Transportable

Take special care on Oracle Text when you migrate with TTS

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 0

Transportable Tablespaces or Full Transportable Export/Import are the common techniques you typically use when you are going to migrate larger databases from one operating system to a different one. Usually, a Endianness-change is involved. And very often you will use our M5 scripts to benefit of incremental backups to reduce the downtime. In the past weeks I learned from two customers that you need to take special care on Oracle Text when you migrate with TTS. Hence, again I need to thank you for sharing your findings with me.

Take special care on Oracle Text when you migrate with TTS

What is TTS all about?

For those you are approaching …

ORA-600 [] and ORA-8103 errors can happen after TTS Import into 19c

This is not a new finding – and it is a very rare error. But you may only find it days, months or even years after a TTS migration has been completed. You may see a rare corruption issue, and it may sleep in your database. The error pattern would be: ORA-600 [<objdchk>] and ORA-8103 errors can happen after TTS Import into 19c when you query certain data sets. A customer of ours has encountered this a two years after an xTTS migration in an archival database. And since my team works with a lot of large migrations, I think

Transportable Tablespaces fails with ORA-01647 – TABLESPACE IS READ-ONLY

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 2

This is a blog post I wanted to write a long time ago – and I missed it. Today, my best buddy Jony Safi shared an issue from a customer migration he had been pulled in the other day. I read the SR, and it dawned me that others may have seen this error as well. As a result, Transportable Tablespaces fails with ORA-01647 – TABLESPACE IS READ-ONLY – and there are two ways to solve this. Let me add ORA-6512 and ORA-1647 in case you search without the trailing zero.

Transportable Tablespaces fails with ORA-01647 - TABLESPACE IS READ-ONLY

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What is the

Transportable Tablespaces with M5 scripts support now 26ai

Posted on February 4, 2026 by Mike.Dietrich Minimal Downtime Transportable 4

We have a lot of information in our seminars and blogs about Transportable Tablespace migrations. And since we have the M5 scripts for RMAN incrementally rolled forward backups and new RMAN functionality which avoids the spare storage, life has gotten so much easier. Now, some great news from the authors of the M5 scripts: Transportable Tablespaces with M5 scripts support now 26ai.

Transportable Tablespaces with M5 scripts support now 26ai

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M5? Almost as fast as the car!

Some of you may still know the V4 PERL scripts. They had an evolution from V1 to V4 over the years and were our …

Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: XTTS to the Extreme – Video and Slides and more

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable Workshop 2

Thanks for tuning in on Feb 22, 2024 into our Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: XTTS to the Extreme – Video and Slides and more are now available. And thanks for being such a great audience with so many questions.

Photo by Venti Views on Unsplash

Video Recording

As usual, you can access the full recording here.

Please find the entire contents section below in the video’s description. You don’t need to watch the entire seminar, you can also access only the sections you are interested in, or skip sections which are not on your focus.

00:08 – Welcome to

Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: Cross Platform Migration to the Extreme

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable Workshop 0

This week on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 16:00h CET we’d like to invite you to our next Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: Cross Platform Migration to the Extreme. Take the chance to learn about the newest developments in cross-platform transportable tablespace migrations – and there is a lot to talk about.

Virtual Classroom Seminar 18: Cross Platform Migration to the Extreme

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What will be the topics?

We’ll not only discuss but also demonstrate the newest developments and improvements in cross-platform migrations, especially for large and active databases. Learn about the new M5 migration scripts, see them in action – and get an idea …

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Time Zone - DST Transportable 18

This morning I received a very reasonable question from a customer who has a time zone mismatch between source and target database. And he wants to transport into a PDB on Exadata. Even though, this sounds trivial at first sight, unfortunately it isn’t. But a bug fix done recently for a German automotive customer is very handy here. So let me show you how you can Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade.

Choose your desired time zone version (DST) upgrade

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Where does the problem start?

