs off current, so you might have issues using a modern Pro release with a 10.9 geodatabase. - V ... View more

Few features with extraordinary numbers of vertices is actually on the other side of the diminishing returns curve, especially if the extents are large, relative to the overall layer extent. We'd need a lot more information: The exact numbers of features (and geometry type) The number of vertices and/or parts  The storage format (shapefile, file geodatabase, enterprise geodatabase, and if EGDB, which RDBMS) The average ratio of the extents to the overall layer extent An indication of the extent at which the resulting data is being rendered (relative to overall extent). - V ... View more

Tim -- Let's just say I would never try this. I do know the underlying API is capable, because in the distant past (e.g. 8.2? 9.0?), a colleague used my 'asc2sde' utility to load 680m rows in under 18 hours, into Oracle, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL (three different servers, concurrently). Note that this was before native geometry was the usual solution. That said, what does Append really get you here that raw SQL wouldn't?  I'd be tempted to chunk the data into 5-10m SQL statements, then execute them in a native CLI utility (SQL*Plus/sqlcmd/psql) , but I'd also want to benchmark using a DA SearchCursor with a collection of DA InsertCursor commands, and  using a collection of arcpy.ArcSDESQLExecute cursors with INSERT SQL statements (with a del cursor every few million rows).  If I were an FME guy, I'd also benchmark that, all  across 50m rows, then use the one that presented the least difficulties. I'd also strongly consider just leaving the data where it is, and adding a PostGIS geometry to it and moving forward with my project. - V ... View more

Since this is a Professional level exam, it's more about experience and familiarity than memorization. The Qualifications and Skills Measured lists should be sufficient to review less actively used aspects of the material. There were sample questions in previous iterations, but this most recent exam doesn't seem to have any. - V ... View more

Whenever something new comes up, the question to ask is "What changed?" The error message is indicating login/schema issues, so in this case, what changed in the database?  Did someone alter the login/schema mappings? Has there been a database rev update?\ - V ... View more

The definition of "unused" needs scope.  They were all used at least once. It would be possible to scan a number of map projects to inventory the "used" tables, but much more difficult to scan for all scripts or SQL functions/triggers that exploit "unused" data to manifest "used" data. - V  ... View more

In what way do you want to compare the datasets?  Plain files have byte order, but geodata, since it is a type of relation, needs to be compared unordered, which makes comparison, umm..., complex (if not impossible). Obviously you could compare them in simplistic ways, but the number of false positives would reduce the usefulness of such comparisons. - V ... View more

Rather than give generous permissions to the users, create a power_user role, then grant that role access to run a utility procedure with the minimum needed privileges, and grant the power_user role privilege to execute that procedure. In this way you only grant the necessary access to terminate users according to the rules established in the PL/SQL procedure (the PL/SQL equivalent of Unix sudo or some other setuid script). - V ... View more

It's not exactly best practice to make use of the master database for anything GIS. In fact, it's pretty close to worst practice. It wouldn't surprise if it is not permitted (and if it is, I would file a Defect to have that loophole closed). Pretty much any training in database technology is going to tell you to create a new logical storage, a database or databases to house your data (leveraging the storage), and additional user logins and group logins, and schemas in the databases to match and/or correspond to the logins. Creating user data in reserved admin databases presents an unnecessary risk to database stability.  Creating a "toto" database for your non-Kansas data would in fact be best practice, and I encourage you to do so. - V ... View more

Never ever change the selection environment on a source while inside a cursor using that source. Please use code formatting on your post so that the code indentation is legible. - V ... View more

Hi. This is the user forums, where users communicate with other users (and some Esri employees  who also use the software, but most not authorized to speak on behalf of the company). Communicating vendor requirements to Esri should be done through Tech Support and/or Customer Service and/or your local government representative. I would note that backfitting fundamental changes to software in Mature or Retired support status is not a likely outcome, especially if modern software in active support already has that capability.  - V ... View more

I haven't ever used SQL*Loader, so this should be asked as a different question (and not of me). Populating new tables, adding all appropriate indexes, then running INSERT/DELETE based on a LEFT OUTER JOIN  mismatch and UPDATE on only the changed rows is the procedure I'm recommending. How you actually implement that is outside the scope of my answer.  - V ... View more