If your source database is very large, the time required for the initial loading may be many hours, and it may be impractical to restrict use of the source database for this long. One possible workaround for this situation is to run the initial load against a backup copy of the source database by following these steps:

•Run the installation as described in Installing and Configuring Data Warehouse. This process creates an entire warehouse schema in the target database and makes a few schema changes in the source database. It is fast and does not require exclusive use of the databases.

•Make a backup of the source database, and use it to load a separate, new database.

•Modify the kettle.properties configuration file, as described in step 3 of New Installations, to temporarily point to the new database as the source.

•Run the initial load as described in Initial Loading.

•Again, modify the kettle.properties configuration file, this time pointing to the original source database.

•Run a refresh as described in Refreshing the Data Warehouse.