Exporting a vPDB in-place to a physical filesystem

Overview

This article describes how to perform an export or an in-place conversion of a virtual pluggable database (vPDB) into a physical database stored on a physical filesystem. No intermediate storage is needed; the database files are moved directly from Delphix to the physical filesystem.

This procedure can be used to export an Oracle vPDB in a Linked CDB to a physical filesystem.

This procedure can be performed using the CLI only and applies to all Oracle database versions supported by Delphix. For CLI commands, refer to the CLI cookbook: export a multitenant virtual pluggable Oracle database to ASM or Physical Filesystem.

Furthermore, it is fully supported with TDE-enabled virtual databases provisioned through Delphix.

Prerequisites  

1. The following conditions must be met prior to the export operation. Export will fail if any of these conditions are not met: 

   1. Sufficient storage space must be available in the target filesystem for datafiles. 

   2. While exporting a vPDB, if a new PDB name is specified: 

      1. it must meet all the naming constraints defined in the Oracle documentation.

      2. it must be different from the existing PDBs in the target CDB.

   3. No offline datafiles or tablespaces must exist in the vPDB.

   4. The vPDB on which the export is initiated must be Open. 

   5. No other job must be running on the virtual pluggable database or its associated environment. 

   6. When running export of a vPDB in a RAC environment, ensure that the states of all the cluster nodes are displayed as 'Enabled' in the Delphix management GUI. If one of the cluster nodes is disabled, the export operation will fail, although the physical copy has been completed and it is usable, however the vPDB will need to be force disabled manually. 

   7. The vPDB must have a provisionable snapshot, otherwise the operation will fail with the following message: Cannot find a point in the TimeFlow for the semantic location "LATEST_POINT". 

2. If you want to export a vPDB in a vCDB, the vPDB must be migrated to a Linked CDB and then enabled, or alternatively, provision a child vPDB from this vPDB snapshot to a linked CDB and then perform the export. 

Procedure 

1. Delphix takes a new snapshot of the virtual database/pluggable database before starting the export. Also, Delphix retains the timeflow and all its snapshots after the virtual source is exported. As such, after export, the virtual source can be easily migrated and rewinded to the previously created snapshots. 

2. It is recommended that the export be performed on a newly provisioned vPDB, although it can still be performed on your existing vPDB. The reason is it simplifies post export process to re-enable the existing vPDB. 

3. Refer to CLI cookbook: export a multitenant virtual pluggable Oracle database to ASM or Physical Filesystem for the procedure.

Considerations after successful export of a vPDB to a physical filesystem 

After the export is successful, no Delphix operations are allowed on the vPDB except migration or a fresh provision of a new child vPDB. However, there may be situations where you may need to re-enable the vPDB, please perform a migration of the vPDB to a different host and CDB and then rewind the vPDB to its latest snapshot.

After successfully performing the export of a vPDB with the new physical PDB name that is the same as the vPDB name, the new physical PDB can be linked back to Delphix engine using the following steps: 

1. Delete or migrate the vPDB to a different CDB. 

2. Refresh the environment where the new physical PDB is created. 

3. Detach the dSource PDB from the original source PDB. 

4. Force attach the dSource to the newly created physical PDB.