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When moving large amounts of data from an on-premises server to the cloud, choosing the right tool is important. For this specific case, AWS DataSync is a great option. It’s a managed service designed to transfer big batches of files efficiently from your local network to Amazon S3.
DataSync works faster—up to ten times faster—than many free or open-source options. It also keeps your data secure by encrypting it and checks that everything transfers correctly using automatic validation. Plus, it preserves folder structures and metadata, making your migration smoother. This service is especially good if you need to transfer data regularly or handle large migrations.
If you’re migrating data from Oracle databases to S3 and plan to analyze this data later using tools like Amazon Athena, it’s best to choose a storage format like Parquet or Avro. These formats are more efficient and cost-effective compared to plain CSV files.
In cases where you want higher consistency or are thinking about moving from just S3 to Amazon RDS for Oracle, there are a couple of powerful native options to consider:
One method is using Oracle Data Guard with an Amazon EC2 instance. You set up an Oracle standby database on EC2, which syncs with your on-premise database. This setup allows you to switch over with almost no downtime. Once the standby is synchronized, you can migrate data to RDS using Oracle Data Pump or internal replication tools. This approach gives you the most reliable data fidelity and handles complex data types better.
Another option involves using RMAN backups stored on Amazon EFS. You perform the backup on your local server, save the pieces to EFS, and then mount that same storage to your RDS instance. You can import the data directly into RDS from EFS, which helps avoid the big overhead of transferring data over the network multiple times, especially for large databases.
If you prefer exporting specific schemas or tables, Oracle Data Pump is a good choice. You export your data using expdp, upload the dump files to EFS or S3, and then import into RDS from those files. For EFS, directly mounting the storage to your RDS makes this process more efficient. You avoid filling up your RDS storage with temporary files because EFS lets the RDS instance read data directly from the shared file system.
When importing Oracle Data Pump dump files into RDS, I recommend using EFS instead of S3. While S3 is useful for many purposes, it can add extra steps when importing data. You need to download the dump files from S3 to RDS’s storage first, which can quickly fill up your RDS volume and might force you to increase storage just for the migration. Using EFS allows RDS to read files directly, saving space and reducing cost. After the import finishes, you can simply unmount or delete the files, avoiding the need to resize your RDS storage, which isn’t supported for Oracle yet.
Keep in mind, Oracle Data Guard requires Oracle Enterprise Edition. If you’re using Standard Edition, you might need to consider other tools such as DBVisit or stick with AWS Data Migration Service and Data Pump.
By choosing the right combination of tools like DataSync, Data Guard, EFS, or Data Pump, you can make your database migration smooth, efficient, and less stressful.
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