I'm looking for a way to programmatically execute arbitrary SQL commands against my DB.
Query.createNativeQuery() doesn't work for things like CREATE TABLE.

Doing LOTS of searching, it looks like I can use Session.doWork().
The only problem is that I haven't been able to figure out how to get a Session object.
My code currently just does:
mEMF = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("WorkingDB", props);
to get things working, and uses mEMF.createEntityManager() as needed.

So, how do I get a Session to my database?

using the deprecated Configuration.buildSesionFactory() seems to show that doWork won't work.
I get "use lacks privilege or object not found" for all the CREATE TABLE statements.

So, what OTHER technique is there for this?

Use createSQLQuery:

http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/4. ... -nativesql

Ok, tried createSQLQuery().

Turns out that it's my call to buildSessionFactory() that is puking.

SessionFactory sf = new Configuration().configure().buildSessionFactory();

results in a HibernateException /hibernate.cfg.xml not found.
Well, since the system is using a persistence.xml, that makes sense.

So, HOW DO I GET A SESSIONFACTORY!!!