PDB Management for Exadata Database Services and Database Cloud VM

PDB management is now available with our database cloud services. With this new feature, users can create and manage pluggable databases (PDBs) via OCI console and APIs. This functionality provides complete user control for creating, managing, and performing lifecycle operations on PDBs.

◉ Create and delete PDBs within an existing container database (CDB) enabling them to have an easy way to provision and manage PDBs via console and APIs

◉ Start and stop PDBs, and monitor the latest open modes of the PDBs providing a centralized way to administer the PDBs

◉ Clone a PDB into a local or remote CDB

◉ Connect to individual PDBs directly via separate connection strings using either Easy Connect or Long Connect strings Pluggable Databases are managed as an OCI resource in the context of the database, and all the lifecycle operations can be performed on them just like any other OCI resource.

To create PDBs, specify the PDB name and database-specific admin credentials. Users can fully manage the lifecycle of these PDBs, which are compartment aware and belong to specific CDBs in which they are created.

OCI Console Experience

Let’s look at the lifecycle tasks of a PDB in the OCI Console.

◉ Create a PDB

◉ Perform lifecycle operations on PDBs

◉ Clone a PDB

◉ Create PDBs in a Data Guard environment

Create a PDB

From the console, navigate to the Database → Pluggable Databases, and click on 'Create Pluggable Database'.  To create a PDB, provide PDB name, and admin credentials etc. You can optionally unlock the new PDB account by providing the admin password. The new PDB created will be one of the resources in the database (CDB).

Perform Lifecycle Operations on PDBs

PDB lifecycle operations of starting, stopping, and deleting can be performed directly from the OCI Console. On the PDB details page, you can view the open mode of the PDB as well.

The PDB Connection tab provides connection strings to the administrative services of a PDB. For applications, please use application services.

Clone a PDB

You can clone a PDB into the same CDB, or into another CDB. Go to PDB details page, and click on 'Clone'. Provide new PDB details on the screen.

Create PDBs in a Data Guard environment

In the Data Guard environment, the existing PDBs will be synced to standby at the time of Data Guard configuration. You can also create or clone additional PDBs on the Primary via console or API and they will be synchronized on the standby database.

Considerations

◉ PDB Management is available with database versions 19c and later.

◉ Backup, Restore, and Data Guard operations performed on the database will take consideration of the underlying PDBs. For example, when you take a backup of the database, and restore at a later point in time, your PDBs will be part of your restored database.

◉ For Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer and Dedicated Infrastructure, remote cloning across VM Clusters is possible as long as they are in the same Exadata Infrastructure.

◉ For DBCS VM, new PDB creation is not supported with Data Guard association as of the posting of this blog.

Availability

The PDB management feature is available for Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer, Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure, and DBCS VM in all OCI commercial regions.

Source: oracle.com