Data Pump

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 …

Don’t use AI to build your AutoUpgrade config file, please!

Let me do a quick Friday rant. Many of you can easily ignore this. But regardless of whether you are a colleague, a friend, a customer, a partner or just exploring AutoUpgrade because it is the coolest small tiny little tool Oracle has to offer, don’t use AI to build your AutoUpgrade config file, please!

Don't use AI to build your AutoUpgrade config file, please!

Photo by Enchanted Tools on Unsplash

AI models are great … somehow …

No worries, I use AI tools as well, especially when I need to create some complex PL/SQL scripts. There is nothing wrong with it – unless you stay in control. I …

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

Photo by Mathew Antony on Unsplash

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 …

Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Upgrade / Migration Workshop 0

Summer season is almost over. And in between Oracle AI World in Las Vegas in October and now, there is one chance to meet us for a Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025. There are still some seats open, so please find the details below.

Full Day Upgrade / Migration / Patching Workshop in Prague on September 17, 2025

Photo by Ryan Lum on Unsplash

When and why should you attend?

September 17, 2025 – 9:30h-16:30h.

This is a full package of marketing-free technical content – we share not only slides but also information from our projects, lots of customer experience, gotchas, tips and …

Utrecht in Spring is beautiful – and we’ll be there on May 6

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

No worries, I don’t start writing a travel blog. Or, maybe one day I will. But not for now. Daniel and I will be on the road again next week for a full day workshop in Utrecht on May 6 and in Brussels on May 7. Brussels is sold out already, the registration is closed. But in Utrecht we still have a few seats open due to the superb conference auditorium space in the Oracle office. Clearly, Utrecht in Spring is beautiful – and we’ll be there on May 6. And it is very close to Brussels in …

Remember ORA-39405 with impdp? There is a fix for it

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Mike.Dietrich Autonomous Database - ADB Data Pump Time Zone - DST 4

Remember my blog post about time zone problems during import from one year ago? When you try to import into an Oracle database and your source database you exported from had a higher time zone (DST) patch level than the target, the impdp failed with ORA-39405 and stopped. In this blog post I showed several workarounds including some insane ones by Rodrigo and Kamil. And I’ve been contacted by customers and colleagues quite a few times asking for a general remedy.

Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash

There is a fix for it

Spoiler – you can request a backport …

Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Patch Recommendation 14

While I blogged in the past already several times about how important the Data Pump Bundle Patch for all kinds of migrations is, a question was in my inbox this morning: Is there a separate note for the Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai?

Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle Database 23ai

Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle 23ai

We shared an intro about the Data Pump Bundle Patch in our Virtual Classroom Seminar #13 a long while ago. And talked about it in our Oracle Cloud World and User Group talks in more detail.

In brief, you …

Your chance – in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 9

We have a rare offer for you. Not Santa but Daniel and I are coming to town. So, this is your chance – in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich. You are signing up for a packed day of tech. No marketing slides – just facts and features, not only Oracle Database 23c, the new upcoming long-term support release. But certainly we’ll have enough for all those you are just in the process of moving to Oracle Database 19c.

Your chance - in-person Oracle 23c upgrade workshops in Warsaw and Munich

Photo by Łukasz Nieścioruk on Unsplash

When?

We are absolutely excited to offer you a full-day in-person all-tech …

Monitor progress of Oracle Data Pump impdp

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump 11

This blog post is a quick brain dump. I realized that I have so many “blog posts to write” that I need to dump the ideas or information much quicker. So, feel free to comment and correct. These queries may be useful when you run a larger import, and you would like to monitor progress of Oracle Data Pump impdp.

Monitor progress of Oracle Data Pump impdp

Photo by George Vidos on Unsplash

Monitor Data Pump progress during impdp

To monitor the progress of Data Pump during impdp you can use the following queries.

What object types are left?

select unique object_type_seqno, object_type
from system.sys_import_full_01
where

Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Guide for OCW23

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich OOW 8

Thanks for using this blog post. It will be your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Guide for OCW23. You will find the slide decks to download, the coming talks, the HOL as well as the survey links and other important sources. We wil update it every day throughout the conference. If you have questions, please use the “Comment” option below the blog post. And we won’t post content BEFORE the session but instead AFTER the sessions.

Your Upgrade / Migration / Patching Guide for OCW23

All you need, day by day

Please find – grouped day by day – each of our talks with the survey links and …

Your UPGRADE and MIGRATION program at OCW23

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Mike.Dietrich OOW 4

Are you coming to Oracle Cloud World 2023 and to Oracle DatabaseWorld at CloudWorld? Then you should read on since this may be your upgrade and migration program at OCW23. We are desperately looking forward to see and meet you in 2 weeks in Las Vegas. Don’t forget to add the talks you’d like to visit to your schedule as some of the rooms have limited capacity. And at least one of our labs is already sold out.

https://www.oracle.com/database/upgrades/#rc30p2

Who’s speaking and HOL’ing?

