Export your Oracle Autonomous Database using Data Pump

TL;DR – Use Data Pump.

How to take an export Data Pump from Oracle Autonomous Database (always free)?
–Saeed asks on my how to Import post

Data Pump can be invoked from many different places

Data Pump is a feature of the Oracle Database, and it allows you to either IMPORT or EXPORT data and objects to and from your Oracle Database. It writes to a proprietary format, so it’s great for taking logical backups or for moving data from one Oracle Database to another Oracle Database.

I’m not here to teach you how to use Data Pump. For that, I suggest the always-awesome Tim Hall.

Who’s Tim Hall? He’s the real person behind Oracle-Base. He writes those articles in his spare time. If I were the pope, he’s be Saint Tim, canonized in his own lifetime of course!

SOME ways to invoke Data Pump

Data Pump command line utilities (expdp and impdp) – requires an Oracle Client install
PL/SQL and DBMS_DATAPUMP (requires an Oracle Database Connection)
GUIs and tools and such (SQL Developer has a Data Pump Wizard)
REST APIs – requires Oracle REST Data Services
Using the DP command in SQLcl

Some things you should know about Data Pump

run right now, or scheduled to run later
compress and/or encrypt your exports
writes the resulting DMP files to the database server, to the database directory specified
generates logs so you can see what’s happening with your job
can take awhile to run depending on how much you’re asking it to do
you might want to look at the parallel option
beware the Time Zone Versions of your databases, they need to be compatible!

Basically, just go read the Docs or Tim’s articles before you start to get serious about using Data Pump. The worst thing would be for you to have an Export, only to find out when you need it, that it’s unusable!

Using SQL Developer Desktop

I’ve already shown how to do this, but effectively you’ll need a connection to your Autonomous Database, then access the DBA Panel, and invoke the Data Pump Wizard.

Basically answer the questions and click ‘Finish’

Using REST APIs

Oracle Autonomous Database comes with Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) and all it’s features, out-of-the-box. That includes our Database REST APIs, which includes endpoints for invoking Data Pump!

I have a complete how-to-use-this post here.

POST /admin/_db-api/latest/database/datapump/export

This capability has been around since 2019, give or take. The nice thing about this is the response includes links to follow for monitoring the job via the Log(s).

Using SQLcl and it’s new DataPump (DP) Command

Does it get any easier than simply running:

dp export

No, no it does not get any easier than that. Especially when you consider SQLcl is ready to go, out-of-the-box in OCI via CloudShell.

Via PL/SQL..in your SQL Developer Web Worksheet

Let’s say you want to export your ADMIN schema. Now, you shouldn’t be using your ADMIN schema for applications, but it’s often used for ad-hoc operations because it’s convenient. I have most of my demo and 101 scenarios built on ADMIN.

If I want to export those, I can simply run this code.

SET scan off
SET serveroutput ON
SET escape off
 
DECLARE
    h1 NUMBER;
    s VARCHAR2(1000):=NULL;
    errorvarchar VARCHAR2(100):= 'ERROR';
    tryGetStatus NUMBER := 0;
    success_with_info EXCEPTION;
    PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(success_with_info, -31627);
BEGIN
    h1 := dbms_datapump.OPEN (operation => 'EXPORT', job_mode => 'SCHEMA', job_name => 'EXPORT_SCHEMA_JOB', version => 'COMPATIBLE'); 
    tryGetStatus := 1;
    dbms_datapump.set_parameter(handle => h1, name => 'COMPRESSION', VALUE => 'ALL'); 
    dbms_datapump.set_parallel(handle => h1, degree => 1); 
    dbms_datapump.add_file(handle => h1, filename => 'EXPORT_SCHEMA_ADMIN.LOG', directory => 'DATA_PUMP_DIR', filetype => 3); 
    dbms_datapump.set_parameter(handle => h1, name => 'KEEP_MASTER', VALUE => 1); 
    dbms_datapump.metadata_filter(handle => h1, name => 'SCHEMA_EXPR', VALUE => 'IN(''ADMIN'')'); 
    dbms_datapump.add_file(handle => h1, filename => 'EXPORT_SCHEMA_ADMIN.DMP', directory => 'DATA_PUMP_DIR', filesize => '500M',  filetype => 1); 
    dbms_datapump.set_parameter(handle => h1, name => 'INCLUDE_METADATA', VALUE => 1); 
    dbms_datapump.set_parameter(handle => h1, name => 'DATA_ACCESS_METHOD', VALUE => 'AUTOMATIC'); 
    dbms_datapump.set_parameter(handle => h1, name => 'ESTIMATE', VALUE => 'BLOCKS'); 
    dbms_datapump.start_job(handle => h1, skip_current => 0, abort_step => 0); 
    dbms_datapump.detach(handle => h1); 
    errorvarchar := 'NO_ERROR'; 
EXCEPTION
    WHEN OTHERS THEN
    BEGIN 
        IF ((errorvarchar = 'ERROR')AND(tryGetStatus=1)) THEN 
            DBMS_DATAPUMP.DETACH(h1);
        END IF;
    EXCEPTION 
    WHEN OTHERS THEN 
        NULL;
    END;
    RAISE;
END;
/

Please actually read this code before you use it. Consider encrypting the data pump output, especially if you have any REAL data in it.

Once it’s in your worksheet, just hit the ‘Run’ button.

Creates the job and runs it IMMEDIATELY. I’ve included no filters, encryption, or compression.

Tip: You can use the SQL Developer Desktop Wizard to generate this DDL for you.

Note that the pl/sql script takes 14’ish seconds to create the job. That’s not how long it takes to actually run the job. That took 1 minute and 51 seconds. Which I know from reading the Log.

Follow along in the Data Pump page

You can toggle over to the Data Pump page by access the SQL Developer Web Mega Menu, accessible via the Hamburger button in the upper left hand corner.