This topic describes how to migrate schemas, full data, and incremental data between ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances with no downtime by using Data Transmission Service (DTS).

Prerequisites

  • The source and destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances are created. For more information, see Create an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
    Note For compatibility purposes, we recommend that the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance runs a database engine version that is earlier than or the same as the database engine version that is run on the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.

    If the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance runs a later database engine version than the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, compatibility issues may occur.

  • The available storage of the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance is greater than the used storage of the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.

Precautions

Type Description
Limits on the source database
  • Bandwidth requirements: The server to which the source database belongs must have sufficient egress bandwidth. Otherwise, the data migration speed is affected.
  • The source database must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records.
  • If you want to migrate incremental data, you must make sure that the following requirements are met:
    • The data logging feature must be enabled.
    • Data logs are retained for at least 7 days during full data migration. You can wait until full data migration is complete, and then clear the data logs generated in the source database after the DTS task is run.
      Note To ensure data security, the DTS server stores only 50 GB of data logs or the data logs for the last 24 hours. If the limit is exceeded, the DTS server automatically clears the logs that exceed the limit.
      Warning If you clear the data logs of the source database during full data migration, the task may fail to migrate incremental data. For example, full data migration takes more than 24 hours due to the large data volume in the source database and abnormal writing in the destination database. In this case, if the data logs of the source database are cleared during full data migration, DTS cannot obtain the data logs generated 24 hours ago. Therefore, the task may fail to migrate incremental data.
  • Limits on operations:
    • During schema migration and full data migration, do not perform data definition language (DDL) operations to change the schemas of databases or tables. Otherwise, the data migration task fails.
    • If you perform only full data migration, do not write data to the source database during data migration. Otherwise, data will be inconsistent between the source and destination databases. To ensure data consistency, we recommend that you select Schema Migration, Full Data Migration, and Incremental Data Migration as the migration types.
Other limits
  • To ensure that the data migration task runs as expected, you can perform primary/secondary switchover only on an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance V11 during data migration. In this case, you must set the rds_failover_slot_mode parameter to sync. For more information, see Logical Replication Slot Failover.
    Warning If you perform primary/secondary switchover on a self-managed PostgreSQL database or an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance of other versions, the data migration task fails.
  • A single data migration task can migrate data from only one database. To migrate data from multiple databases, you must create a data migration task for each database.
  • During incremental data migration, if you select a schema as the object to be migrated, take note of the following limits: If you create a table in the schema or run the RENAME command to rename the table, you must run the ALTER TABLE schema.table REPLICA IDENTITY FULL; command before you write data to the table.
    Note Replace the schema and table in the preceding sample command with the actual schema name and table name.
  • To ensure that the delay time of incremental data migration is accurate, DTS adds a heartbeat table named dts_postgres_heartbeat to the source database.
  • During incremental data migration, DTS creates a replication slot for the source database. The replication slot is prefixed with dts_sync_. DTS automatically clears historical replication slots every 90 minutes to reduce storage usage.
    Note If the data migration task is released or fails, DTS automatically clears the replication slot. If a primary/secondary switchover is performed on the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, you must log on to the secondary database to clear the replication slot.
    Replication slot information
  • Before you migrate data, evaluate the impact of data migration on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you migrate data during off-peak hours. During full data migration, DTS uses read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads of the database servers.
  • During full data migration, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. After full data migration is complete, the tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database.
  • You must make sure that the precision settings for columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type meets your business requirements. DTS uses the ROUND(COLUMN,PRECISION) function to retrieve values from columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type. If you do not specify a precision, DTS sets the precision for the FLOAT data type to 38 digits and the precision for the DOUBLE data type to 308 digits.
  • DTS attempts to resume data migration tasks that failed within the last seven days. Before you switch workloads to the destination instance, stop or release the data migration task. You can also run the revoke command to revoke the write permissions from the accounts that are used by DTS to access the destination instance. Otherwise, the data in the source database will overwrite the data in the destination instance after the task is resumed.
Special cases
  • If the source or destination instance is an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, take note of the following limits:

    During data migration, do not modify the endpoint and zone of the ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. Otherwise, the data migration task fails.

Migration types

  • Schema migration

    DTS migrates the schemas of the required objects from the source database to the destination database.