Speakers and your lab hosts will be:

Roy Swonger
Mike Dietrich
Daniel Overby Hansen
Rodrigo Jorge

Apply the Data Pump Bundle Patch – non-rolling but online?

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Patch Recommendation 24

Yesterday I have blogged about an issue with the highly recommended Data Pump Bundle Patches. And today I would like to shed some light on how to Apply the Data Pump Bundle Patch – non-rolling but online?

Apply the Data Pump Bundle Patch - non-rolling but online?

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Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch

You can download the correct Data Pump Bundle Patch from MOS Note: 2819284.1 – Data Pump Recommended Proactive Patches For 19.10 and Above. It’s just a few MB, and it is a generic patch with a separate download for the Windows platform. So far so good.

…

Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Oracle Database 19c Patch Recommendation 46

The Data Pump Bundle Patches get released on top of every RU since over a year now. But a real issue with missing files got detected recently. So in case you had applied Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again.

Data Pump Bundle Patches: You may need to download and apply again

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What is in the Data Pump Bundle Patch?

The Data Pump Bundle Patch is a convenient and very useful vehicle to apply Data Pump patches which are usually not included in a Release Update (RU). While RUs are per definitionem RAC-rolling and Standby-First, the Data Pump Bundle …

Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Export - Import 17

This morning I received an email question from a customer asking whether there is support for the Migrating Flashback Data Archive (FDA) tables in Oracle 19c. And since this is not the first time I received this question, I thought it may be good to have a blog post about it.

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What is Flashback Data Archive (FDA)?

Well, google it. Actually I was looking for a link in our documentation but to my surprise I found the usual suspects such as Tim Hall’s excellent oracle-base page – but not much in our own doc …

We are hiring … Developers and a Product Manager

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Job Offering 0

Our team is growing – not only the Upgrade team but also the Data Pump team. And we have a challenging new project where we search developers for. So yes, We are hiring … Developers and a Product Manager.

We are hiring ... Developers and a Product Manager

Photo by Ashley de Lotz on Unsplash

Software Developer – Cloud Migration Analyzer

At first, we are looking mostly for skilled developers. We have a new challenging and interesting project which our VP, Roy Swonger, owns. And there we look at first for developers with either very good APEX skills but also database knowledge or people who are good in programming …

Virtual Classroom Seminar 13 Data Pump – Slides, Video and QA

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Video / Viewlet Workshop 4

Thanks a lot to everybody who tuned in last week to our Virtual Classroom Seminar #13: Data Pump Extreme – Deep Dive with Development. We’ve had almost 600 attendees, and many of you stayed for the two full hours. And let me tell you that this is just awesome since there are enough people who think that a session has to be just 30 minutes or less. And of course, no it is time to share: Virtual Classroom Seminar 13 Data Pump – Slides, Video and QA.

Virtual Classroom Seminar 13 Data Pump - Slides, Video and QA

Photo by Pim Chu on Unsplash

The slides

As usual, you can …

Virtual Classroom Seminar 13: Data Pump Extreme – Deep Dive with Development

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 10

We worked very hard in the past weeks to compile our newest Virtual Classroom Seminar 13: Data Pump Extreme – Deep Dive with Development for you. Now it’s time to sign up for Thursday, March 3, 2022.

Virtual Classroom Seminar 13: Data Pump Extreme - Deep Dive with Development

When will it happen?

Our 13th Virtual Classroom Seminar will happen this Thursday, March 3, 2022 at a hopefully convenient time for you:

14:00h CET – 13:00 BST – 10 a.m. EST – 7 a.m. PST – 20:00h IST

As usual, we will be available to all your Data Pump questions throughout the entire seminar. Just use the QA option of the zoom …

Virtual Classroom Seminar: Fallback Is Your Insurance – on Nov 11, 2021

Posted on November 10, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 4

No worries, I haven’t become lazy recently. But the past weeks were more busy than anything I have experienced so far. And I had a full week off and enjoyed the silence and absence from blogs and cell phones and email in the mountains. But now I’m back – and surprise, surprise – this week on Thursday we’ll have our 11th Virtual Classroom Seminar: Fallback Is Your Insurance – on Nov 11, 2021.

Fallback Seminar

When will it happen?

Thursday, Nov 11, 2021 – 10:00h CET

What are we going to talk about?

