How to Move Tablespaces Across Platforms Using Transportable Tablespaces With RMAN [ID 371556.

1]
Modified 29-OCT-2010 Type HOWTO Status PUBLISHED

Starting with Oracle Database 10g, you can transport tablespaces across
platforms. In this note there is a step by step guide about how to do it
with ASM datafiles and with OS filesystem datafiles.

Supported platforms
====================

You can query the V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM view to see the platforms that are
supported and to determine each platform's endian format (byte ordering).

SQL> COLUMN PLATFORM_NAME FORMAT A32

SQL> SELECT * FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM;

PLATFORM_ID PLATFORM_NAME ENDIAN_FORMAT

----------- -------------------------------- --------------
1 Solaris[tm] OE (32-bit) Big
2 Solaris[tm] OE (64-bit) Big
7 Microsoft Windows IA (32-bit) Little
10 Linux IA (32-bit) Little
6 AIX-Based Systems (64-bit) Big
3 HP-UX (64-bit) Big
5 HP Tru64 UNIX Little
4 HP-UX IA (64-bit) Big
11 Linux IA (64-bit) Little
15 HP Open VMS Little
8 Microsoft Windows IA (64-bit) Little
9 IBM zSeries Based Linux Big
13 Linux 64-bit for AMD Little
16 Apple Mac OS Big
12 Microsoft Windows 64-bit for AMD Little
17 Solaris Operating System (x86) Little

If the source platform and the target platform are of different endianness, then an additional step must be
done on either the source or target platform to convert the tablespace being transported to the target
format. If they are of the same endianness, then no conversion is necessary and tablespaces can be
transported as if they were on the same platform.

Limitations on Transportable Tablespace Use

==============================================

1. The source and target database must use the same character set and national character set.

2. You cannot transport a tablespace to a target database in which a tablespace with the same name
already exists. However, you can rename either the tablespace to be transported or the destination
tablespace before the transport operation.

3. Objects with underlying objects (such as materialized views) or contained objects (such as partitioned
tables) are not transportable unless all of the underlying or contained objects are in the tablespace set. *
Review Table "Objects Exported and Imported in Each Mode" from the Oracle Database Utilities
documentation, there are several object types that are not exported in tablespace mode.

4. If the owner/s of tablespace objects does not exist on target database, the usernames need to be
created manually before starting the transportable tablespace import. * If you use spatial indexes, then:
- be aware that TTS across different endian platforms are not supported for spatial indexes in 10gR1
and 10gR2; such a limitation has been released in 11g - specific Spatial packages must be run before
exporting and after transportation, please see Oracle Spatial documentation.

4. Beginning with Oracle Database 10g Release 2, you can transport tablespaces that contain XMLTypes,
but you must use the IMP and EXP utilities, not Data Pump. When using EXP, ensure that the
CONSTRAINTS and TRIGGERS parameters are set to Y (the default).The following query returns a list
of tablespaces that contain XMLTypes:
select distinct p.tablespace_name
from dba_tablespaces p, dba_xml_tables x, dba_users u, all_all_tables t
where t.table_name=x.table_name and
t.tablespace_name=p.tablespace_name and
x.owner=u.username

Transporting tablespaces with XMLTypes has the following limitations:

a.The target database must have XML DB installed.

b.Schemas referenced by XMLType tables cannot be the XML DB standard schemas.
c.Schemas referenced by XMLType tables cannot have cyclic dependencies.
d.Any row level security on XMLType tables is lost upon import.
e.If the schema for a transported XMLType table is not present in the target database, it is imported
and registered. If the schema already exists in the target databasean error is returned
unless the ignore=y option is set.

5. Advanced Queues Transportable tablespaces do not support 8.0-compatible advanced queues with
multiple recipients.

6. You cannot transport the SYSTEM tablespace or objects owned by the user SYS.

7. Opaque Types Types(such as RAW, BFILE, and the AnyTypes) can be transported, but they are not
converted as part of the cross-platform transport operation. Their actual structure is known only to the
application, so the application must address any endianness issues after these types are moved to the
new platform.

8. Floating-Point Numbers BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE types are transportable using Data
Pump but not the original export utility, EXP.

Transportable tablespace EXP/IMP of ASM files

=============================================

* Using RMAN CONVERT

....................

There is no direct way to exp/imp ASM files as transportable tablespace. However, the funcationality can
be done via RMAN.

You must follow this steps:

1. Prepare for exporting the tablespace.

 * Check that the tablespace will be self contained:
SQL>execute sys.dbms_tts.transport_set_check('TBS1,TBS2', true);
SQL> select * from sys.transport_set_violations;
==>These violations must be resolved before the tablespaces
can be transported

* The tablespaces need to be in READ ONLY mode in order to successfully run a transport tablespace
export.

