What is
Oracle Data Pump?
Is Data Pump a feature
or an option of Oracle Database 11g?
What platforms is Data Pump provided on?
What are the system requirements
for Data Pump?
What is the performance gain of Data
Pump Export versus Original Export?
What is the performance gain of Data
Pump Import versus Original Import?
Does Data Pump require special tuning
to attain performance gains?
Can you adjust the level of parallelism
dynamically for more or less resource consumption?
Does Data Pump support all data types?
What kind of object selection capability
is available with Data Pump?
Is it necessary to
use the Command line interface or is there a GUI that you can use?
Can I move a dump file set across platforms,
such as from Sun to HP?
Can I take 1 dump file set from my
source database and import it into multiple databases?
Is Oracle Data Pump certified
against Apps11i?
Is there a way to estimate the size of an export
job before it gets underway?
Can I monitor a Data Pump
Export or Import job while the job is in progress?
If a job is stopped either voluntarily or
involuntarily, can I restart it?
Does Data Pump give me the
ability to manipulate the Data Definition Language (DDL)?
Is Network Mode supported on Data Pump?
Does Data Pump support
Flashback?
Can I still use Original Export? Do I
have to convert to Data Pump Export?
How do I import
an old dump file into Oracle Database 11g? Can I use Original
Import or do I have to convert to Data Pump Import?
When would I use SQL*Loader instead of Data
Pump Export and Import?
When would I use
Transportable Tablespaces instead of Data Pump Export and Import?
What
is Oracle Data Pump?
Oracle Data Pump is a new feature of Oracle
Database 11g that provides high speed, parallel, bulk data
and metadata movement of Oracle database contents. A new public
interface package, DBMS_DATAPUMP, provides a server-side infrastructure
for fast data and metadata movement. In Oracle Database 11g,
new Export (expdp) and Import (impdp) clients that use this interface
have been provided. Oracle recommends that customers use these new
Data Pump Export and Import clients rather than the Original Export
and Import clients, since the new utilities have vastly improved
performance and greatly enhanced functionality.
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Is
Data Pump a feature or an option of Oracle 11g?
Data Pump is a fully integrated feature
of Oracle Database 11g. Data Pump is installed automatically
during database creation and database upgrade.
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What
platforms is Data Pump provided on?
Data Pump is available on the Oracle Database
11g Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Personal Edition.
However, the parallel capability is only available on Oracle10g
Enterprise Edition. Data Pump is included on all the same platforms
supported by Oracle 11g, including Unix, Linux, Windows NT,
Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
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What
are the system requirements for Data Pump?
The Data Pump system requirements are the
same as the standard Oracle Database 11g requirements. Data
Pump doesn’t need a lot of additional system or database resources,
but the time to extract and treat the information will be dependent
on the CPU and memory available on each machine. If system resource
consumption becomes an issue while a Data Pump job is executing,
the job can be dynamically throttled to reduce the number of execution
threads.
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What
is the performance gain of Data Pump Export versus Original Export?
Using the Direct Path method of unloading,
a single stream of data unload is about 2 times faster than original
Export because the Direct Path API has been modified to be even
more efficient. Depending on the level of parallelism, the level
of improvement can be much more.
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What
is the performance gain of Data Pump Import versus Original Import?
A single stream of data load is 15-45 times
faster Original Import. The reason it is so much faster is that
Conventional Import uses only conventional mode inserts, whereas
Data Pump Import uses the Direct Path method of loading. As with
Export, the job can be parallelized for even more improvement.
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Does
Data Pump require special tuning to attain performance gains?
No, Data Pump requires no special tuning.
It runs optimally “out of the box”. Original Export
and (especially) Import require careful tuning to achieve optimum
results.
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Can
you adjust the level of parallelism dynamically for more or less
resource consumption?
Yes, you can dynamically throttle the number
of threads of execution throughout the lifetime of the job. There
is an interactive command mode where you can adjust the level of
parallelism. So, for example, you can start up a job during the
day with a PARALLEL=2, and then increase it at night to a higher
level.
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Does
Data Pump support all data types?
Yes, all the Oracle database data types
are supported via Data Pump’s two data movement mechanisms,
Direct Path and External Tables.
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What
kind of object selection capability is available with Data Pump?
