EXPORT TO ICEBERG

Exports data from OpenText™ Analytics Database tables into a format compatible with Apache Iceberg.

Exports data from OpenText™ Analytics Database tables into Apache Iceberg format, an open table format for large-scale analytics. Iceberg tables store data in Parquet files and maintain metadata for schema evolution, partitioning, and ACID transactions. This integration allows database users to use data lake architectures and interoperate with query engines such as Apache Spark, Trino, and Flink.

Benefits

  • Interoperability: Share data across multiple query engines.
  • Open format: Avoid vendor lock-in by using Iceberg’s open standard.
  • Flexible storage: Supports cloud storage (AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCS) and on-premises storage (HDFS, NFS, S3-compatible, local storage).
  • Scalability: Manage large datasets efficiently with Iceberg’s metadata layer.

Use cases

  • Moving cold data from OpenText™ Analytics Database to a lower-cost data lake architecture.
  • Sharing database data with Spark or Trino to accomodate for existing data pipelines.
  • Building a multi-engine query environment using Iceberg tables.

Prerequisites

  • OpenText™ Analytics Database 25.4 or later.
  • Permissions on the target storage location.

Usage

Exporting to Iceberg is currently performed using the EXPORT TO PARQUET command along with the icebergCatalog parameter. For more information about the syntax, see EXPORT TO PARQUET.

Examples

Export data from a table named large_t  to an Iceberg table on the file system, using /mnt/shared_nfs/accounts as the directory for the Iceberg table.

=> EXPORT TO PARQUET(icebergCatalog=`filesystem`, directory='/mnt/shared_nfs/accounts')
  AS SELECT * FROM large_t;

Output directory structure

Upon successful execution, the specified directory /mnt/shared_nfs/accounts contains the following structure:

├── data 

│   ├── *.parquet 

└── metadata 

    ├── *.manifest.avro 

    ├── manifest-list.avro 

    └── v1.metadata.json

  • All Parquet data files will be written to the data/subdirectory.

  • All Iceberg metadata files will be written to the metadata/subdirectory.

Not supported

The following items are not supported in this release; OpenText plans to address them in the upcoming release:

  • No partition support: The export process does not partition data for Iceberg tables. All data is written as a single, flat structure without partitioned directories.

  • No complex data types: Only primitive data types (such as integers, strings, and dates) are supported. Complex types like arrays, maps, and structs cannot be exported.

  • No append or modify operations: You cannot append data to an existing Iceberg table or modify its contents. The export process supports only creating new tables or overwriting existing data completely.