Oracle to PostgreSQL Migration:
The Best Tools and Solutions
Oracle compatible Postgres solutions and migration tools that help you go from legacy to modernity
Why Leave Oracle for PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL offers greater scalability and flexibility compared to Oracle – here’s why.
Businesses may eventually outgrow the capabilities of their existing database and must consider a more advanced solution to stay agile and responsive in today’s digital landscape. If your Oracle database is increasingly limiting your ability to use your data for business initiatives or digital transformation, it may be time to migrate.
Database migrations present formidable challenges, even for seasoned and well-resourced teams. Yet, sticking with a vendor like Oracle can be equally frustrating, as convoluted workarounds are needed for even the simplest data integrations or technology implementations today.
But that’s not the only drawback of remaining on Oracle:
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Vendor Ecosystem Lock-In
Businesses might face predatory contracts during renewal and high switching costs when trying to leave. It would also be harder to decouple from Oracle solutions the longer you stay invested, putting your applications and business at risk.
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Compoundingly high costs
To keep your business technologically competitive and reliable on Oracle, you may be compelled to pay for expensive services like support and maintenance. Pricing lists and tiers can also be confusing – leading to runaway costs.
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Rigid licenses and plans
Lack of flexibility, clarity, and accountability around vendor licenses and plans will limit the agility and longevity of digital transformation initiatives for business growth.
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Lack of forward interoperability
Integrating legacy vendor databases like Oracle with new technologies or data will require complex workarounds or code rewrites, challenging even for the most experienced developers.
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Vendor-controlled upgrades
Businesses will have little say or control over database upgrades or improvements, which are subject to the priorities of Oracle. This impacts the business’ ability to remain technologically competitive while exposing them to potential but avoidable vulnerabilities.
Key Benefits of PostgreSQL
Flexibility, reliability and configurability: the hallmarks of PostgreSQL
What are the alternatives to the legacy database management systems (DBMS) of vendors like Oracle? There is an abundance of choices today, but those looking for flexibility and configurability that’s backed by robust support should consider the benefits provided by PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL, or Postgres, is an open source DBMS that’s object-relational – allowing it to support objects, classes, and inheritance through its database schema and query language. This provides users with great versatility, along with a host of other benefits:
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The Diversity of the PostgreSQL Ecosystem
Due to its open source licensing, users and businesses can do whatever they want with PostgreSQL, spawning a multitude of unique feature-rich solutions and projects in the community. Users can more easily find support, plug-ins, and integrations they need to achieve their objectives.
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Support for A Diverse Range of Data Types
PostgreSQL supports all SQL data types, along with a range of non-SQL data like JSON, time series, numeric, geometric, boolean, images, and even network addresses. Users can even define their own complex data types, giving them the flexibility to build and align data to how they want it represented in applications.
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Reliable Uptime, Without High Costs
PostgreSQL offers all the High Availability and Backup features that users need – such as replication, point-in-time recovery, disaster recovery, and backup – already built into the solution. This ensures true five 9s of high availability and recovery, without the need for pricey Oracle HA and backup services.
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Robust extensibility and integration
The catalog-driven nature of PostgreSQL doesn’t just allow a broader variety of information to be written into catalog tables, but that information can be written by users without needing to touch code. This allows users to more seamlessly extend the database to build new functions or integrate new data.
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Elevated Data Security and Access
The built-in security capabilities of PostgreSQL are extensive, covering authentication, access control, and privilege management systems, along with a variety of other functions that govern remote access permissions and data access.
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Flexible and Agile Cloud Deployments
Deploying or migrating PostgreSQL to cloud will require as much expertise as any database migration, but it’s easier to find a broad range of provider solutions for PostgreSQL, due to how flexible and scalable the solution is.
Still deciding if PostgreSQL is a better alternative to Oracle? Speak with our database experts for insight and advice:
Oracle Migration Calculator
Use our calculator to estimate how much you’ll save moving away from Oracle
Oracle Migration Steps and Challenges
The steps, tools, and processes you’ll need for a successful Oracle migration
How complex would it be to migrate your Oracle database to PostgreSQL? Below is the standard migration journey most businesses could experience when they make the leap.
Phase 1: Decide to Migrate
Before going into technical specifications and process, ensure there is a collective motive to migrate. Do not begin until there’s buy-in from decision-makers and stakeholders.
Phase 2: Assessment and Planning
Start by assessing your entire database and data estate to determine how difficult the migration would be. This phase will highlight potential compatibility or technology issues that might hobble the migration.
- Assess Oracle to PostgreSQL compatibility: Ensure the PostgreSQL server you’re migrating to has the technical specifications and storage needed to house your entire database and application portfolio.
- Assess application portfolio: Which applications are desired to be moved and can be moved? Which of those are top priority? Here is where you might even decide to retire certain applications that are not worth migrating over.
