The software described in this documentation is either in Extended Support or Sustaining Support. See https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/enterprise-linux-support-policies-069172.pdf for more information.
Oracle recommends that you upgrade the software described by this documentation as soon as possible.
Data migration is one of the most challenging tasks in the porting process. Data migration activity is primarily divided into two parts:
Migration of raw data, which includes migration of application data, schema, tables, indexes, and constraints.
Migration of associated infrastructure, which includes migration of stored procedures, database triggers, SQL queries, and functions.
If the migrated data is to be readable on the target system, data conversion from one format to another, is an important component of any porting effort. Data migration can involve file systems, file content, applications, and database content. Data migration becomes more challenging when the stored data is in an encoded format or it is in a format that is incompatible with the receiving system.
Fortunately, most systems, including Oracle Linux systems, use ASCII to store textual data and a standard text file format. Many data migration tools and toolkits are available in the market, and there are also many free or paid support services offered by database vendors for migrations. By using such services, you can realize significant time and cost savings during the migration and testing process.
Oracle Linux provides many common GNU and legacy applications and utilities for managing data. For example, the GNU tape archive utility (gtar) uses a similar data format and provides common options in both environments. If you are already familiar with another Linux environment, you can usually work seamlessly on Oracle Linux without having to move from your favorite tools and utilities. This commonality is true for many other applications and utilities, and it can yield significant benefits during and after the data migration.