Using PDB Relocation to Move a Single PDB to Another CDB Without Upgrade (Doc ID 2771737.1)

Last updated on APRIL 17, 2023

Applies to:

Goal

With the release of Oracle Multitenant, one of the main benefits is the portability of each individual Pluggable Database (PDB).  It is possible to move the self-contained contents of a single PDB from one Container Database (CDB) to another.  In the initial release of Oracle RDBMS 12cR1 this required the PDB to be unplugged from the source CDB and plugged into the destination CDB which could have the potential for extensive downtime.  With 12cR2 the concept of PDB Relocation was introduced, allowing movement of a PDB from one container to another through two SQL commands where the physical copy of the files is performed while the source PDB remains accessible to users and applications.  The final phase of relocation introduces a short downtime of less than 10 minutes to complete the operation.

The primary use cases for PDB Relocation are from a planned maintenance perspective:

• Performing load balancing by moving a PDB and its associated resource utilization to a new CDB/host.
• Changing High Availability (HA) tiers for the PDB, such as moving from a lower service level requirement tier to a higher one.
• Affecting an upgrade of an individual PDB while leaving all existing PDBs at the existing version.

Each of these operations is a physical move of the PDB from one container to another.  There is no reorganization of the PDB or its data as part of this move.

This paper will document the process for relocating a PDB with minimal down time, describing:

• Prerequisites for relocate
• Preparation steps
• The steps performed during the two phases of relocation
• Post relocation steps

For PDB Relocation where upgrade of the PDB is required, please see Using PDB Relocation to Upgrade an Individual PDB <Document 2771716.1>.

Solution

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