Data migration using Oracle external tables
Oracle external tables are a feature of Oracle Database that allows you to query data in a flat file as if the file were an Oracle table. The process for using Oracle external tables for data migration to AWS is almost exactly the same as the one used for Oracle Data Pump. The Oracle Data Pump-based method is better for large database migrations.
The external tables method is useful if your current process uses this method and you don’t want to switch to the Oracle Data Pump-based method. Following are the main steps:
-
Move the external table files to
RDS DATA_PUMP_DIR. -
Create external tables using the files loaded.
-
Import data from the external tables to the database tables.
Depending on the size of the data file, you can choose to either write the file directly
to RDS DATA_PUMP_DIR from an on-premises server, or use an Amazon EC2 bridge instance,
as in the case of the Data Pump-based method. If the file size is large and you choose to use
a bridge instance, use compression and encryption on the files as well as Tsunami UDP or a WAN
accelerator, exactly as described for the Data Pump-based migration.
To learn more about Oracle external tables, see External Tables Concepts
