Failed in the execution of the ODCIINDEXINSERT routine while loading points

Question

I used SQL*Loader from 11.2 client to load million records into a 11.2 spatial table (points with longitude and latitude) and I got the following error:
SQL*Loader: Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Oct 12 10:17:57 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
ORA-39776: fatal Direct Path API error loading table CISDWSYS.VEHICLE_LOCATION_FACT
ORA-29875: failed in the execution of the ODCIINDEXINSERT routine
ORA-22054: underflow error
ORA-06512: at "MDSYS.SDO_INDEX_METHOD_10I", line 720
ORA-06512: at "MDSYS.SDO_INDEX_METHOD_10I", line 225
SQL*Loader-2026: the load was aborted because SQL Loader cannot continue.
Load completed - logical record count 45000.The table has a spatial index on VEHICLE_LOCATION column with MDSYS.SDO_GEOMETRY data type. Both table and spatial index are partitioned “monthly” by MESSAGE_DATETIME column. The database is 11.2 (11gR2), the client and SQL*Loader is version 11.2.
My control file is:
options (direct=yes, bindsize=20971520, readsize=20971520)
Load data
Append
into table VEHICLE_LOCATION_FACT
fields terminated by ","
(VEHICLE_LOCATION_MESSAGE_ID  CONSTANT 222,
MESSAGE_DATETIME Date 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS',
ROUTE_NUMBER,RUN_NUMBER,VEHICLE_NUMBER,BADGE_NUMBER,
TRIP_DIRECTION,GPS_LONGITUDE_NUMBER,GPS_LATITUDE_NUMBER,DIVISION_NUMBER,
VEHICLE_LOCATION COLUMN OBJECT
     SDO_GTYPE Integer EXTERNAL,
     SDO_SRID  CONSTANT 8265,
     SDO_POINT COLUMN OBJECT
       ( X     FLOAT EXTERNAL,
         Y     FLOAT EXTERNAL
)I noticed that number for "Load completed - logical record count" is not always same. For example, when data file size is around 300 MB the logical record count is 45000 and when the data file size is 500 MB then logical record count is 110000. The data in both files is of the same nature, just vehicles GPS locations (points).
The control.log file is
SQL*Loader: Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Oct 12 10:17:57 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
Control File:   Load_Vehicle_Locations_2.ctl
Data File:      CIS_VehLoc_L05120603gps.txt
  Bad File:     CIS_VehLoc_L05120603gps.bad
  Discard File:  none specified
(Allow all discards)
Number to load: ALL
Number to skip: 0
Errors allowed: 50
Continuation:    none specified
Path used:      Direct
Table VEHICLE_LOCATION_FACT, loaded from every logical record.
Insert option in effect for this table: APPEND
   Column Name                  Position   Len  Term Encl Datatype
VEHICLE_LOCATION_MESSAGE_ID                               CONSTANT
    Value is '222'
MESSAGE_DATETIME                    FIRST     *   ,       DATE YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS
ROUTE_NUMBER                         NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
RUN_NUMBER                           NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
VEHICLE_NUMBER                       NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
BADGE_NUMBER                         NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
TRIP_DIRECTION                       NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
GPS_LONGITUDE_NUMBER                 NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
GPS_LATITUDE_NUMBER                  NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
DIVISION_NUMBER                      NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
VEHICLE_LOCATION                  DERIVED     *           COLUMN OBJECT       
*** Fields in VEHICLE_LOCATION
SDO_GTYPE                            NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
SDO_SRID                                                  CONSTANT
    Value is '8265'
SDO_POINT                         DERIVED     *           COLUMN OBJECT       
*** Fields in VEHICLE_LOCATION.SDO_POINT
X                                    NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
Y                                    NEXT     *   ,       CHARACTER           
*** End of fields in VEHICLE_LOCATION.SDO_POINT
*** End of fields in VEHICLE_LOCATION
ORA-39776: fatal Direct Path API error loading table CISDWSYS.VEHICLE_LOCATION_FACT
ORA-29875: failed in the execution of the ODCIINDEXINSERT routine
ORA-22054: underflow error
ORA-06512: at "MDSYS.SDO_INDEX_METHOD_10I", line 720
ORA-06512: at "MDSYS.SDO_INDEX_METHOD_10I", line 225
SQL*Loader-2026: the load was aborted because SQL Loader cannot continue.
Table VEHICLE_LOCATION_FACT:
  0 Rows successfully loaded.
  0 Rows not loaded due to data errors.
  0 Rows not loaded because all WHEN clauses were failed.
  0 Rows not loaded because all fields were null.
  Date cache:
   Max Size:      1000
   Entries :       192
   Hits    :     44808
   Misses  :         0
Bind array size not used in direct path.
Column array  rows :    5000
Stream buffer bytes:  256000
Read   buffer bytes:20971520
Total logical records skipped:          0
Total logical records rejected:         0
Total logical records discarded:        0
Total stream buffers loaded by SQL*Loader main thread:        9
Total stream buffers loaded by SQL*Loader load thread:        9
Run began on Fri Oct 12 10:17:57 2012
Run ended on Fri Oct 12 10:18:34 2012
Elapsed time was:     00:00:37.16
CPU time was:         00:00:00.32I’m confused by this reported “underflow error” because all data in the data file are correct values. When I drop the spatial index and load the records by using the same control file, same data file and the same table, I don’t get any error and later I recreate the spatial index without errors. That should mean that the values in the data file are good, no “under” values.
Also, when I don't use "DIRECT=yes" loading in the control file, then SQL*Loader loads all records with no errors, but it takes hours which is too long.
I want to avoid to have to drop the spatial index every morning before the data loading process, because it is a very large table and it takes 45-60 minutes to recreate that index partition, and that much time delay is not good.
Can anyone please provide an advice or point to some link with examples of how to use “sqlldr” to load large number of records into a spatial table with spatial index?
Thank you,
Milan

Answer 1

Hi Milan,
take a look to "Oracle Database Data Cartridge Developer's Guide" [http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e10765/dom_idx.htm#autoId50] (here is the 11g rel2 version but is the same with 9i)
Domain Indexes and SQLLoader*
SQLLoader conventional path loads and direct path loads are supported for tables on which domain indexes are defined, with two limitations:
-The table must be heap-organized.
+-The domain index cannot be defined on a LOB column.+
To do a direct path load on a domain index defined on an IOT or on a LOB column, perform these tasks:
-Drop the domain index
-Do the direct path load in SQL*Loader.
-Re-create the domain indexes.
doesn't seem to be possible to use "direct path method" with spatial (domain) indexes
i hope for you that there is a workaround ...
good luck,
CarlT