In this particular – and not unusual case – the customer wants to migrate …

Transportable Tablespaces: Keep tablespace files read-only

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 8

When you Transport Tablespaces, you may be aware of a change in behavior a long while ago. When your tablespace import has been finished, a tablespace will be taken read-write automatically. But there may be situations when you’d like the previous behavior. Now you can have this with Transportable Tablespaces: Keep tablespace files read-only.

Transportable Tablespaces: Keep tablespace files read-only

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Default Behavior

Since Oracle Database 12c a tablespace will be taken read-write once the meta data import has been completed automatically. This was different in previous database releases. We used the technique a long time ago for a telco provider …

Test Transportable Tablespaces without Read-Only Mode

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 2

From time to time I deal with Transportable Tablespaces as an upgrade and migration approach. But TTS has one major flaw, especially when databases get really really big in the 3-digit-terabyte sizes or more: You will need to switch your tablespaces into read-only mode. But since Oracle Database 19c, you can Test Transportable Tablespaces without Read-Only Mode.

Test Transportable Tablespaces without Read-Only Mode

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Transport Constraints

Transportable Tablespaces (TTS) is a very common technique, especially when you need to migrate databases across Endianness. Since Oracle 10g, TTS works even from Big Endianness to Little Endianness platforms, and vice versa. Only if …

Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Single-/Multitenant Transportable 6

Yesterday I was browsing around for a useful simple example to test Transportable Tablespaces. A colleague mailed with the other day with a strange error message. The attempt to import into a PDB in Oracle 19c failed. My first thought: Oh, this is simple. But I failed, too. And even worse, I couldn’t find a single useful note in MyOracle Support (MOS) for ORA-31640, ORA-27037, Linux-x86_64 Error: 2 with Additional information: 7. So I decided to summarize this in Transportable Tablespaces – Example and strange error with a PDB.

Transportable Tablespaces - Example and strange error with a PDB

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A simple Transportable Tablespace

Different MOS Notes for xTTS PERL scripts – Use V4 scripts

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 73

A long time ago my colleagues published PERL scripts to assist especially with cross platform Transportable Tablespace migrations. The PERL scripts allow you to utilize incremental backups. This way you can decrease the downtime in a migration with large databases significantly. But there are different MOS Notes for xTTS PERL scripts available. Which one should you take?

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Transportable Tablespaces and Incremental Backups

The biggest pain points in a transportable tablespace migration are usually the size of the database and its complexity. With RMAN Incrementally Rolled Forward Backups you can tackle the size aspect. Instead of having a long downtime …

Fallback Strategies with Full Transportable Export/Import

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Mike.Dietrich Fallback Transportable 3

I received an interesting question about how to implement Fallback Strategies with Full Transportable Export/Import several times within the past weeks. So it may be a good idea to showcase some possible scenarios.

Full Transportable Export/Import is an Oracle 12c feature which allows you to do a transportable tablespace migration but Data Pump will take away all the manual steps with only one command. You may need to have markers to revert to in order to avoid restarting the entire operation from scratch again.

And there are some special behaviors to know about, at first with Full Transportable Export/Import but …

Transportable Tablespaces – Does it work between SE2 and EE?

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 2

Transportable Tablespaces - Does it work between SE2 and EE? I thought I had blogged about this topic already. But it seems to be that I stored this information somewhere else. Randomly I receive this question: Oracle Transportable Tablespaces – Does it work between SE2 and EE?

In addition often the question gets precised: Does it work in both directions or just one-way?

Transportable Tablespaces and Full Transportable Export/Import

Please find more information about these two very common Oracle database migration features:

Transportable Tablespases: Character Sets – Same same but different? (May 25, 2016)
Transportable Tablespaces and Read-Only in Oracle 12c (Dec 2, 2016)
Full Transportable Export/Import – Things

OOW 2017 – Slides Download: Migrate 100 TB databases in less than one day

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich OOW Transportable 0

I was shocked. Positively. We’ve had a packed room on Wednesday at Oracle Open World 2017 for our talk together with Jay Barnhart of Centric Consulting on How to Migrate 100 TB databases in less than one day. And we’ve had so much fun. Thanks for coming by, thanks for being so active. This makes all the travel and the stress really worth it.

