We are happy to announce that Oracle Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) now supports Oracle database migrations to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure (ExaDB-D) on Oracle Database@Azure with the Physical Online Migration workflow, which utilizes Oracle Data Guard and direct data transfer. This automated migration workflow enables our customers to benefit from Oracle Database@Azure faster and without interruption.
About Oracle Database@Azure and Oracle Zero Downtime Migration
Oracle Database@Azure lets you take advantage of the built-in high availability, performance, and scalability provided by Oracle Exadata and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) by running your mission-critical Oracle databases on Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure (ExaDB-D) in Microsoft Azure’s data centers, maintaining a low-latency connection to your Azure applications.
Oracle Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) is a free-of-charge migration solution trusted by customers worldwide that simplifies and automates Oracle database migrations, including those requiring minimal downtime. Following Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) best practices, ZDM provides pre-validation and controllable automation for single database or database fleet migrations to Oracle Database@Azure.
Migration Workflow Overview
The recommended configuration is to install the ZDM Service host on a separate VM in your on-premises data center next to the source database. The target ExaDB-D database will be provisioned in the Azure data center of your choice within Azure’s VNet using a delegated subnet to Oracle Database@Azure. The on-premises data center must be connected to Azure’s data center via Azure’s ExpressRoute or Site-to-Site VPN.
The ZDM migration will use the physical online workflow based on Oracle Data Guard and direct data transfer, which means that the instantiation of the placeholder target database will use a “restore from service” approach, which avoids the need for explicitly backing up the source database to an intermediate storage location.
After you provision a placeholder target database via Oracle Cloud Tooling, set up connectivity, and meet ZDM prerequisites, ZDM will connect to the source and target databases and perform the required pre-checks.
After a successful validation, ZDM will create the standby database and perform a restore from service. Once the primary and standby databases are synchronized, ZDM switches over and swaps their roles.
In the final steps, ZDM will create a Data Guard Broker configuration, run required updates to the destination (not the source) database, and verify that the migration was successful. The migration concludes with a thorough clean-up of the environment, a disconnect, and a graceful exit.
Summary
Oracle Exadata Cloud Services are the preferred solution for mission-critical enterprise workloads. Oracle Database@Azure integrates Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure (ExaDB-D) into the Azure data centers, providing proximity and low latency to your Azure applications. Oracle ZDM simplifies and automates your database migrations to Oracle Database@Azure using the physical online workflow for minimal migration downtime.