Simon Krenger

Whenever one has to move large amounts of data from one database to another, storage space might become an issue. An option to circumvent this problem is to use a database link with Oracle Datapump to move the data from one database to another. This way, the data is exported across the network and imported directly into the target database.

In this post, I will provide an example on how to move data via a Oracle Datapump and a database link. This post is based on the excellent entry in Oracle FAQ and basically comments all the steps mentioned in the article.

On a few test databases, test managers often need to preserve certain states in the database. This is why we use daily datapump scripts to create exports for archival.

It is important to note that such scripts are never a replacement for a proper RMAN backup, but an easy way to preserve multiple states of a database and reuse data where applicable.

This batch file uses the expdp tool provided by Oracle and the 7-zip archiver to compress the exports for archival. The export tool itself creates a full export of the whole database (full=y). Also, the flashback_time parameter is specified to get a consistent export.