OOW 2017 – Slides Download: Migrate 100 TB databases in less than one day

I gave a quick overview about all Transportable Tablespaces techniques, about how to use the PERL scripts to deal with very …

PERL scripts for large migrations supported on all platforms (except Windows)

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable Uncategorized 5

This topic fits very well as I present about +100 TB migrations today at the “Harmony” User Group Conference in Finland.

Finland in May

The question whether the PERL scripts for RMAN incrementally rolled forward backups we deliver via MOS Note 1389592.1 (11G – Reduce Transportable Tablespace Downtime using Cross Platform Incremental Backup) will be supported for migrations to non-Exadata systems such as Oracle SuperCluster as well.

And yes, now we got an update into the note saying:

Although preferred destination system is Linux (either 64-bit Oracle Linux or a certified version of RedHat Linux), this procedure can be used …

Can you EXCLUDE tablespaces from Full Transportable Export/Import?

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 18

Question: Can you EXCLUDE one or more tablespaces when doing a Full Transportable Export/Import?

First of all, this question came up already twice in real world customer migrations. So it’s not a totally unusual question. In one case a tablespace called USERS got precreated and some data did get stored. In the second case we did use RMAN incremental backups to migrate a very large database (>100TB) and some tablespaces weren’t part of the backup set.

I did brainstorm with Roy – and I dug into my notes from some years ago when the question was raised to me as …

Create a database with NON-DEFAULT Time Zone

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich DBCA Time Zone - DST Transportable Upgrade / Migration 2

One requirement of Transportable Tablespaces (and of course Full Transportable Export/Import as well) is to have identical database character sets AND identical time zone settings.

Problem

Source database has a lower time zone setting than the default target database in the destination home.

Lets assume you’d like to migrate an Oracle 11.2.0.4 off IBM AIX and migrate it into Oracle 12.1.0.2 on an Exadata meaning Oracle Linux 6. The source time zone version if it has never been upgraded would be TZ V14 – whereas the new Oracle 12.1.0.2 database you’d create would get TZ V18 by default.

Time Zone Setting Oracle Database

Solution 1

Transportable Tablespaces and READ ONLY in Oracle Database 12c

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Time Zone - DST Transportable 1

We recently worked with a customer who noticed that they were not able to use transportable tablespaces to connect the same tablespace data files to two databases at the same time, even after setting the tablespaces READ ONLY in SQL*Plus. This is new behavior in 12c, and many customers are not yet aware of this change. Here are the details of what changed, why, and how you might want to deal with it if the changes affect your environment.

What Changed?

Starting in 12.1, data pump sets tablespaces read write during the import phase of a transportable tablespace …

Full Transportable Export/Import – PAR File Examples

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Transportable 16

Roy and I blogged about Full Transportable Export/Import in the past:

If you haven’t heard of this database feature, it allows you to migrate a full database by using Transportable Tablespaces as a base technology but letting Data Pump do all the manual steps for you in a one-command migration. And if needed, it works with RMAN Incremental Backups as well in order to …

Full Transportable Export/Import – Things to Know

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich TDE - Transparent Database Encryption Time Zone - DST Transportable 8

This blog post is an addition to:

Full Transportable Export/Import – Migrating an 11.2.0.4 database to Oracle Database 12c- into the Oracle Cloud

Seth Miller commented the pitfall of having a serious issue during the Data Pump run, Data Pump exiting and not finishing, and you’ll have to do the entire backup/restore/incremental-roll-foward thing again. Without any doubt, this is no fun at all.

So let me point out a few things to take into consideration – and some of them are not obvious I guess.

Do you need to backup/restore/incremental-roll-forward again?

