Oracle lets you migrate your data from On-premise to OCI using data transfer service. You can also export data from OCI to your data centers. With OCI Data Transfer Service you can copy your data to a hard disk you own or an oracle supplied data transfer appliance to migrate data quickly and securely from on-premise to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object storage.
In this blog post, we are going to cover:
- Overview of Data Transfer Service
- Core Components of Data Transfer Service
- How to Upload the Data
- Is your Data Safe?
- How to Navigate to Data Transfer Service
- Tracking the Status of Transfer Package
- Storage Gateway
If you wish to know more about Migration, check out our Free Masterclass on Migrate EBS (R12) To Cloud With Almost Zero Downtime.
Overview Of Oracle Data Transfer Service
OCI Data Migration Service lets you securely move petabytes-scale datasets from the customer’s data center to Object/Archive Storage on OCI. Moving data over the public Internet is not always the smart choice due to various reasons like long transfer times, high network costs, unreliable network connectivity, and a very important aspect which is security.
Note: Data Transfer in NOT available in OCI Government Cloud Regions. The only regions that it is available in are Pheonix, Ashburn, London, and Ashburn.
Data can be transferred in both modes Offline and Online. Online Data is transferred through Storage Gateway and Offline data is transferred through Data Transfer Service.
Online Data transfer can take a very long time depending upon the internet bandwidth so it is always advised to use offline mode using data transfer service for a large amount of data.
Data can be transferred using two types of transfers named Appliance-Based Data Transfer and Disk-Based Data Transfer.
Check out: List of Free Oracle Cloud Certification
Appliance-Based Data Transfer
Oracle sends you a secure, high-capacity storage appliance through which you send your data to the Oracle transfer site. Employees at Oracle will then upload the data into your designated Object Storage bucket in your tenancy. You do not need to purchase any hardware for the transfer as Oracle supplies both the hardware and the software required to manage the transfer.
Data Transfer Appliance (DTA)
- The customer rents one or more DTA from Oracle, loads data, and sends it to the Data Transfer site.
- Up to 150 TB
- Data Encrypted (AES-256) before transit Data uploaded, verified, erased from DTA.
Disk-Based Data Transfer
You can transfer your data by storing your data on an encrypted disk and sending it to the Oracle transfer site. Oracle will upload your data into your designated Object Storage bucket in your tenancy. The disk will be yours and will be transferred back to you after the data transfer.
Data Transfer Disk
- The customer purchases Hard Disk on their own and is shipped back to the client after migration.
- Up to 100 TB and 10 disks per Transfer Packet.
- Data Encrypted (AES-256) before transit.
- Data uploaded to the bucket, verified, then erased from disk(s) and returned to the customer.
Oracle also lets you export your data using appliance-based Data Export. In this, you can export your data from your OCI Object Storage to your data center by using an Oracle-provided appliance. This is very useful when you want to share your data with a client or business partner.
Components Of Data Transfer Service
Data Transfer Disk and Data Transfer Appliance both have different core components. We will discuss both in detail below:
Data Transfer Disk: Components
Data Transfer Disk has 3 Components:
- Transfer Job
- Transfer Device
- Transfer Package
Transfer Job: A transfer job represents the data set that you wish to upload to OCI. To use the data transfer disk service, we first need to create a Transfer job from the OCI console. We need to specify whether to choose Object Storage or Archive Storage.
Transfer Device: It consists of your hard disk drives, specially prepared to copy and upload data to oracle cloud infrastructure. You can copy your data into 1 or more of these devices and ship it to Oracle for the upload.
The drive can be an internal SATA II/III 2.5″ or 3.5″ drive or an external USB 2.0/3.0 drive.
Transfer Package: A transfer package represents the parcel to help ensure the upload is done in once continuous operation across multiple disks. Each transfer package can contain up to 10 transfer devices.
Read: OCI Regions | OCI Availability Domain | Oracle Cloud Region | OCI Realms
Data Transfer Appliance: Components
Data Transfer Appliance has 2 components:
- Transfer Job
- Transfer Appliance.
Transfer Job: Just like in data transfer disk, here also we need to create a Transfer job from the OIC console and we need to specify whether we need our data to be stored in Object Storage or Archive Storage.
Transfer Appliance: It is a high capacity storage device, specially designed to copy and upload data to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. You can copy your data to 1 or more appliance and ship it to Oracle for the upload.
Note: Make sure you review the default Data Transfer Disk service limits to determine the number of transfer jobs, transfer packages, and transfer devices you can create in your tenancy. If you need more then the limit then you need to request a limit increase by reaching out Oracle support.
How To Upload The Data
If you have a tenancy in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure you are eligible for the data transfer. To use the Data Transfer Service, you need to follow the following 6 easy steps to upload the data.
Is My Data Safe During The Oracle Data Transfer?
Yes, your data is completely secured during the transfer. All data written to the Hard Drive or stored on the Transfer Appliance is encrypted using AES-256 cipher Encryption.
For Data Transfer Disk, the Encryption keys are stored in a separate safe location from the hard drives so even if the hard drives are lost or intercepted while being shipped the data on the hard drive can never be accessed. Once the data transfer is complete, Oracle wipes the data and ships your hard drives back to you.
For Data Transfer Appliance, the Encryption password is stored securely in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure separate from the transfer appliance so if the appliance is lost or intercepted while being shipped the data on the appliance can never be accessed.
How To Navigate To Data Transfer Service
Data Transfer Service is available in OCI console under Object Storage. Using the Import and Export you can easily migrate your data from on-premise to cloud and vice-versa.
Data Transfer – Import: When you want to import your data from your on-premise to oracle cloud infrastructure, you use Import.
Data Transfer – Export: When you want to export your data from your tenancy to your on-premise, you use Export.
Tracking The Status Of Transfer Package and Transfer Devices
You can check the status of Transfer Package in 2 ways:
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure service console
- Data Transfer Utility
Storage Gateway
- Storage Gateway supports you to connect the on-premise application to object storage in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
- Applications which can write data to an NFS target can also write data to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage, without requiring application modification to uptake the REST APIs.
To know more about Storage Gateway
Related/Further Readings
- Data Transfer Service FAQs
- Storage Gateway In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
- Data Regions for Platform and Infrastructure Services
- Oracle EBS (R12) On-Premise to OCI Migration (Lift & Shift): 10 Things You Must Consider
- [Free Masterclass] Migrate EBS (R12) To Cloud With Almost Zero Downtime
- IAM In OCI – User, Groups, Compartment, Policy, Tags, Federation & MFA
- Gateways In OCI
- Oracle Cloud (OCI): How To Recover SSH Keys In Compute Instance
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