- Assess architecture: Size up your database and its contents – now would be a good time to deprecate any objects, tables, or data the organization no longer requires.
Phase 3: Schema Conversion and Migration
You’ll also need to determine if there are differences in schema between your Oracle database and PostgreSQL, and make adjustments or plans as necessary. Certain schema properties like column, indexes, identifiers, and tables may work differently or may not be supported on PostgreSQL – and are worth checking and double-checking to avoid errors.
Businesses can manage this phase – which can be time-consuming due to all the nuances and details involved – with an Oracle compatible solution, which will help streamline the migration process tremendously.
Phase 4: Functional Testing
As a precaution, test the converted schema on a sample dataset, so issues can be found and rectified before the actual migration. Load sample data from a test or development environment with PostgreSQL, and perform functional tests to see the resulting output.
It’s also sensible to test the same sample data on both Oracle and Postgres, to see if SQL results are identical.
Phase 5: Performance Testing
Test to see if Oracle transactions and features work optimally in your PostgreSQL database. Document any performance dips so you can start fine-tuning at the application, driver, and database level, before the full migration.
Phase 6: Data Migration
Now it’s time to migrate all of your data. Generally there are three methods: snapshot, snapshot in parallel, and Change Data Capture (CDC).
- Snapshot: A snapshot is taken of the database state and all data is moved at once. No WRITE operations are allowed at the source database, meaning there will be some disruption to day-to-day business
- Change Data Capture: Uses software to track and capture changes made at the source database and replay them at the destination database.
What method you choose will be determined by how much disruption and margin of error you can accept. If you’re uncertain, or are interested in migration tools or solutions that simplify the process, it's best to speak to an Oracle compatible Postgres solution provider.
Need a more detailed technical guide for your Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration?
What is Oracle Compatibility?
And why built-in compatibility matters for successful Oracle migrations to PostgreSQL
Database migrations are often time-consuming and fraught with complexity, involving hundreds to thousands of schema tables, objects, and datasets. The process also often requires teams of technical experts, change management, and support for when things inexplicably go wrong.
Oracle compatible tools and solutions are one way to ensure migrations are simplified, accurate, and performed with as few errors as possible. Most solution providers enable compatibility by the way of separate extensions and modules, with EDB being the only solution provider to provide native built-in Oracle compatibility for Postgres.
Solution providers like EDB offer the only built-in Oracle compatibility solution for PostgreSQL, which confers user-friendly benefits:
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Migration without massive code rewrites
Built-in Oracle compatibility can facilitate 1:1 shifts from Oracle to Postgres without requiring major code rewrites. This means fewer delays that cost time and money, along with reduced total ownership costs.
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Easier transitions to cloud
Migrating an on-premises database to the cloud adds layers of complexity to the process. Oracle compatible tools take on the brunt of the effort to migrate your database and data to PostgreSQL, so you can better focus on deploying your data and code on the cloud.
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Automated conversion tools and workarounds
Some Oracle compatible solutions are supported by a range of tools that can be used to assess database compatibility and automatically convert and map database objects, streamlining migrations greatly.
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Oracle to SQL performance monitoring
Some Oracle compatible solutions also provide workload reporting capabilities that are similarly modeled after Oracle’s Workload Repository reports. This provides a familiar interface that helps DBAs seamlessly transition to reporting and troubleshooting SQL performance.
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Robust data security post-migration
Oracle compatible solutions offer Oracle-like security features such as TDE, audit logging, and granular RBAC, which allows existing security requirements to be met without the need to find and implement additional tooling.
Migration Solutions and Tools
Oracle compatible solutions and tools from the people who know Postgres
Leaving your old Oracle-based DBMS can be daunting but not difficult with the right partner. Businesses can streamline their departure from Oracle while controlling the risks of downtime and project failure through EDB’s proven PostgreSQL capabilities:
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Built-In Oracle Compatibility
EDB’s Postgres Advanced Server provides built-in compatibility with a range of Oracle features and constructs, allowing you to migrate your existing Oracle database, objects, and code without significant or any modification.
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Migration Tools and Platforms
Migrate various database objects, tables, and mission-critical data with minimal errors and compatibility issues using EDB migration tools and platform designed for optimal migration of most Oracle objects.
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Data Estate Management
Get the power of intelligent observability through a single pane of glass, allowing you to track the impact of your cloud and data strategy, across multiple clouds, with EDB Postgres AI.
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Industry-leading Expert Support
Get full support from the leading contributors and experts in Postgres. Access EDB’s professional services and resources to drive the success of your Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration.
Learn how the EDB methodology streamlines your Oracle migration, minimizes migration risks, and ensures faster ROI for your organization.
Unsure how much of your database can exist in the cloud, or not convinced about cloud migration? Learn why it’s the best move for the future of your business.
Get insight into the technical challenges and requirements of change management processes that are a natural part of database migrations.
