Oracle Data Pump FAQ

Oracle Data Pump

Updated July 11, 2007

What is Oracle Data Pump?

Is Data Pump a feature or an option of Oracle Database 11g?
What platforms is Data Pump provided on?
What are the system requirements for Data Pump?
What is the performance gain of Data Pump Export versus Original Export?
What is the performance gain of Data Pump Import versus Original Import?
Does Data Pump require special tuning to attain performance gains?
Can you adjust the level of parallelism dynamically for more or less resource consumption?
Does Data Pump support all data types?
What kind of object selection capability is available with Data Pump?
Is it necessary to use the Command line interface or is there a GUI that you can use?
Can I move a dump file set across platforms, such as from Sun to HP?
Can I take 1 dump file set from my source database and import it into multiple databases?
Is Oracle Data Pump certified against Apps11i?
Is there a way to estimate the size of an export job before it gets underway?
Can I monitor a Data Pump Export or Import job while the job is in progress?
If a job is stopped either voluntarily or involuntarily, can I restart it?
Does Data Pump give me the ability to manipulate the Data Definition Language (DDL)?
Is Network Mode supported on Data Pump?
Does Data Pump support Flashback?
Can I still use Original Export? Do I have to convert to Data Pump Export?
How do I import an old dump file into Oracle Database 11g? Can I use Original Import or do I
have to convert to Data Pump Import?
When would I use SQL*Loader instead of Data Pump Export and Import?
When would I use Transportable Tablespaces instead of Data Pump Export and Import?

What is Oracle Data Pump?

Oracle Data Pump is a new feature of Oracle Database 11g that provides high speed, parallel,
bulk data and metadata movement of Oracle database contents. A new public interface package,
DBMS_DATAPUMP, provides a server-side infrastructure for fast data and metadata movement.
In Oracle Database 11g, new Export (expdp) and Import (impdp) clients that use this interface
have been provided. Oracle recommends that customers use these new Data Pump Export and
Import clients rather than the Original Export and Import clients, since the new utilities have
vastly improved performance and greatly enhanced functionality.

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Is Data Pump a feature or an option of Oracle 11g?

Data Pump is a fully integrated feature of Oracle Database 11g. Data Pump is installed
automatically during database creation and database upgrade.

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What platforms is Data Pump provided on?

Data Pump is available on the Oracle Database 11g Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and
Personal Edition. However, the parallel capability is only available on Oracle10g Enterprise
Edition. Data Pump is included on all the same platforms supported by Oracle 11g, including
Unix, Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

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What are the system requirements for Data Pump?

The Data Pump system requirements are the same as the standard Oracle Database 11g
requirements. Data Pump doesn’t need a lot of additional system or database resources, but the
time to extract and treat the information will be dependent on the CPU and memory available on
each machine. If system resource consumption becomes an issue while a Data Pump job is
executing, the job can be dynamically throttled to reduce the number of execution threads.

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What is the performance gain of Data Pump Export versus Original Export?

Using the Direct Path method of unloading, a single stream of data unload is about 2 times
faster than original Export because the Direct Path API has been modified to be even more
efficient. Depending on the level of parallelism, the level of improvement can be much more.

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What is the performance gain of Data Pump Import versus Original Import?

A single stream of data load is 15-45 times faster Original Import. The reason it is so much
faster is that Conventional Import uses only conventional mode inserts, whereas Data Pump
Import uses the Direct Path method of loading. As with Export, the job can be parallelized for
even more improvement.

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Does Data Pump require special tuning to attain performance gains?

No, Data Pump requires no special tuning. It runs optimally “out of the box”. Original Export and
(especially) Import require careful tuning to achieve optimum results.

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Can you adjust the level of parallelism dynamically for more or less resource consumption?

Yes, you can dynamically throttle the number of threads of execution throughout the lifetime of
the job. There is an interactive command mode where you can adjust the level of parallelism. So,
for example, you can start up a job during the day with a PARALLEL=2, and then increase it at
night to a higher level.

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Does Data Pump support all data types?

Yes, all the Oracle database data types are supported via Data Pump’s two data movement
mechanisms, Direct Path and External Tables.

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What kind of object selection capability is available with Data Pump?