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS1 READ ONLY;

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS2 READ ONLY;

2. Export the metadata.

* Using the original export utility

exp userid=\'sys/sys as sysdba\' file=tbs_exp.dmp log=tba_exp.log
transport_tablespace=y tablespaces=TBS1,TBS2

* Using datapump exp

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY dpump_dir AS '/tmp/subdir' ;

GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY dpump_dir TO system;

expdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY=dpump_dir

TRANSPORT_TABLESPACES = TBS1,TBS2

If you want to perform a transport tablespace operation with a strict containment check, use the
TRANSPORT_FULL_CHECK parameter:

expdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY = dpump_dir

TRANSPORT_TABLESPACES= TBS1,TBS2 TRANSPORT_FULL_CHECK=Y

If the tablespace set being transported is not self-contained, then the export will fail.

3. Use V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM to find the exact platform name of target database. You can
execute the following query on target platform instance:

SELECT tp.platform_id,substr(d.PLATFORM_NAME,2,30), ENDIAN_FORMAT

FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM tp, V$DATABASE d
WHERE tp.PLATFORM_NAME = d.PLATFORM_NAME;

4. Generate an OS file from the ASM, with target platform format

RMAN> CONVERT TABLESPACE TBS1

TO PLATFORM 'HP-UX (64-bit)' FORMAT '/tmp/%U';
RMAN> CONVERT TABLESPACE TBS2
TO PLATFORM 'HP-UX (64-bit)' FORMAT '/tmp/%U';

5. Copy the generated file to target server if different from source, with ftp or cp
6. Import the transportable tablespace

* Using the original import utility

imp userid=\'sys/sys as sysdba\' file=tbs_exp.dmp log=tba_imp.log

transport_tablespace=y datafiles='/tmp/....','/tmp/...'

* Using datapump

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY dpump_dir AS '/tmp/subdir' ;

GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY dpump_dir TO system;

impdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY=dpump_dir

TRANSPORT_DATAFILES='/tmp/....','/tmp/...'
REMAP_SCHEMA=(source:target) REMAP_SCHEMA=(source_sch2:target_schema_sch2)

You can use REMAP_SCHEMA if you want to change the ownership of the transported database
objects.

7. Put the tablespaces in read/write mode:

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS1 READ WRITE;

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS2 READ WRITE;

If you want to transport the datafiles from ASM area to filesystem, you have finished after the above
steps. But if you want to transport tablespaces between two ASM areas you must continue.

8. Copy the datafile '/tmp/....dbf' into the ASM area using rman:

rman nocatalog target /

RMAN> backup as copy datafile '/tmp/....dbf' format '+DGROUPA';

# where +DGROUPA is the name of the ASM diskgroup

9. Switch the datafile to the copy.

If the 10g database is open you need to offline the datafile first

SQL> alter database datafile '/tmp/....dbf' offline;

Switch to the copy:
rman nocatalog target /
RMAN> switch datafile '/tmp/....dbf' to copy;

# Note down the name of the copy created in the +DGROUPA diskgroup
# ex. '+DGROUPA/s101/datafile/tts.270.5'

10. Put the datafile online again, we need to recover it first

SQL> recover datafile '+DGROUPA/s101/datafile/tts.270.5';

SQL> alter database datafile '+DGROUPA/s101/datafile/tts.270.5' online;

11. Check if datafile is indeed part of the ASM area and online:

SQL> select name, status from v$datafile;

Output should be:

 +DGROUPA/s101/datafile/tts.270.5 ONLINE

* Using DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER
..........................

You can also use DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER to copy datafiles from one ASM disk group to another, even
on another host. Starting with 10g release 2 you can also use DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER also to copy
datafiles from ASM to filesystem and to filesystem to ASM.

We can use the PUT_FILE Procedure

This procedure reads a local file or ASM and contacts a remote database to create a copy of the file in
the remote file system. The file that is copied is the source file, and the new file that results from the copy
is the destination file. The destination file is not closed until the procedure completes successfully.

Syntax:

DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER.PUT_FILE(
source_directory_object IN VARCHAR2,
source_file_name IN VARCHAR2,
destination_directory_object IN VARCHAR2,
destination_file_name IN VARCHAR2,
destination_database IN VARCHAR2);

Where:
source_directory_object ->The directory object from which the file is copied
at the local source site. This directory object must
exist at the source site.
source_file_name ->The name of the file that is copied from the local
file system. This file must exist in the local file
system in the directory associated with the source
directory object.
destination_directory_object -> The directory object into which the file is
placed at the destination site. This directory object
must exist in the remote file system.
destination_file_name ->The name of the file placed in the remote file system
A file with the same name must not exist in the
destination directory in the remote file system.
destination_database ->The name of a database link to the remote database
to which the file is copied.

If we want to use DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER.PUT_FILE to transfer the file from source to destination host,
the steps 3,4,5 should be changed by the following.

1) Create a directory at target database host, and give permissions to local user.This is the directory
object into which the file is placed at the destination site, it must exist in the remote file system.

