Virtual to Physical (V2P) operation on a multitenant virtual pluggable Oracle database to ASM or Physical Filesystem

This topic describes how to perform an in-place conversion of a multitenant virtual pluggable database (vPDB) to a multitenant physical Oracle pluggable database (PDB) using the Delphix Engine Command-line Interface (CLI). This procedure will work irrespective of the vPDB being a single instance configuration or RAC.

Prerequisites

You must have the following configuration before you start the V2P:

For the V2P operation to ASM – the target Data diskgroup, or the diskgroup that will contain all the database files, or in case of the V2P operation to a physical filesystem – the filesystem path where all the datafiles will be exported.
The vPDB from which the V2P operation on ASM or physical filesystem needs to be initiated.
Optionally, the pluggable database name for the resulting physical pluggable database and the number of RMAN channels.

If the vPDB is being renamed during the V2P operation, confirm there is no other PDB with the same name in the target CDB before starting the below procedure. If a PDB with the same name exists in the target CDB, the V2P operation will fail before starting the actual movement of datafiles.

Procedure

Execute the database export command.
```
delphix> database export
```

Set the database export parameters type.

delphix database export *> set type=OraclePDBExportParameters

Set the storage strategy:
1. For the V2P operation to ASM:
  1. Set the storage strategy type to OracleExportASMStorageStrategy.
```
delphix database export *> set storageStrategy.type=OracleExportASMStorageStrategy
```
  2. Set the default target data diskgroup in asmLayout.
```
delphix database export *> set storageStrategy.asmLayout.type=OracleASMLayout
delphix database export *> set storageStrategy.asmLayout.defaultDataDiskgroup=+DATA
```
    redoDiskgroup parameter is not required for the PDB V2P operation.
2. For the V2P operation to Physical Filesystem:
  1. Set the storage strategy type to OracleExportFilesystemStorageStrategy.
```
delphix database export *> set storageStrategy.type=OracleExportFilesystemStorageStrategy
```
  2. Set the data directory in the filesystemLayout object to the location on the filesystem where all the datafiles should be exported.
```
delphix database export *> edit storageStrategy.filesystemLayout
delphix database export storageStrategy.filesystemLayout *> set type=OracleExportTimeflowFilesystemLayout
delphix database export storageStrategy.filesystemLayout *> set dataDirectory=/path/to/exported/datafiles
delphix database export storageStrategy.filesystemLayout *> back
```
    - All the properties in the storageStrategy.filesystemLayout object are optional and only dataDirectory is applicable here.
    - If the datafile location is not specified via dataDirectory property, the default location for the exported datafiles is under db_create_file_dest of the target CDB.
Set the transfer strategy type and virtual source.
```
delphix database export *> set transferStrategy.type=OracleExportPDBInPlaceTransferStrategy
delphix database export *> set transferStrategy.virtualSource=v2p_pdb
```
The above values are just examples. Replace the values such as default data diskgroup, data directory and virtual source name to match your needs.
Optionally set the following parameters:
1. Set the transferStrategy.pdbName to add pluggable database name for the resulting physical pluggable database.
  1. If a pluggable database name is specified, the target CDB should not have a PDB with the same name, otherwise the V2P operation will fail.
  2. If no pluggable database name is specified, the default is the current name of the pluggable database.
2. Set the transferStrategy.rmanChanels to define number of RMAN channels. The default value for the RMAN channels is 8.
3. Set the transferStrategy.rmanFileSectionSize value. The default value is 0 (i.e. RMAN file section size is not set).
4. Set the storageStrategy.ignoreInsufficientSpaceCheck to ignore any validation error if sufficient space is not available on ASM diskgroup. By default, the value is set to false.
```
delphix database export *> set transferStrategy.pdbName=v2asm_pdb 
delphix database export *> set transferStrategy.rmanChannels=10 
delphix database export *> set transferStrategy.rmanFileSectionSizeInGb=64 
delphix database export *> set storageStrategy.ignoreInsufficientSpaceCheck=true 
```
  The above values are just examples. Replace the PDB name, number of RMAN channels and RMAN file section size to match your needs. For more details on RMAN channels and RMAN file section size, refer to Performance tuning considerations for Oracle databases with bigfile tablespaces.
Commit the configuration to execute the job.
```
delphix database export *> commit
```

The V2P operation takes a snapshot of the vPDB before proceeding with the file transfer. After a successful V2P operation, the original vPDB will be left in a DISABLED state. If the vPDB needs to be re-enabled, the vPDB needs to be migrated to a different host and/or CDB. Ensure there is no PDB with the same name as the vPDB on the target CDB. Subsequently, you must rewind the vPDB to the latest snapshot, after which the vPDB will be back up and running. Since the V2P operation takes a snapshot before the actual export, the rewind can be performed to the point just before when the V2P operation was started.

Refer to Perform V2P on Oracle VDBs or vPDBs in-place to ASM for additional considerations after a successful V2P operation.

Last updated

Oct 9, 2026