With Data Pump, there is much more flexibility in selecting objects for unload and load
operations. You can now unload any subset of database objects (such as functions, packages,
and procedures) and reload them on the target platform. Almost all database object types can
be excluded or included in an operation using the new Exclude and Include parameters.

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Is it necessary to use the Command line interface or is there a GUI that you can use?

You can either use the Command line interface or the Oracle Enterprise Manager web-based GUI
interface.

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Can I move a dump file set across platforms, such as from Sun to HP?

Yes, Data Pump handles all the necessary compatibility issues between hardware platforms and
operating systems.

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Can I take 1 dump file set from my source database and import it into multiple databases?

Yes, a single dump file set can be imported into multiple databases.
You can also just import different subsets of the data out of that single dump file set.

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Is Oracle Data Pump certified against Apps11i?

Yes, Oracle Data Pump supports Apps11i..

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Is there a way to estimate the size of an export job before it gets underway?

Yes, you can use the “ESTIMATE ONLY” command to see how much disk space is required for the
job’s dump file set before you start the operation.

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Can I monitor a Data Pump Export or Import job while the job is in progress?

Yes, jobs can be monitored from any location is going on. Clients may also detach from an
executing job without affecting it.

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If a job is stopped either voluntarily or involuntarily, can I restart it?

Yes, every Data Pump job creates a Master Table in which the entire record of the job is
maintained. The Master Table is the directory to the job, so if a job is stopped for any reason, it
can be restarted at a later point in time, without losing any data.

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Does Data Pump give me the ability to manipulate the Data Definition Language (DDL)?

Yes, with Data Pump, it is now possible to change the definition of some objects as they are
created at import time. For example, you can remap the source datafile name to the target
datafile name in all DDL statements where the source datafile is referenced. This is really useful
if you are moving across platforms with different file system syntax.

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Is Network Mode supported on Data Pump?

Yes, Data Pump Export and Import both support a network mode in which the job’s source is a
remote Oracle instance. This is an overlap of unloading the data, using Export, and loading the
data, using Import, so those processes don’t have to be serialized. A database link is used for
the network. You don’t have to worry about allocating file space because there are no
intermediate dump files.

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Does Data Pump support Flashback?

Yes, Data Pump supports the Flashback infrastructure, so you can perform an export and get a
dump file set that is consistent with a specified point in time or SCN.

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Can I still use Original Export? Do I have to convert to Data Pump Export?

An Oracle9i compatible Export that operates against Oracle Database 11g will ship with Oracle
11g, but it does not export Oracle Database 11g features. Also, Data Pump Export has new
syntax and a new client executable, so Original Export scripts will need to change. Oracle
recommends that customers convert to use the Oracle Data Pump Export.

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How do I import an old dump file into Oracle 10g? Can I use Original Import or do I have to
convert to Data Pump Import?

Original Import will be maintained and shipped forever, so that Oracle Version 5.0 through
Oracle9i dump files will be able to be loaded into Oracle 10g and later. Data Pump Import can
only read Oracle Database 11g (and later) Data Pump Export dump files. Data Pump Import has
new syntax and a new client executable, so Original Import scripts will need to change. Oracle

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recommends that customers convert to use the Oracle Data Pump Import.

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When would I use SQL*Loader instead of Data Pump Export and Import?

You would use SQL*Loader to load data from external files into tables of an Oracle database.
Many customers use SQL*Loader on a daily basis to load files (e.g. financial feeds) into their
databases. Data Pump Export and Import may be used less frequently, but for very important
tasks, such as migrating between platforms, moving data between development, test, and
production databases, logical database backup, and for application deployment throughout a
corporation.

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When would I use Transportable Tablespaces instead of Data Pump Export and Import?

You would use Transportable Tablespaces when you want to move an entire tablespace of data
from one Oracle database to another. Transportable Tablespaces allows Oracle data files to be
unplugged from a database, moved or copied to another location, and then plugged into
another database. Moving data using Transportable Tablespaces can be much faster than
performing either an export or import of the same data, because transporting a tablespace only
requires the copying of datafiles and integrating the tablespace dictionary information. Even
when transporting a tablespace, Data Pump Export and Import are still used to handle the
extraction and recreation of the metadata for that tablespace.

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