Businesses may eventually outgrow the capabilities of their Oracle database, and might require a solution that’s more extensible, feature-rich, and supports a greater range of data types or languages. Some might also leave to avoid vendor lock-in or expensive licensing costs.
It depends on what a user or business expects from their database, and the costs or complexity they are willing to bear as they scale the database to meet future demands. While there are many reasons to remain with Oracle, businesses might decide to switch to PostgreSQL if they want better control and agility over their database.
PostgreSQL also has a growing ecosystem of solution providers that offer a range of enterprise-grade services, such as fully managed Postgres, cloud migrations, and 24/7 support, all of which makes PostgreSQL a viable alternative to Oracle.
For starters, PostgreSQL has zero licensing fees due to its open source licensing, which allows both the individual and enterprise to access, modify, and distribute the code freely. PostgreSQL also has numerous other advantages over Oracle, namely:
Extensibility Support
PostgreSQL is catalog-driven like most relational databases, but unlike its counterparts, a wider range of information is stored within PostgreSQL catalogs. Users can easily access and modify information within PostgreSQL catalogs, making it more extensible than other databases.
Higher concurrency
MVCC (Multi-Version Concurrency Control) is a concurrency control system in PostgreSQL, which allows for multiple concurrent read and write transactions, while also maintaining transaction isolation to ensure data isn’t rewritten and remains consistent for all users.
Feature-rich flexibility
PostgreSQL comes with a wider range of features, such as the abovementioned catalog-driven operations, concurrency control, layered transactions, and dynamic loading, to name a few. It’s also ACID compliant, which ensures high data integrity and fault tolerance.
In terms of transactions-per-second, both databases are equal in terms of performance. Both databases can handle large data volumes and concurrent users. Both are also equal in terms of scalability, however, businesses will encounter licensing and cost complications with Oracle – a hurdle they won’t have with PostgreSQL due to its open source and extensible nature.
PostgreSQL supports ANSI SQL standard SQL syntax and data types, whereas Oracle does not support the same standard; additionally, it includes some non-ANSI SQL syntaxes. Using tools, unsupported objects should be identified and then converted manually with Postgres-supported syntax or feature workarounds.
Some best practices to consider before you migrate from Oracle into PostgreSQL are:
Get organizational buy-in
Ensure the entire business understands and agrees to the need to migrate to PostgreSQL. Establish migration goals, timelines, and contingencies.
Determine what needs to be moved
Compile an exhaustive list of all data or applications that need to be moved over, eliminate old data the business no longer needs, and identify any compatibility issues that might occur.
Test and test again
Perform stability and performance tests on any data that have been migrated over to the new PostgreSQL to identify potential issues before performing the actual migration.
Establish new security and observability measures
Migrating to PostgreSQL provides businesses with the opportunity to leverage its security and monitoring capabilities to minimize data security and outage risks.
There are many differences between both databases, namely data types, syntax, procedural language, and a host of potential compatibility issues for applications that are migrated over.
It’s challenging to convert schemas in Oracle to PostgreSQL without the right set of tools. For a list of free online conversion tools, see our list here. While these tools are freely available, they can be challenging to use without the right expertise. If you’re converting a large database filled with thousands of query lines, it’s advisable to use an enterprise grade solution instead.
You’ll need the right solution and tools to run PostgreSQL in Oracle compatible mode. EDB Postgres Advanced Server is the only Oracle compatible solution in the industry that allows users to run Postgres in Oracle Compatibility mode.
EDB has created EDB Postgres Advanced Server (EPAS), which is an enhanced version of PostgreSQL that includes implementations of many Oracle specific data types, object types, keywords, procedural language constructs, and other features. We continually evaluate migration challenges and introduce new compatibility features in each major version of EPAS. The solution is designed to mimic Oracle code, drivers and queries while providing support for certain Oracle features or workloads. These features could potentially reduce code and application rewrites by up to 80%. Additionally, EDB Postgres Advanced Server has robust application security to minimize migration risks and delays.
Our fully managed, multi-cloud Postgres solution will allow you to focus on building and scaling your business, while we fully undertake the burden of database deployment, administration, and operational tasks. We’ll also ensure high availability and backups of your mission-critical data and provide 24/7 professional assistance for any issues you may encounter.
We’ll first look to gain visibility over your entire database estate and map applications to related data schema for assessment purposes. We’ll then define which databases are part of scope, define ROI that meets the migration strategy, and determine a prioritized migration backlog. For full insight into our iterative approach, click here.
Our professional services team will conduct a free migration assessment of your schema and data to ensure that your database qualifies for a migration to PostgreSQL.
Ready to Move to PostgreSQL?
And Unlock Greater Possibilities with Your Data?
Reach out to us with your migration requirements and let’s get you started towards a more flexible, cost-efficient, and scalable database management solution