Are you tired of Oracle’s strict licensing terms and just overall proprietary nature? PostgreSQL is a great open-source alternative, with a license that is very similar to the MIT license. This means that, once you make the switch, the cost of your database management system will likely be reduced. Specialists will recognize both PostgreSQL and Oracle for the wide range of tools and features. However, the open nature of PostgreSQL, has prompted many companies to migrate to it from Oracle.
Here are the steps you need to perform database migration from Oracle to PostgreSQL:
- Export table definitions from Oracle in the form of DDL statements.
- Convert these definitions from DDL to the PostgreSQL format. For this purpose you need to make sure you get the type mapping correct to avoid making the database unusable. You also may need substitute any embedded functions in Oracle that are not supported in PostgreSQL.
- Import the converted table definitions into a target database in PostgreSQL.
- Export the data from the Oracle database into a CSV file. A CSV file or comma separated file is basically a text file with a specific format that can store data from databases.
- Transfer this data into a PostgreSQL format. Here you will have to be careful to convert binary data, dates, and special symbols in text fields. Then you can import the files into a target PostgreSQL database.
- Export views, procedures and triggers from Oracle. These need to be exported in the form of SQL statements and additional source code.
- Convert these into a format that suits PostgreSQL and then import them into the database.
There you go! After a long and tiring process, you have successfully been able to migrate database from Oracle to PostgreSQL. Be sure to double check though, as even a small error may mean that you need to go through the whole process again. Checking everything and converting manually can be a really tiring and tedious job and having to start over would really be a problem.
This is where specialized software come in. There are a bunch of companies providing database migration software, but Intelligent Convertors is an expert in database migration and their Oracle to PostgreSQL migration tool comes packed with a bunch of great features. It can automatically confirm table definitions, keys, indexes, and data. It also applies advanced techniques to make the progress more efficient. You can even keep both databases synchronized together.
Besides being good at converting databases, it also provides additional features like filtering data before conversions and even transforming it. This makes it a great tool if you intend to make some alterations before converting to PostgreSQL. You also get unlimited support when you buy the program, in addition to 1 year worth of free updates.
Converting the database manually certainly is possible but if you company’s valuable data is at risk, we recommend using a reliable automatic tool just to be safe.
