US 8,554,806 B2Granted

Cross platform transportable tablespaces

AssigneeOracle International Corporation

InventorsWei Hu, Alexander Hwang, Shen-Ban Meng, Alok Pareek, Dmitry Potapov, Francisco Sanchez

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Abstract

Stored data are transported between different systems having different platforms by converting the format of the stored data into a common format either before or after transmitting the stored data from the source database system to the target database system. The common format may be a format that is universal in that the common format is not machine dependent. The stored data may be kept in the common format at the target database system and never converted to another format. Optionally, the stored data may be converted from the common format to a format associated with the target database system, thereby facilitating backward compatibility. A tool may be provided for performing the conversion.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method comprising the steps of:

converting, within a first collection of physical files, metadata contained in a plurality of database data blocks in the first collection of files from a first format to a second format;
wherein the first collection of files includes one or more tablespaces;
wherein converting includes, for each database data block of the plurality of database data blocks:
reading the each database data block from a corresponding file of the first collection of files into a computer memory, the each database data block read into the computer memory having metadata in the first format,
converting, in the computer memory, metadata of the each database data block, from the first format to the second format, and
storing the converted each database data block in the corresponding file of the first collection of files, wherein metadata of the converted each database data block stored in the corresponding file of the first collection of files is in the second format;
wherein, prior to the converting, the first collection of files is attached to the first database system;
after said converting, attaching the first collection of files to a second database system;
the second database system using the attached first collection of files to store database data;
wherein the first format is compatible with the first database system;
wherein the first format is incompatible with the second database system;
wherein the second format is incompatible with the first database system;
wherein the second format is compatible with the second database system;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

11 more elements

A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform:

converting, within a first collection of physical files, metadata contained in a plurality of database data blocks in the first collection of files from a first format to a second format;
wherein the first collection of files includes one or more tablespaces;
wherein converting includes, for each database data block of the plurality of database data blocks:
reading the each database data block from a corresponding file of the first collection of files into a computer memory, the each database data block read into the computer memory having metadata in the first format,
converting, in the computer memory, metadata of the each database data block, from the first format to the second format, and
storing the converted each database data block in the corresponding file of the first collection of files, wherein metadata of the converted each database data block stored in the corresponding file of the first collection of files is in the second format;
wherein, prior to the converting, the first collection of files is attached to the first database system;
after said converting, attaching the first collection of files to a second database system;
the second database system using the attached first collection of files to store database data;
wherein the first format is compatible with the first database system;
wherein the first format is incompatible with the second database system;
wherein the second format is compatible with the second database system;
wherein the second format is incompatible with the first database system.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.