1. Migrate data to a high performance database in the cloud using Oracle ACFS
  2. Learn About Migrating Data to a High Performance Database in the Cloud Using Oracle ACFS

Learn About Migrating Data to a High Performance Database in the Cloud Using Oracle ACFS

When you want to migrate data from an on-premises Oracle Database to an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service and have sufficient storage capacity to use Oracle ASM Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS), consider using Oracle Data Pump. Oracle Data Pump is a fast, easy, off-line database migration tool that supports enterprise fleet-scale migrations. It enables you to change the database structure during migration, supports in-flight upgrades, and supports cross-endian and character-set.

Using your Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service instance to provide shared storage works best when you already have an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service subscription and you have sufficient excess capacity that you can use to provide shared storage.

Before You Begin

Learn about using Terraform code to deploy an Oracle Cloud topology. Set up the basic infrastructure required for a cloud environment

Architecture

This architecture shows the components used with Oracle Data Pump when migrating data from on-premises to an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service with Oracle ASM Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) storage.

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This architecture supports the following components:

  • Databases

    The source database is Oracle Database 19c and the target database is Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service. You can provision the target from the Console, or you can download Terraform code. Terraform code is designed to help you deploy a VCN, a 4 OCPU compute instance in a private subnet, and an Oracle Exadata Cloud Service (Quarter Rack) database system in an Oracle Cloud region. There will be a private subnet attached to the Exadata database system for client traffic and another one for backup traffic. Terraform code includes input variables, which you can use to tune the architecture to suit the networking requirements of your containerized workloads, the size and number of node pools required, your fault-tolerance constraints, and so on.

  • Block volume

    With block storage volumes, you can create, attach, connect, and move storage volumes, and change volume performance to meet your storage, performance, and application requirements. After you attach and connect a volume to an instance, you can use the volume like a regular hard drive. You can also disconnect a volume and attach it to another instance without losing data.

  • Region

    An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region is a localized geographic area that contains one or more data centers, called availability domains. Regions are independent of other regions, and vast distances can separate them (across countries or even continents).

  • Availability domain

    Availability domains are standalone, independent data centers within a region. The physical resources in each availability domain are isolated from the resources in the other availability domains, which provides fault tolerance. Availability domains don’t share infrastructure such as power or cooling, or the internal availability domain network. So, a failure at one availability domain is unlikely to affect the other availability domains in the region.

  • VPN Connect

    VPN Connect provides site-to-site IPSec VPN connectivity between your on-premises network and VCNs in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The IPSec protocol suite encrypts IP traffic before the packets are transferred from the source to the destination and decrypts the traffic when it arrives.

  • FastConnect

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect provides an easy way to create a dedicated, private connection between your data center and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. FastConnect provides higher-bandwidth options and a more reliable networking experience when compared with internet-based connections.

  • Dynamic routing gateway (DRG)

    The DRG is a virtual router that provides a path for private network traffic between a VCN and a network outside the region, such as a VCN in another Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region, an on-premises network, or a network in another cloud provider.

  • SQL*Net and SSH connectivity

    Oracle Data Pump requires SQL*Net and SSH access to the source and target databases, as well as access through port 1521 (default DB port). The source and target databases must have SSH access to port 21 and SQL*Net access to port 1521 and to each other.

  • Service gateway

    The service gateway provides access from a VCN to other services, such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage. The traffic from the VCN to the Oracle service travels over the Oracle network fabric and never traverses the internet.

  • Security list

    For each subnet, you can create security rules that specify the source, destination, and type of traffic that must be allowed in and out of the subnet.

  • Route table

    Virtual route tables contain rules to route traffic from subnets to destinations outside a VCN, typically through gateways.

About the Network Setup for Exadata DB Systems

When you work with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, one of the first steps is to set up a virtual cloud network (VCN) for your cloud resources. Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service requires a VCN in the region where the DB system will reside.

To launch an Exadata DB system, you must have:
  • A VCN in the region where you want the DB system.
  • At least two subnets in the VCN, a Client subnet and a Backup subnet
In general, Oracle recommends using regional subnets, which span all availability domains in the region. The resources you create in the two subnets must be in the same availability domain. You'll create custom route tables for each subnet. You'll also create security rules to control traffic to and from the client network and backup network of the Exadata compute nodes.

See Exadata DB Systems for best practices and network setup for Exadata DB systems.

About Oracle ACFS

If you have an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service subscription, then consider using Oracle ASM Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) to share the files stored in your Exadata Storage Servers. Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service enables you to leverage the power of Exadata in a service-based consumption model. You have full access to the features and operations that are available with Oracle Database, but with Oracle owning and managing the Exadata infrastructure. Each Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service instance contains a predefined number of compute nodes (database servers) and a predefined number of Exadata Storage Servers, all tied together by a high-speed, low-latency InfiniBand network and intelligent Exadata Storage Server Software.

When Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) is set up in an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service deployment, the storage in Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service is configured with five Oracle ASM disk groups: DATA, RECO, DBFS, ACFS1 and ACFS2. These file systems are mounted on the compute nodes. The volumes that belong to Oracle ACFS reside on the Oracle ACFS disk group. One of these file systems can be used as a staging area for files that need to be loaded into the database in the Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service instance. These could be files that are linked to external tables, Oracle Data Pump files, and so on. The second file system is used to store software binaries. If additional staging space is needed, file systems can be created on one of the bigger disk groups for the duration that they are needed and then dropped to release space. If the staging area volume is not of sufficient size, a new volume can be created that uses the DATA disk group. However, this will reduce the space available to your database.

For production level migration, it is highly recommended to create separate dedicated Oracle ACFS. The maximum storage capacity for the System ACFS is 1TB. System disk groups and shared file systems use some of that capacity to store software binaries, patches, and files associated with cloud-specific tooling that resides on your Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service compute nodes. Do not remove or disable any of the system disk groups or related ACFS file systems. Do not store your own data, including Oracle Database data files or backups, inside the system disk groups or related ACFS file systems.

When you use Oracle ACFS in an Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service instance to provide shared storage, you don’t have to worry about switching the IP address for the file storage server in case the storage server becomes unreachable and you have to switch to a failover server. By default, a floating IP address is available as part of this solution.

About Required Services and Roles

This solution requires the following services, products, and roles:

  • Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute
  • Oracle ASM Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS).
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage
  • Oracle Instant Client version 18.3.0.0.0 or above for your version of Oracle Database and your operating system platform to support new impdp cloud command option. If there is an existing Oracle Database 18.3 or higher installed, you can use the Oracle Instant Client version that's installed with the database.
    • Basic Package: All files required to run Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle C++ Call Interface (OCCI), and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Oracle Call Interface (OCI) applications
    • SQL*Plus Package: The SQL*Plus command line tool for SQL and PL/SQL queries
    • Tools Package: Includes Data Pump, SQL*Loader and Workload Replay Client

These are the roles needed for each service.

Service Name: Role Required to...
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: Admin, or a policy that grants permission to manage the Compute, Exadata, networking, and storage Provision the target Exadata DB System and set up resources in Oracle Cloud.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage: Admin, or a policy that grants permission to manage storage Create a bucket to store the backup data from the on-premises database.
Oracle Database: root Access the database using SSH.
Oracle Data Pump software: non-root user Install the Data Pump software.

See Learn how to get Oracle Cloud services for Oracle Solutions to get the cloud services you need.