Recently, we had a case were we had the following (simplified) setup:
host 1: CDB01 with PDB01, PDB02
host 2: CDB01-standby with PDB01 and PDB02
Now we wanted to move the PDB02 to a new container, that had to run from host 2.
host 1: CDB01 with PDB01
host 2: CDB01-standby with PDB01
CDB02 with PDB02
We wanted to use the standby database for this, because then you don't have to copy the datafiles from host 1 to host 2. In our case, saving about 500Gb scp which would take a lot of time.
We are working with Oracle 12.1 on Linux 7, with regular filesystem (non-ASM) in Single Instance (no RAC).
The following steps have been made.
Create a new empty container CDB02 on host 2 with responsefile new.rsp:
[GENERAL]
RESPONSEFILE_VERSION = "12.1.0"
OPERATION_TYPE = "createDatabase"
[CREATEDATABASE]
GDBNAME = "CDB02"
SID = "CDB02"
CREATEASCONTAINERDATABASE = true
NUMBEROFPDBS = 0
TEMPLATENAME = "General_Purpose.dbc"
SYSPASSWORD = "Secret#01"
SYSTEMPASSWORD = "Secret#02"
DATAFILEDESTINATION =/u01/oradata
RECOVERYAREADESTINATION=/u02/fast_recovery_area
STORAGETYPE=FS
CHARACTERSET = "AL32UTF8"
NATIONALCHARACTERSET= "AL16UTF16"
dbca -createDatabase -silent -responseFile new.rsp
After this, you can change memory settings and such whatever you need.
On host 1 in CDB01:
alter pluggable database PDB02 close immediate;
alter pluggable
database PDB02 unplug into '/home/oracle/PDB02.xml';
drop pluggable database PDB02;
Do NOT drop the datafiles! You will need them on the standby host.
Now scp the created xml file to host 2 /home/oracle/.
On host 2 in CDB01-standby:
select name from v$pdbs order by name;
Check that PDB02 is not there.
Now move the datafiles to the new folder:
mv /u01/oradata/CDB01/PDB02 /u01/oradata/CDB02/
On host 2 in CDB02:
create pluggable database PDB02 using '/home/oracle/PDB02.xml' source_file_name_convert=('/u01/oradata/CDB01/PDB02','/u01/oradata/CDB02/PDB02') NOCOPY TEMPFILE REUSE;
Note the NOCOPY keyword. That tells us that the files are already there, we moved them with a linux mv command, and because it is on the same mountpoint, it will be done in blink of an eye.
alter pluggable database PDB02 open;
select name,open_mode from v$pdbs order by name;
alter pluggable database PDB02 save state;
On host 1:
Cleanup (can be done later) the old datafiles in /u01/oradata/CDB01/PDB02
