Database migration across platforms of different “endian” (byte ordering) formats using the Cross Platform Transportable Tablespaces (XTTS) process is now certified for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (11.5.10.2) with Oracle Database 10g Release 2. This process is sometimes also referred to as transportable tablespaces (TTS).
What is the Cross-Platform Transportable Tablespace Feature?
The Cross-Platform Transportable Tablespace feature allows users to move a user tablespace across Oracle databases. It’s an efficient way to move bulk data between databases. If the source platform and the target platform are of different endianness, then an additional conversion 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. Moving data using transportable tablespaces can be much faster than performing either an export/import or unload/load of the same data. This is because transporting a tablespace only requires the copying of datafiles from source to the destination and then integrating the tablespace structural information. You can also use transportable tablespaces to move both table and index data, thereby avoiding the index rebuilds you would have to perform when importing or loading table data.
Obtaining the Required EBS Patch
This EBS database migration process was previously only available to participants of a TTS Early Adopter Program. This migration process currently requires a patch delivered by our EBS Platform Engineering team that is ‘Controlled’, i.e. it requires a password that you can obtain by logging a formal Service Request with Oracle Support. We are distributing the required patch in this manner to monitor potential customer issues due to the nature of this technology, gather feedback, and assess the technology’s adoption rate. Does it meet your requirements? Users migrating large databases across platforms of the same “endian” format are advised to use the Transportable Database (TDB) migration process instead of Transportable Tablespaces. The “endian-ness” target platforms can be verified by querying the view V$DB_TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM using sqlplus (connected as sysdba) on the source platform:
SQL> select platform_name from v$db_transportable_platform;
If the intended target platform does not appear in the output, it means that it is of a different endian format from the source and Transportable Tablespaces (for large databases) or export/import should be used for database migration.
Other Certifications Still Underway
Transportable Tablespaces for other Database and EBS versions (such as 10gR2+R12, 11g+R12 and 11g+11i) are still under evaluation. Oracle’s Revenue Recognition rules prohibit us from discussing certification and release dates, but you’re welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I’ll post as soon as soon as they’re available. Documents in My Oracle Support referred to in the Certifications section of My Oracle Support pertaining to general information on EBS 11i (such as Document 986762.1) are in the process of being updated to reflect this certification.
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