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY target_dir AS '+DGROUPA' ;

GRANT WRITE ON DIRECTORY target_dir TO "USER";

2) Create a directory at source database host. The directory object from which the file is copied at the
local source site. This directory object must exist at the source site.
 CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY source_dir AS '+DGROUPS/subdir' ;
GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY source_dir TO "USER";
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY source_dir_1 AS '+DGROUPS/subdir/subdir_2' ;

3) Create a dblink to connect to target database host:

CREATE DATABASE LINK DBS2 CONNECT TO <USER> IDENTIFIED BY <PASSWORD>

USING 'target_connect';

Where target_connect is the connect string for target database and USER is the user that we are going
to use to transfer the datafiles.

4) Connect to source instance:

dbs1 => Connect string to source database

dbs2 => dblink to target database
a1.dat => Filename at source database
a4.dat => Filename at target database

CONNECT user/password@dbs1

-- - put a1.dat to a4.dat (using dbs2 dblink)

-- - level 2 sub dir to parent dir
-- - user has read privs on source_dir_1 at dbs1 and write on target_dir
-- - in dbs2
BEGIN
DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER.PUT_FILE ( 'source_dir_1' , 'a1.dat' ,
'target_dir' , 'a4.dat' ,
'dbs2' ) ;
END ;

Transportable tablespace EXP/IMP with OS files

=============================================

* Using RMAN CONVERT

1. Prepare for export of the tablespace.

* Check that the tablespace will be self contained:

SQL> execute sys.dbms_tts.transport_set_check('TBS1,TBS2', true);
SQL> select * from sys.transport_set_violations;
==>These violations must be resolved before the tablespaces
can be transported

* The tablespaces need to be in READ ONLY mode in order to successfully run a transport tablespace
export.

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS1 READ ONLY;

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS2 READ ONLY;
2. Export the metadata.
* Using the original export utility

exp userid=\'sys/sys as sysdba\' file=tbs_exp.dmp log=tba_exp.log

transport_tablespace=y tablespaces=TBS1,TBS2

* Using datapump exp

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY dpump_dir AS '/tmp/subdir' ;

GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY dpump_dir TO system;
expdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY=dpump_dir
TRANSPORT_TABLESPACES = TBS1,TBS2

If you want to perform a transport tablespace operation with a strict containment check, use the
TRANSPORT_FULL_CHECK parameter:
expdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY = dpump_dir
TRANSPORT_TABLESPACES= TBS1,TBS2 TRANSPORT_FULL_CHECK=Y

If the tablespace set being transported is not self-contained then the export will fail.

3. Use V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM to determine the endianness of each platform.You can

execute the following query on each platform instance:

SELECT tp.platform_id,substr(d.PLATFORM_NAME,2,30), ENDIAN_FORMAT

FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM tp, V$DATABASE d
WHERE tp.PLATFORM_NAME = d.PLATFORM_NAME;

4. If you see that the endian formats are different and then a conversion is necessary for transporting the
tablespace set.

RMAN> convert tablespace TBS1

to platform="Linux IA (32-bit)" FORMAT '/tmp/%U';

RMAN> convert tablespace TBS2

to platform="Linux IA (32-bit)" FORMAT '/tmp/%U';

then copy the datafiles with ftp or copy

4. Import the transportable tablespace

* Using the original import utility

imp userid=\'sys/sys as sysdba\' file=tbs_exp.dmp log=tba_imp.log

transport_tablespace=y datafiles='/tmp/....','/tmp/...'

* Using datapump

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY dpump_dir AS '/tmp/subdir' ;

GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY dpump_dir TO system;

impdp system/password DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY=dpump_dir

TRANSPORT_DATAFILES='/tmp/....','/tmp/...'
REMAP_SCHEMA=(source:target)
REMAP_SCHEMA=(source_sch2:target_schema_sch2)
 You can use REMAP_SCHEMA if you want to change the ownership of the transported database
objects.

5. Put the tablespaces in read/write mode:

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS1 READ WRITE;

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE TBS2 READ WRITE;

* Using DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER

You can also use DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER to copy datafiles to another host. You need to follow the
same steps specified above for ASM files.But if the endian formats are different then you must use the
RMAN convert after transfering the files.

This is an example of usage:

RMAN> CONVERT DATAFILE

'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_31.f',
'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_32.f',
'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_41.f'
TO PLATFORM="Solaris[tm] OE (32-bit)"
FROM PLATFORM="HP TRu64 UNIX"
DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT=
"/hq/finance/work/tru/", "/hq/finance/dbs/tru"
PARALLELISM=5;

Then the same example showing destination being an +ASM diskgroup:

RMAN> CONVERT DATAFILE

'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_31.f',
'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_32.f',
'/hq/finance/work/tru/tbs_41.f'
TO PLATFORM="Solaris[tm] OE (32-bit)"
FROM PLATFORM="HP TRu64 UNIX"
DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT=
"/hq/finance/work/tru/", "+diskgroup"
PARALLELISM=5;
Note: If the source files are on ASM diskgroup and target platform has different endianess , the
CONVERT command needs to be executed. The files cannot be copied directly between two ASM
instances of different platform.