Cross-Platform Tranportable Tablespace: CONVERT DATAFILE or TABLESPACE

Rules for Renaming Files with CONVERT TABLESPACE

You can use the FORMAT and fileNameConversionSpec arguments to control the names of the files generated by the CONVERT command, or leave the renaming of converted files to default rules provided by RMAN. The following list describes the order of precedence among these rules:

• Files that match any patterns provided in a fileNameConversionSpec clause are renamed based upon that pattern.

• If you specify a FORMAT clause, then any file not renamed based upon a fileNameConversionSpec pattern are renamed according to the specified formatSpec.

• Any file not renamed by fileNameConversionSpec or FORMAT is assigned a default location based upon the following rules:

  • If the channel used for output has a default CONFIGURE... FORMAT setting, that setting is used to generate output file names

  • If a flash recovery area is configured, the converted datafiles are placed in the flash recovery area (though they are not usable backups).

  • Otherwise a platform-specific default FORMAT (which includes a %U for generating a unique filename) is used.

Converting Tablespaces on the Source Host: Example

Suppose you need to transport tablespaces finance and hr from a source database running on a Sun Solaris host to a destination database running on a Linux PC. You plan to store the converted datafiles in the temporary directory /tmp/transport_linux/ on the source host.

The example assumes that you have carried out the following steps in preparation for the tablespace transport:

• You have set the tablespaces to be transported to be read-only.

• You have looked up the name for the destination platform in V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM.

  The database has a list of its own internal names for each platform supporting cross-platform data transport. You may need the exact name of the source or target platform as a parameter to the CONVERT command. Query V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM to get the platform name from SQL*Plus as follows:

  SQL> SELECT PLATFORM_ID, PLATFORM_NAME, ENDIAN_FORMAT
     FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM 
     WHERE UPPER(PLATFORM_NAME) LIKE 'LINUX';
  
  

  The PLATFORM_NAME for Linux on a PC is 'Linux IA (32-bit)'.

Now use RMAN to convert the datafiles into the endian format of the destination host. In this example, the FORMAT argument controls the name and location of the converted datafiles.

% rman TARGET /
RMAN> CONVERT TABLESPACE finance,hr
   TO PLATFORM 'Linux IA (32-bit)'
   FORMAT='/tmp/transport_linux/%U';

The result is a set of converted datafiles in the /tmp/transport_linux/ directory, with data in the correct endian format for the Linux IA (32-bit) platform.

From this point, follow the rest of the general outline for creating a transportable tablespace set:

• Use the export utility to create the export dump file

• Move the converted datafiles from /tmp/transport_linux/ and the export dump file from the source host to the desired directories on the destination host

• Plug the tablespace into the new database with the Import utility.

Converting Datafiles on the Destination Platform: Example

Suppose you need to transport tablespaces finance (datafiles 'fin/fin01.dbf' and 'fin/fin02.dbf') and hr (datafiles 'hr/hr01.dbf' and 'hr/hr02.dbf') from a source database running on a Sun Solaris host to a destination database running on a Linux PC host. You plan to perform conversion on the destination host.

When the datafiles are plugged into the destination database, you plan to store them in /orahome/dbs and preserve the current directory structure (that is, datafiles for the hr tablespace go in the /orahome/dbs/hr subdirectory, and datafiles for the finance tablespace go in the /orahome/dbs/fin directory).

The example assumes that you have carried out the following steps in preparation for converting the tablespaces and plugging them in at the destination:

• You have set the source tablespaces to be transported to be read-only, used the Original Export utility to create the export dump file (named, in our example, expdat.dmp), and copied expdat.dmp and the unconverted datafiles of the transportable tablespace set to the destination host, in the /tmp/transport_solaris/' directory. You have preserved the subdirectory structure from the files' original location, that is, the datafiles are stored as:

  • /tmp/transport_solaris/fin/fin01.dbf

  • /tmp/transport_solaris/fin/fin02.dbf

  • /tmp/transport_solaris/hr/hr01.dbf

  • /tmp/transport_solaris/hr/hr02.dbf

Now use RMAN's CONVERT command to convert the datafiles to be transported to the destination host's format and store the converted datafiles in /orahome/dbs.

% rman TARGET /
RMAN> CONVERT DATAFILE
   '/tmp/transport_solaris/fin/fin01.dbf',
   '/tmp/transport_solaris/fin/fin02.dbf',
   '/tmp/transport_solaris/hr/hr01.dbf',
   '/tmp/transport_solaris/hr/hr02.dbf'
   DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT
        '/tmp/transport_solaris/fin','/orahome/dbs/fin',
        '/tmp/transport_solaris/hr','/orahome/dbs/hr'

Note the following:

• The FORMAT argument controls the name and location of the converted datafiles.

• When converting on the destination platform, you must specify the source platform using the FROM PLATFORM argument. Otherwise, RMAN will assume that the source platform is the same as the platform of the host performing the conversion.

The result is a set of converted datafiles in the /orahome/dbs/ directory, named thus:

• /orahome/dbs/fin/fin01.dbf

• /orahome/dbs/fin/fin02.dbf

• /orahome/dbs/hr/hr01.dbf

• /orahome/dbs/hr/hr02.dbf

From this point, follow the rest of the general outline for tablespace transport. Plug the converted tablespaces into the new database with the import utility, and make the tablespaces read-write if applicable.