Oracle RAC to GBase 8c Migration Solution
With the rapid advancement of database technology, database kernels and architectures continue to innovate. Distributed architectures and the convergence of multi-model and multi-modal capabilities are becoming trends, emerging as core technologies to meet diverse user scenarios. Due to the diversification of data usage scenarios and the high-concurrency read/write demands of massive data, some database products based on traditional architectures can no longer meet the needs of specific scenarios.
Specifically:
1. For business scenarios involving hundreds of terabytes or petabytes of data and high concurrency, traditional database architectures are generally unable to meet requirements. In the wave of digital transformation, enterprises have increasingly higher demands for databases, requiring not only strong performance and stability but also the flexibility to adapt to various complex business scenarios.
2. Core business systems typically use Oracle RAC deployment. However, the RAC architecture demands extremely high stability and performance from hardware such as servers, storage, and network cards. When migrating to Chinese servers, enterprises often face performance and stability degradation.
3. Under growing business demands, traditional database clusters such as Oracle RAC face limitations in the number of nodes. As a renowned database solution, Oracle RAC has long been the first choice for many enterprises. However, with business growth and market shifts, organizations are seeking more efficient and cost-effective alternatives.
4. Certain internet businesses require elastic scaling capabilities, which traditional database products usually cannot provide.
In the above scenarios, the best choice is to switch to a distributed database. GBASE (General Data Technology) multi-model distributed database GBase 8c, with its exceptional performance, high availability, and strong cost-effectiveness, has become a new choice for enterprise migration. GBase 8c features enterprise-grade capabilities, distributing workloads across multiple servers for parallel processing, which significantly improves system throughput and response time. It can also automatically add new nodes as needed, enabling horizontal scaling and elastic expansion. This provides higher performance, fault tolerance, and reliability. Driven by a new kernel engine, it offers better compatibility and features such as multi-model support, elastic scalability, and strongly consistent distributed transactions. In addition, it provides comprehensive data migration solutions and tools, facilitating smooth migration from various databases to GBase 8c.
However, migration is not simply about moving data. The greatest challenge during a production migration lies in achieving a harmonious balance among data consistency, migration efficiency, and system stability. Differences in architecture and functionality between Oracle RAC and GBase 8c make it a major challenge for enterprises to complete the migration without data loss or corruption. In addition, business interruption time and system stability during the migration are critical concerns.
GBase 8c provides robust support for Oracle RAC migration through its self-developed migration tools and support services, ensuring efficient and reliable migration services through the following aspects:
1) GBase 8c offers data types and SQL syntax that are highly compatible with Oracle, significantly reducing learning and adaptation costs during migration;
2) GBase 8c migration tools support migration assessment, object migration, data migration, business SQL migration, real-time synchronization, and data verification, providing a complete one-stop migration service;
3) The high-availability architecture of the GBase 8c database and the high-availability failover capabilities of its migration tools jointly ensure stable operation during and after migration, minimizing business interruption even during the migration process.
The following illustrates the migration solution from Oracle to GBase 8c.
For Oracle RAC migration, GBase 8c provides detailed data migration guides and a complete solution for smooth migration. The main process includes:
1) Migration preparation, mainly including source database environment analysis and migration assessment;
2) Migration solution design and testing, mainly including environment preparation, functional testing, and migration drills;
3) Migration implementation, mainly including finalizing the plan, migration operations and monitoring, performance tuning, and cutover;
4) Post-migration operational and maintenance services.
During its development, GBase 8c has undertaken extensive work on object and syntax compatibility, encapsulating compatible objects, thereby laying a solid foundation for migration. The actual migration process relies more on GBase 8c command-line tools (such as gs_dump) and the graphical migration tool GBase DMT. GBase DMT features a B/S architecture and is deployed via Docker, which simplifies deployment, reduces client-side overhead, and facilitates application maintenance and upgrades.
1. Object Migration Process
On GBase DMT, first add the source and target database connection information. Users create migration tasks according to actual needs, during which conversion rules can be modified. After the pre-check passes, save the task information, and migration starts automatically by default. Upon completion, DBAs and other operations personnel can view task details or the migration evaluation report.
Main functional operations:
Database configuration — Configure source and target database connection information for data migration and synchronization.
Create migration — Select the data source and complete configuration steps such as selecting migration objects, selecting migration tables, parameter configuration, and modifying conversion rules, thereby finishing the pre-migration task configuration.
Migration assessment — After migration, download the evaluation report to review migration details and specific error information. Then, based on the report, manually modify the configuration items described earlier, and run the migration again.
(Optional) Data synchronization — During business operations, perform data synchronization between heterogeneous databases using CDC technology. Through streaming and real-time log parsing, it enables low-latency awareness of incremental data changes.
2. Business SQL Migration Process
Through business collection tools, sample and analyze business data and application systems, and collect statistics on data volume, wide tables, real-time SQL, and performance metrics to provide the optimal migration plan.
Solution Advantages
High concurrency: GBase 8c adopts a shared-nothing architecture with separate compute and storage, allowing concurrent multi-user access to obtain resources more quickly and improving I/O processing capacity.
High availability: Unlike RAC's multi-instance shared storage, a distributed database stores data across multiple nodes. When a node fails, the system automatically switches to other available nodes, ensuring continuous data availability.
HTAP capability: Simultaneously supports transactional and analytical processing to meet diverse application scenarios.
Elastic scalability: Supports online scaling up and down to better accommodate changes in data volume and user numbers.
Linear performance improvement: The distributed architecture supports adding more nodes, enabling linear performance gains as nodes are added.
Chinese Ecosystem Compatibility: Fully compatible with Chinese servers and operating systems, achieving performance and stability equal to or even surpassing that of legacy foreign systems in Chinese IT environments.
As a leading provider of database and data management solutions, GBASE (General Data Technology) adheres to the core principle of customer-centricity, focusing not only on technological innovation but also on user experience. Migrating from Oracle RAC to GBase 8c is not only an inevitable choice for enterprises to reduce costs and improve efficiency, but also a critical step in adapting to market changes and embracing technological innovation. The ease of use, high security, high performance, and consistent integrity of the GBase 8c data migration solution enable enterprises to easily address various migration challenges, achieving seamless business continuity and upgrade.