When you let do Data Pump all the manual …

Full Transportable Export/Import – Migrating an 11.2.0.4 database to Oracle Database 12c- into the Oracle Cloud

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Cloud Data Pump Transportable Video / Viewlet 38

Full Transportable Export/Import – one of the coolest features in Oracle Database 12c

We blogged about Full Transportable Export/Import a while back. It is – no doubt – one of the coolest features in Oracle Database 12c. And it is part of our Hands-On Lab exercise (Hands On Lab – Upgrade, Migrate, Consolidate to Oracle Database 12c) as well.

It utilizes the technique of Transportable Tablesspaces – cross-platform, cross- Endianness, cross-version – but lets Oracle Data Pump do all the “dirty” work of rebuilding everything kept in your SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespace including views, synonyms, public objects, …

Transportable Tablespaces – Characters Sets – Same same but different?

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 3

All credits go to Don Wolf, an Oracle Advanced Customer Support engineer from Ohio as he dug out this information 🙂 Thanks Don!

Do database character sets have to match EXACTLY for Transportable Tablespaces?

That sounds like a simple question. When you look into our big slide deck the answer will be a straight “Yes”. No doubts. Regardless if you would like to do Transportable Tablespaces or Full Transportable Export/Import your sources and your target’s database character sets must be equal. Otherwise Data Pump won’t allow you to process the meta data import.

But Don was wondering about slightly differing …

Data Pump – Exclude Stats differently for TTS and FTEX

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Transportable 15

Nice little best practice for statistics and Data Pump when doing either Transportable Tablespaces or Full Transportable Export-Import (credits to Roy and Dean Gagne).

Transport Statistics via a Staging Table

First of all we always recommend to exclude statistics when doing a Data Pump export as the import of such stats takes way longer than transporting them via a stats table. If you are unfamiliar with transporting stats between databases please see the Oracle Performance Tuning Guide with a nice tutorial:

Importing and Exporting Optimizer Statistics

The basic steps to transport statistics from one database to another fast and

Full Transportable Export/Import White Paper

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 12c Transportable 2

One of the really cool and helpful features in Oracle Database 12c is called Full Transportable Export/Import. It combines the basics of transportable tablespaces – of course cross-platform, cross-endianess, cross-version – with Data Pump taking care on all the stuff not stored in tables and indexes, such as views, synonyms, trigger, packages etc. And you can even reduce downtime by combining the feature with incrementally converted RMAN backups.

And the best thing: this will work with an Oracle Database 11.2.0.3/4 to Oracle Database 12c – so you don’t have to be on Oracle Database 12c in order to …

Note:1389592.1 Public – Speed Up Cross Platform Transportable Tablespaces (xTTS) with RMAN Incremental Backups

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Mike.Dietrich Transportable 4

As we have already mentioned in our recent workshops the MOS Note:1389592.1 is public now:

MOS Note:1389592.1
Reduce Transportable Tablespace Downtime using Cross Platform Incremental Backups

This technique currently works for migrations to Linux64 and is supported by Oracle Support for Exadata migrations only. It utiliuzes RMAN incremental backups to reduce the large amount of downtime it takes to copy and convert the datafiles cross Endianness.

Two requirements must be met to use this new functionality:

Oracle 11.2.0.2 plus Exadata BP12 (patch 12982245)
One-off patch 13340675 contains the RMAN extension and is currently available on top of BP12 on

Transportable

What is TTS all about?

What is the

M5? Almost as fast as the car!

Video Recording

What will be the topics?

Where does the problem start?

Default Behavior

Transport Constraints

A simple Transportable Tablespace

Transportable Tablespaces and Incremental Backups

Transportable Tablespaces and Full Transportable Export/Import

OOW 2017 – Slides Download: Migrate 100 TB databases in less than one day

Question: Can you EXCLUDE one or more tablespaces when doing a Full Transportable Export/Import?

Problem

Solution 1

Do you need to backup/restore/incremental-roll-forward again?

Full Transportable Export/Import – one of the coolest features in Oracle Database 12c

Do database character sets have to match EXACTLY for Transportable Tablespaces?

Transport Statistics via a Staging Table

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