  • Full data migration

    DTS migrates historical data of the required objects from the source database to the destination database.

  • Incremental data migration

    After full data migration is completed, DTS migrates incremental data from the source database to the destination database. Incremental data migration allows you to ensure service continuity when you migrate data between self-managed databases.

SQL operations that support incremental data migration

Operation type SQL statement
DML INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE

Permissions that are required for database accounts

Instance Schema migration Full data migration Incremental data migration
Source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance The USAGE permission on the pg_catalog schema The SELECT permission on the objects that you want to migrate The privileged account
Note If the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance runs PostgreSQL 9.4 and you want to migrate only the incremental data that is generated by DML operations, the database account that you use needs only to have the REPLICATION permission.
Destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance The CREATE and USAGE permissions on the migrated objects The permissions of the owner to which the schema belongs

For more information about how to create accounts and grant permissions to accounts for an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance, see Create an account on an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.

Procedure

  1. Go to the Data Migration page of the new DTS console.
    Note You can also log on to the Data Management (DMS) console. In the top navigation bar, choose DTS > Data Migration.
  2. In the upper-left corner of the page, select the region where the data migration instance resides.
    Select a region
  3. Click Create Task. On the page that appears, configure the source and destination databases.
    Warning After you select the source and destination instances, we recommend that you read the limits displayed at the top of the page. This helps you create and run the data migration task.
    Configure the parameters in the Source Database section and Destination Database section
    Section Parameter Description
    N/A Task Name

    DTS automatically generates a task name. We recommend that you specify an informative name to identify the task. You do not need to use a unique task name.

    Source Database Select Template
    If the connection settings of the instance has been saved as a template, you can select the connection name. DTS automatically applies the saved connection settings.
    Note
    • You can modify the connection settings of a template.
    • To edit the template name, you can click Edit Template Name at the bottom of the Source Database section.
    • The modified connection template will take effect the next time you select the connection template. The database instance that you have configured by using the template is not affected.
    Database Type Select PostgreSQL.
    Access Method Select Alibaba Cloud Instance.
    Instance Region Select the region where the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance resides.
    RDS Instance ID Select the ID of the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
    Database Name Enter the name of the source database in the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
    Database Account Enter the username of the account that is used to connect to the source ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. For information about the permissions that are required for the account, see Permissions that are required for database accounts.
    Database Password

    Enter the password of the database account.

    Save as Template
    Click Save as Template. In the dialog box that appears, set the name of the database connection, and click OK. The connection settings of the database instance is saved as a template.
    Note We recommend that you specify an informative name to identify the database connection. You do not need to use a unique name.
    Destination Database Select Template
    If the connection settings of the instance has been saved as a template, you can select the connection name. DTS automatically applies the saved connection settings.
    Note
    • You can modify the connection settings of a template.
    • To edit the template name, you can click Edit Template Name at the bottom of the Source Database section.
    • The modified connection template will take effect the next time you select the connection template. The database instance that you have configured by using the template is not affected.
    Database Type Select PostgreSQL.
    Access Method Select Alibaba Cloud Instance.
    Instance Region Select the region where the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance resides.
    RDS Instance ID Select the ID of the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
    Database Name Enter the name of the destination database in the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
    Database Account Enter the username of the account that is used to connect to the destination ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance. For information about the permissions that are required for the account, see Permissions that are required for database accounts.
    Database Password

    Enter the password of the database account.

    Save as Template
    Click Save as Template. In the dialog box that appears, set the name of the database connection, and click OK. The connection settings of the database instance is saved as a template.
    Note We recommend that you specify an informative name to identify the database connection. You do not need to use a unique name.
  4. In the lower part of the page, click Test Connectivity and Proceed.
  5. Select objects for the task and configure advanced settings.
    • Basic SettingsBasic Settings
      Parameter Description
      Task Stages
      • To perform only full data migration, select Schema Migration and Full Data Migration.
      • To ensure service continuity during data migration, select Schema Migration, Full Data Migration, and Incremental Data Migration.
      Note If Incremental Data Migration is not selected, we recommend that you do not write data to the source instance during data migration. This ensures data consistency between the source and destination instances.
      Processing Mode of Conflicting Tables

      • Precheck and Report Errors: checks whether the destination database contains tables that have the same names as tables in the source database. If the source and destination databases do not contain identical table names, the precheck is passed. Otherwise, an error is returned during precheck and the data migration task cannot be started.

