Cross-Platform Database Migration (across same endian) using RMAN backupset in 12c

 Hi All,

In this post i have shared Cross-Platform Database Migration (across same endian) using RMAN backupset in 12C 

High level steps : 

Step 1:  Connect to Source database and open it read only

Step2:  Take backup of the Source database :

Step 3:  On the destination server (Windows) create the pfile and the oracle service

Step 4:  Restore the database from the backup

Step 5: Get the controlfile recreation script from the source database Solaris taken in step 2

Step 6:  Alter the database open resetlogs

Pre-requisite:

• To perform cross-platform data transport using backup sets, the version of the destination database must be Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) or later.
• The COMPATIBLE parameter in the server parameter file of the source database and the destination database must be set to 12.0.0 or higher.
• The source database must be open in read-only mode.
• The DBMS_TDB.CHECK_DB procedure must run successfully.
• When you transport entire database the source platform and the destination platform must use the same endian format.
• When endian formats are different format you can transport tablespace/datafiles.
• TO PLATFORM and FOR TRANSPORT clauses are not supported in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) or Oracle Database 11g, you can transport data from these versions of the database to Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1).
  Please refer Note 1644693.1 How to restore a pre-12c backup to a cross-platform, Cross-endian 12c database

This new 12c functionality uses different keyword used in the backup command:

TO PLATFORM:  Perform  conversion on the source database.

FOR TRANSPORT:  Performs conversion on the destination database so offloads the load from source database.

In the below example:

Source database :- Solaris Operating System (x86-64) (Little Endian format)
Source database name : Source
Destination database :- Microsoft Windows x86 64-bit (Little Endian format)
User test1 is created and is granted SYSBACKUP privilege. 

Step 1:  Connect to Source database and open it read only

The source database is the database that contains the data that needs to be transported to a different platform.

In this example, the test1 user is granted the SYSBACKUP privilege in the source database, prod_source.
   

$ RMAN
RMAN> Connect target "test1 AS SYSBACKUP";

    target database Password:
    connected to target database: source (DBID=2390246677)
    using target database control file instead of recovery catalog

RMAN> Shutdown immediate

      database closed
      database dismounted
      Oracle instance shut down

RMAN> Startup mount;

      connected to target database (not started)
      Oracle instance started
      database mounted

RMAN> Alter database open read only ;
Statement processed  

Step2:  Take backup of the Source database :

To Take advantage of parallelism you can configure parallelism in RMAN configuration. Otherwise, by default one channel would be used to take the backup.

RMAN> Configure device type disk parallelism 5;

In the Below example we are using FOR TRANSPORT Instead of TO PLATFORM. So the conversion would be done on destination database during restore.

RMAN> BACKUP
 FOR TRANSPORT
 FORMAT '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/source/%U'
 database ;


Finished backup at 23-Feb-25

   
Copy the backuppiece created to the destination server.  The backuppieces created in the above example are: 

/u01/app/oracle/oradata/source/04q7kr31_1_1
/u01/app/oracle/oradata/source/03q7kr31_1_1
/u01/app/oracle/oradata/source/02q7kr31_1_1
/u01/app/oracle/oradata/source/01q7kr31_1_1 

Take a controlfile backup to trace which would be used in step 5 to recreate the controlfile on destination server

SQL>Alter session set tracefile_identifier='create';

SQL>Alter database backup controlfile to trace resetlogs;

SQL>Show parameter user_dump 

Go to this location

ls -lrt *create.trc

Copy this trace to Destination database 

Step 3:  On the destination server (Windows) create the pfile and the oracle service

1.  Create the Oracle service and the pfile to be used.

   Pfile should have below value
   

   db_name=<same as Source db>
   Control_files=<new location on destination database>
   compatible=<same as source>
   DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST=<Location where you want your datafiles to be restored>
  
  Add other parameters as per your environment    

2.  Connect to the destination database, to which the database must be transported, as TARGET.

    Please ensure DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST is set in the init.ora else you would get error  

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 08/05/2015 10:12:45
RMAN-05088: DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST is not set

  

C:\app>  set oracle_sid=source

RMAN> CONNECT TARGET /;

RMAN> Startup nomount; 

Step 4:  Restore the database from the backup

The restore phase will restore only the datafile and not the controlfile.

RMAN>

RESTORE
FROM PLATFORM 'Solaris Operating System (x86-64)'
FOREIGN DATABASE TO NEW
FROM BACKUPSET 'D:\04q7kr31_1_1'
   BACKUPSET 'D:\03q7kr31_1_1'
   BACKUPSET 'D:\02q7kr31_1_1'
   BACKUPSET 'D:\01q7kr31_1_1' ;  

Sample output: 

Finished restore at 23-Feb-25  

Step 5: Get the controlfile recreation script from the source database Solaris taken in step 2

Since destination database is already in no mounted state.  Just run the script to recreate controlfile.
Change the path of the redo log to specify the path that exist on destination server.
Change the path of the datafile to the path they were restored to in step 4.

Here is a sample script

CREATE CONTROLFILE REUSE DATABASE "SOURCE" RESETLOGS  ARCHIVELOG
    MAXLOGFILES 50
    MAXLOGMEMBERS 5
    MAXDATAFILES 100
    MAXINSTANCES 1
    MAXLOGHISTORY 292
LOGFILE
  GROUP 1 'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\redo01.log'  SIZE 100M BLOCKSIZE 512,     ==============>ModifIed as per destination location
  GROUP 2 'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\redo02.log'  SIZE 100M BLOCKSIZE 512,
  GROUP 3 'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\redo03.log'  SIZE 100M BLOCKSIZE 512
-- STANDBY LOGFILE
DATAFILE
'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\O1_MF_SYSTEM_BW38QPT8_.DBF',                     ==============>Modified as per the restore on destination in step 4
'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\O1_MF_SYSAUX_BW38QPTG_.DBF',
'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\O1_MF_UNDOTBS1_BW38QPTP_.DBF',
'D:\SOURCE\DATAFILE\O1_MF_USERS_BW38QPTY_.DBF'
 CHARACTER SET WE8MSWIN1252;

 

SQL>Connect target /

Run the create controlfile script 

SQL>Alter database mount ; 

SQL>Select name from v$datafile :

Should show all the datafiles in correct path where they were restored on destination

SQL>Select member from v$logfile ;

Ensure this path exist

Step 6:  Alter the database open resetlogs

RMAN> Alter database open resetlogs  ;

Statement processed 

 
Add temp file

SQL> alter tablespace temp add tempfile size 100M;

Thanks,

Srini