Online Datafile Movement

Online Datafile Movement

Prior to Oracle 12c, moving datafiles has always been an offline task. There were certain techniques you
could employ to minimize that downtime, but you couldn't remove it completely. Oracle 12c includes an
enhancement to the ALTER DATABASE command to allow datafiles to be moved online.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

No need to put tablespace to read only

ALTER DATABASE MOVE DATAFILE old1.dbf' TO new1.dbf';
Queries and DML can continue
Great for ASM conversions
Use REUSE at the end, if you want to overwrite
If you want to keep the old one, use KEEP at the end

Step-1: Login as sysdba and startup the database

[oracle@localhost ~]$ sqlplus /nolog
SQL> connect sys/oracle as sysdba
SQL> startup;
SQL> set linesize 150
SQL> set pagesize 10000
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> column name format a70
SQL> select name,status from v$datafile where name like '%file_to_move%';
NAME
STATUS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf
ONLINE
SQL> !ls -l /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/
total 1590356
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 744497152 Nov 3 10:39 o1_mf_sysaux_b53spns0_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 807411712 Nov 3 10:39 o1_mf_system_b53ss9xf_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 62922752 Nov 3 10:07 o1_mf_temp_b53swdsp_.tmp
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 57679872 Nov 3 10:39 o1_mf_undotbs1_b53svd7h_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 5251072 Nov 3 10:04 o1_mf_users_b53svc3r_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 10:04 tbs_file_to_move01.dbf

Online Datafile Movement

Page 1 of 5

SQL> alter database move datafile

'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf' to
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf';
Database altered.

Online Datafile Movement

Page 2 of 5

SQL> select name,status from v$datafile where name like '%file_to_move%';

NAME
STATUS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf
ONLINE
SQL> !ls -l /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/
total 1590356
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 744497152 Nov 3 11:19 o1_mf_sysaux_b53spns0_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 807411712 Nov 3 11:20 o1_mf_system_b53ss9xf_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 62922752 Nov 3 11:07 o1_mf_temp_b53swdsp_.tmp
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 57679872 Nov 3 11:20 o1_mf_undotbs1_b53svd7h_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 5251072 Nov 3 10:04 o1_mf_users_b53svc3r_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 11:22 tbs_file_to_move02.dbf
SQL> alter database move datafile
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf' to
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf' keep;
Database altered.
SQL> select name,status from v$datafile where name like '%file_to_move%';
NAME
STATUS
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf
ONLINE
SQL> !ls -l /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/
total 1600620
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 744497152 Nov 3 11:24 o1_mf_sysaux_b53spns0_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 807411712 Nov 3 11:24 o1_mf_system_b53ss9xf_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 62922752 Nov 3 11:07 o1_mf_temp_b53swdsp_.tmp
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 57679872 Nov 3 11:24 o1_mf_undotbs1_b53svd7h_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 5251072 Nov 3 10:04 o1_mf_users_b53svc3r_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 11:24 tbs_file_to_move01.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 11:24 tbs_file_to_move02.dbf
SQL> alter database move datafile
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf' to
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf' reuse;
Database altered.

Online Datafile Movement

Page 3 of 5

SQL> select name,status from v$datafile where name like '%file_to_move%';

NAME
STATUS
---------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf
ONLINE
SQL> !ls -l /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/
total 1590356
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 744497152 Nov 3 11:25 o1_mf_sysaux_b53spns0_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 807411712 Nov 3 11:30 o1_mf_system_b53ss9xf_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 62922752 Nov 3 11:07 o1_mf_temp_b53swdsp_.tmp
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 57679872 Nov 3 11:30 o1_mf_undotbs1_b53svd7h_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 5251072 Nov 3 10:04 o1_mf_users_b53svc3r_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 11:32 tbs_file_to_move02.dbf
SQL> select file# from v$datafile
where name ='/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move02.dbf';
FILE#
---------2
SQL> alter database move datafile 2 to
'/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf';
Database altered.
SQL> select name,status from v$datafile where name like '%file_to_move%';
NAME
STATUS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf
ONLINE
SQL> !ls -l /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/
total 1590356
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 744497152 Nov 3 11:35 o1_mf_sysaux_b53spns0_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 807411712 Nov 3 11:35 o1_mf_system_b53ss9xf_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 62922752 Nov 3 11:07 o1_mf_temp_b53swdsp_.tmp
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 57679872 Nov 3 11:35 o1_mf_undotbs1_b53svd7h_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 5251072 Nov 3 10:04 o1_mf_users_b53svc3r_.dbf
-rw-r-----. 1 oracle oinstall 10493952 Nov 3 11:37 tbs_file_to_move01.dbf

Online Datafile Movement

Page 4 of 5

SQL> select file# from v$datafile where name

='/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL/datafile/tbs_file_to_move01.dbf';
FILE#
---------2

Online Datafile Movement

Page 5 of 5