        Note You can use the object name mapping feature to rename the tables that are migrated to the destination database. You can use this feature if the source and destination databases contain identical table names and the tables in the destination database cannot be deleted or renamed. For more information, see Map object names.
      • Ignore Errors and Proceed: skips the precheck for identical table names in the source and destination databases.
        Warning If you select Ignore Errors and Proceed, data consistency is not guaranteed and your business may be exposed to potential risks.
        • If the source and destination databases have the same schema, DTS does not migrate data records that have the same primary keys as data records in the destination database.
        • If the source and destination databases have different schemas, only some columns are migrated or the data migration task fails.
      Select Objects

      Select one or more objects from the Source Objects section and click the Rightwards arrow icon to move the objects to the Selected Objects section.

      Note You can select columns, tables, or schemas as the objects to be migrated. If you select tables or columns as the objects to be migrated, DTS does not migrate other objects such as views, triggers, and stored procedures to the destination database.
      Rename Databases and Tables
      • To rename an object that you want to migrate to the destination instance, right-click the object in the Selected Objects section. For more information, see Map the name of a single object.
      • To rename multiple objects at a time, click Batch Edit in the upper-right corner of the Selected Objects section. For more information, see Map multiple object names at a time.
      Note If you use the object name mapping feature to rename an object, other objects that are dependent on the object may fail to be migrated.
      Filter data

      You can specify WHERE conditions to filter data. For more information, see Use SQL conditions to filter data.

      Select the SQL operations to be migrated In the Selected Objects section, right-click an object. In the dialog box that appears, select the SQL operations that generates the incremental data you want to migrate. For more information, see SQL operations that support incremental data migration.
    • Advanced SettingsAdvanced Settings
      Parameter Description
      Set Alerts
      Specify whether to set alerts for the data migration task. If the task fails or the migration latency exceeds the threshold, the alert contacts will receive notifications.
      • Select No if you do not want to set alerts.
      • Select Yes to set alerts. In this case, you must also set the alert threshold and alert contacts.
      Capitalization of Object Names in Destination Instance

      Specify the capitalization of database names, table names, and column names in the destination instance. By default, DTS default policy is selected. You can select other options to make sure that the capitalization of object names is consistent with that of the source or destination database. For more information, see Specify the capitalization of object names in the destination instance.

      Retry Time for Failed Connections
      Specify the retry time for failed connections. Valid values: 10 to 1440. Unit: minutes. Default value: 120. We recommend that you set the retry time to more than 30 minutes. If DTS reconnects to the source and destination databases within the specified time, DTS resumes the data migration task. Otherwise, the data migration task fails.
      Note
      • If multiple DTS instances have the same source or destination database, the lowest value takes effect. For example, the retry time is set to 30 minutes for Instance A and 60 minutes for Instance B, DTS retries failed connections at an interval of 30 minutes.
      • When DTS retries a connection, you are charged for the DTS instance. We recommend that you specify the retry time based on your business needs. You can also release the DTS instance at your earliest opportunity after the source and destination instances are released.
  6. In the lower part of the page, click Next: Save Task Settings and Precheck.
    Note
    • Before you can start the data migration task, DTS performs a precheck. You can start the data migration task only after the task passes the precheck.
    • If the task fails to pass the precheck, you can click the Info icon icon next to each failed item to view details.
      • You can troubleshoot the issues based on the causes and run a precheck again.
      • If you do not need to troubleshoot the issues, you can ignore failed items and run a precheck again.
  7. Wait until the Success Rate becomes 100%. Then, click Next: Purchase Instance.
  8. On the Purchase Instance page, specify the Instance Class parameter for the data migration instance. The following table describes the parameter.
    Section Parameter Description
    Parameters Instance Class

    DTS provides several instance classes that have different performance in migration speed. You can select an instance class based on your business scenario. For more information, see Specifications of data migration instances.

  9. Read and select Data Transmission Service (Pay-as-you-go) Service Terms.
  10. Click Buy and Start to start the data migration task. You can view the progress of the task in the task list.