How do I migrate data from my on-premises database to RDS for Oracle?

Short description

To migrate from an on-premises Oracle database to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance, use one of the following options:

• AWS Data Migration Service (AWS DMS)
• Oracle Data Pump
• Oracle GoldenGate
• Oracle transportable tablespaces

Resolution

AWS DMS

You can use AWS DMS to migrate data between the AWS Cloud or combinations of cloud and on-premises setups. There's minimal downtime when you migrate from an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. AWS DMS uses change data capture to reduce the overall migration time between the source and target. For more information, see Architecture for migrating from Oracle to Amazon RDS for Oracle.

Oracle Data Pump

Oracle Data Pump lets you perform homogeneous migrations to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance. It's a best practice to use Oracle Data Pump for larger data sets or static data that doesn't have ongoing changes. For more information, see Part I Oracle Data Pump on the Oracle website.

Note: When you use Oracle Data Pump, you might experience longer downtime for applications because the source instance is inactive during migration.

To use Oracle Data Pump to import data, use one of the following methods.

Oracle Data Pump and Amazon S3

You can use Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) as the storage for the dump files that are imported to Amazon RDS. To copy the dump files to Amazon S3, use Amazon S3 integration. Then, use the import option to migrate the data when the dump files are copied. For more information, see Transferring files between Amazon RDS for Oracle and an Amazon S3 bucket.

Note: If the size of the dump files is large, then increase the storage for the Amazon RDS instance. When the import completes, you can delete the files. If you increase the storage space, then you can't decrease it later. You incur additional charges when you increase the storage space. To store the dump files without additional storage charges, use Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) integration.

Oracle Data Pump and Amazon EFS

Dump files are stored in Amazon EFS storage. The dump files also import to the Amazon RDS for Oracle instance. You don't need to increase Amazon RDS for Oracle storage, and you also don't need to provision or manage storage capacity to share file data. For more information, see Amazon EFS integration.

Oracle Data Pump and database link

You can use a database link to copy dump files over the network. You must provision storage for the dump files. For more information, see Migrate an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle by using direct Oracle Data Pump Import over a database link.

For information on use cases and limitations when you import to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance, see Oracle Data Pump best practices.

For a smaller data size or legacy source servers, see Importing using Oracle Export/Import or Importing using Oracle SQL*Loader.

Oracle GoldenGate

Use Oracle GoldenGate to collect, replicate, and manage transactional data between a source and target. Oracle GoldenGate uses change data capture and pushes the changes to the target database instance. Amazon RDS for Oracle supports Oracle GoldenGate and can act as a target for migration. For more information, see Using Oracle GoldenGate with Amazon RDS for Oracle.

Oracle transportable tablespaces

Use Oracle transportable tablespaces to copy a set of tablespaces from an on-premises Oracle database to an Amazon RDS for Oracle instance. The Oracle transportable tablespaces feature uses either Amazon S3 or Amazon EFS to store tablespace files and related metadata files. For more information, see Migrating using Oracle transportable tablespaces.