With Data Pump, there is much more flexibility
in selecting objects for unload and load operations. You can now
unload any subset of database objects (such as functions, packages,
and procedures) and reload them on the target platform. Almost all
database object types can be excluded or included in an operation
using the new Exclude and Include parameters.
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Is
it necessary to use the Command line interface or is there a GUI
that you can use?
You can either use the Command line interface
or the Oracle Enterprise Manager web-based GUI interface.
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Can
I move a dump file set across platforms, such as from Sun to HP?
Yes, Data Pump handles all the necessary
compatibility issues between hardware platforms and operating systems.
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Can
I take 1 dump file set from my source database and import it into
multiple databases?
Yes, a single dump file set can be imported
into multiple databases.
You can also just import different subsets of the data out of that
single dump file set.
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Is Oracle
Data Pump certified against Apps11i?
Yes, Oracle Data Pump supports Apps11i..
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Is
there a way to estimate the size of an export job before it gets
underway?
Yes, you can use the “ESTIMATE ONLY”
command to see how much disk space is required for the job’s
dump file set before you start the operation.
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Can
I monitor a Data Pump Export or Import job while the job is in progress?
Yes, jobs can be monitored from any location
is going on. Clients may also detach from an executing job without
affecting it.
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If
a job is stopped either voluntarily or involuntarily, can I restart
it?
Yes, every Data Pump job creates a Master
Table in which the entire record of the job is maintained. The Master
Table is the directory to the job, so if a job is stopped for any
reason, it can be restarted at a later point in time, without losing
any data.
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Does Data Pump
give me the ability to manipulate the Data Definition Language (DDL)?
Yes, with Data Pump, it is now possible
to change the definition of some objects as they are created at
import time. For example, you can remap the source datafile name
to the target datafile name in all DDL statements where the source
datafile is referenced. This is really useful if you are moving
across platforms with different file system syntax.
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Is
Network Mode supported on Data Pump?
Yes, Data Pump Export and Import both support
a network mode in which the job’s source is a remote Oracle
instance. This is an overlap of unloading the data, using Export,
and loading the data, using Import, so those processes don’t
have to be serialized. A database link is used for the network.
You don’t have to worry about allocating file space because
there are no intermediate dump files.
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Does
Data Pump support Flashback?
Yes, Data Pump supports the Flashback infrastructure,
so you can perform an export and get a dump file set that is consistent
with a specified point in time or SCN.
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Can
I still use Original Export? Do I have to convert to Data Pump Export?
An Oracle9i compatible Export that
operates against Oracle Database 11g will ship with Oracle
11g, but it does not export Oracle Database 11g features.
Also, Data Pump Export has new syntax and a new client executable,
so Original Export scripts will need to change. Oracle recommends
that customers convert to use the Oracle Data Pump Export.
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How
do I import an old dump file into Oracle 10g? Can I use
Original Import or do I have to convert to Data Pump Import?
Original Import will be maintained and shipped
forever, so that Oracle Version 5.0 through Oracle9i dump
files will be able to be loaded into Oracle 10g and later.
Data Pump Import can only read Oracle Database 11g (and later)
Data Pump Export dump files. Data Pump Import has new syntax and
a new client executable, so Original Import scripts will need to
change. Oracle recommends that customers convert to use the Oracle
Data Pump Import.
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When
would I use SQL*Loader instead of Data Pump Export and Import?
You would use SQL*Loader to load data from
external files into tables of an Oracle database. Many customers
use SQL*Loader on a daily basis to load files (e.g. financial feeds)
into their databases. Data Pump Export and Import may be used less
frequently, but for very important tasks, such as migrating between
platforms, moving data between development, test, and production
databases, logical database backup, and for application deployment
throughout a corporation.
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When
would I use Transportable Tablespaces instead of Data Pump Export
and Import?
You would use Transportable Tablespaces
when you want to move an entire tablespace of data from one Oracle
database to another. Transportable Tablespaces allows Oracle data
files to be unplugged from a database, moved or copied to another
location, and then plugged into another database. Moving data using
Transportable Tablespaces can be much faster than performing either
an export or import of the same data, because transporting a tablespace
only requires the copying of datafiles and integrating the tablespace
dictionary information. Even when transporting a tablespace, Data
Pump Export and Import are still used to handle the extraction and
recreation of the metadata for that tablespace.
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