Fallback and Rollback. How to secure your job. …

Which releases allow you to upgrade to Oracle Database 21c?

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Oracle Database 21c 2

As I wrote before, the release you should upgrade to is clearly Oracle Database 19c. Unless you need to use one of the new features in Oracle 21c. But as you have seen in the past, some of them get backported to 19c as well. Still, in case you can’t resists or you love upgrades as much as we do, the question may be: Which releases allow you to upgrade to Oracle Database 21c?

Upgrade-supported Releases

The Database Upgrade Guide for Oracle 21c is your best friend here. Right at the beginning in the first chapter you will find this …

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich General 0

This is the first time that I send out such a blog post. But since many of you read this blog, and a high number of people follow me on LinkendIn, maybe you’ll be interested as We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director “Database Utilities”. And it could be you!

We are hiring: Software Development Senior Director "Database Utilities"

Photo by Alessandro Erbetta on Unsplash

I can tell you by heart that you’d join one of the best teams in Oracle.

So please read the job description here – and if your profile matches plus you are looking for a new challenge, you should apply right away. You …

aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 0

Many people on the northern hemisphere will escape during July into the summer holidays. But we won’t. Instead, thanks to Sai Penumuru, we will give seven webinars for the aioug. And we are looking forward to talk to you soon at the aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations.

aioug Webinar Series July 2021: Database Upgrade and Migrations

When will it happen?

This morning I looked into my calendar. And I realized: Wow, July 2021 is just a few days away. Roy will start with the first session on Friday, July 2. And then myself, Rodrigo, Daniel, Fred and Bill will …

Data Pump Super Patch for Oracle 19.10 and newer

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump Patch Recommendation 64

Just a few days we released a Data Pump Super Patch for Oracle 19.10 and newer. “Newer” refers to the fact that once 19.11.0 will be available, this merge patch I’m writing about will be available as well right away (sorry, got delayed a bit). And if you work with Data Pump, you may want to consider this performance patch collection.

Photo by paolo candelo on Unsplash

Why do you need this patch?

Many customer will know the issue that adding changes with datapatch may take a long time as soon as dpload.sql is involved. And this …

Sign up for the Upgrade 19c Virtual Classroom Seminars for the US, Canada and LAD

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 7

It took a while. And many of you asked whether we will run our Virtual Classroom Seminars we ran successfully for Australia and New Zealand in April and from June to now in EMEA for the US, Canada and South and Latin America time zones as well. And we do. It’s time to Sign up for the Upgrade 19c Virtual Classroom Seminars for the US, Canada and LAD.

Photo by Philippe Bout on Unsplash

Everything you need to know about Upgrade, Migration and Consolidation

When we ran these events especially for EMEA, a lot of colleagues asked us whether …

Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Data Pump 7

Daniel and I did Web Seminars this week. One of them was about the different migration strategies. We did talk a lot about Data Pump. One attendee mentioned that Data Pump Import does not work parallel into PDBs in Oracle 12.2.0.1 and Oracle 18c. We were skeptical, and today I tried out to check: Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

Does Data Pump import only serially into PDBs?

Photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash

Very simple test setup

For this test, I take a schema export from an 11.2.0.4 database in our Hands-On Lab, the TPCC user HammerORA uses in the UPGR database.…

Upgrade to Oracle 19c – Virtual Classroom Series – Parts 5 and 6

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Mike.Dietrich Workshop 4

October will be a very busy month. Daniel and I are putting the slides together at the moment for the upcoming Upgrade to Oracle 19c – Virtual Classroom Series – Parts 5 and 6. We will speak about “Database Migration Techniques” and about “Move to the Cloud – For Techies Only“. No worries if you missed Parts 1-4 as you can watch all of them online on-demand. Find all links below.

Upgrade to Oracle 19c – Virtual Classroom Series - Parts 5 and 6

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Register for the Virtual Classroom Part 5 and Part 6 events

Find the overview for both events here …

Data Pump

What is TTS all about?

AI models are great … somehow …

M5? Almost as fast as the car!

When and why should you attend?

There is a fix for it

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch for Oracle 23ai

When?

Monitor Data Pump progress during impdp

What object types are left?

All you need, day by day

Who’s speaking and HOL’ing?

Download the Data Pump Bundle Patch

What is in the Data Pump Bundle Patch?

What is Flashback Data Archive (FDA)?

Software Developer – Cloud Migration Analyzer

The slides

When will it happen?

When will it happen?

What are we going to talk about?

Upgrade-supported Releases

When will it happen?

Why do you need this patch?

Everything you need to know about Upgrade, Migration and Consolidation

Very simple test setup

Register for the Virtual Classroom Part 5 and Part 6 events

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