Synchronize data from a self-managed PostgreSQL database to a PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster - Data Transmission Service

This topic describes how to synchronize data from a self-managed PostgreSQL database to a PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster by using Data Transmission Service (DTS).

Prerequisites

The source self-managed PostgreSQL database and the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster are created.
Note
- For more information about how to create a PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster, see Create a PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster.
- For more information about the supported database engine versions, see Overview of data synchronization scenarios.
The available storage space of the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster is larger than the total size of the data in the self-managed PostgreSQL database.

Usage notes

Note

During schema synchronization, DTS synchronizes foreign keys from the source database to the destination database.
During full data synchronization and incremental data synchronization, DTS temporarily disables the constraint check and cascade operations on foreign keys at the session level. If you perform the cascade update and delete operations on the source database during data synchronization, data inconsistency may occur.

Category	Description
Limits on the source database	The tables to be synchronized must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records. If you select tables as the objects to be synchronized and you want to edit the tables, such as renaming tables or columns in the destination database, you can synchronize up to 5,000 tables in a single data synchronization task. If you run a task to synchronize more than 5,000 tables, a request error occurs. In this case, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to synchronize the tables or configure a task to synchronize the entire database. The following requirements for WAL logs must be met: The value of the wal_level parameter is set to logical. If you perform only incremental data synchronization, the WAL logs of the source database must be stored for more than 24 hours. If you perform both full data synchronization and incremental data synchronization, the WAL logs of the source database must be stored for at least seven days. Otherwise, DTS may fail to obtain the WAL logs and the task may fail. In exceptional circumstances, data inconsistency or loss may occur. After full data synchronization is completed, you can set the retention period to more than 24 hours. Make sure that you set the retention period of WAL logs based on the preceding requirements. Otherwise, the service reliability or performance in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of DTS may not be guaranteed. If you perform a primary/secondary switchover on the source self-managed PostgreSQL database, the data synchronization task fails. If the source database has long-running transactions and incremental data is synchronized in the data synchronization task, the WAL logs generated before the long-running transactions in the source database are committed may be accumulated. As a result, the disk space of the source database may be insufficient.
Other limits	Initial schema synchronization is not supported. Before you configure a data synchronization task, you must create databases and tables in the destination instance. A data synchronization task can synchronize data from only one database. To synchronize data from multiple databases, you must create a data synchronization task for each database. During data synchronization, if you select a schema as the object to synchronize, 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 execute the `ALTER TABLE schema.table REPLICA IDENTITY FULL;` statement before you write data to the table. This ensures data consistency. When you execute this statement, we recommend that you do not lock the table. Otherwise, a deadlock occurs. Note Replace the `schema` and `table` in the preceding sample statement with the actual schema name and table name. We recommend that you perform this operation during off-peak hours. DTS does not check the validity of metadata such as sequences. You must manually check the validity of metadata. After your workloads are switched to the destination database, newly written sequences do not increment from the maximum value of the sequences in the source database. Therefore, you must query the maximum value of the sequences in the source database before you switch your workloads to the destination database. Then, you must specify the queried maximum value as the starting value of the sequences in the destination database. You can execute the following statements to query the maximum value of the sequences in the source database: `do language plpgsql $$ declare nsp name; rel name; val int8; begin for nsp,rel in select nspname,relname from pg_class t2 , pg_namespace t3 where t2.relnamespace=t3.oid and t2.relkind='S' loop execute format($_$select last_value from %I.%I$_$, nsp, rel) into val; raise notice '%', format($_$select setval('%I.%I'::regclass, %s);$_$, nsp, rel, val+1); end loop; end; $$;` DTS creates the following temporary tables in the source database to obtain the DDL statements of incremental data, the schemas of incremental tables, and the heartbeat information. During data synchronization, do not delete temporary tables in the source database. Otherwise, exceptions occur. After the DTS instance is released, temporary tables are automatically deleted. `public.dts_pg_class`, `public.dts_pg_attribute`, `public.dts_pg_type`, `public.dts_pg_enum`, `public.dts_postgres_heartbeat`, `public.dts_ddl_command`, and `public.dts_args_session`. To ensure that the latency of data synchronization is accurate, DTS adds a heartbeat table to the source database. The name of the heartbeat table is dts_postgres_heartbeat. During data synchronization, DTS creates a replication slot for the source database. The replication slot is prefixed with `dts_sync_`. DTS can obtain the incremental logs of the source database within the last 15 minutes by using this replication slot. Note If the data synchronization task is released or fails, DTS automatically clears the replication slot. If a primary/secondary switchover is performed on the source self-managed PostgreSQL database, you must log on to the secondary database to clear the replication slot. Before you synchronize data, evaluate the impact of data synchronization on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you synchronize data during off-peak hours. During initial full data synchronization, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads of the database servers. During initial full data synchronization, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. Therefore, after initial full data synchronization is complete, the size of the used tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database. If you use only DTS to write table data to the destination database, you can use DMS to perform online DDL operations on source tables during data synchronization. For more information, see Change schemas without locking tables. During data synchronization, we recommend that you use only DTS to write data to the destination database. This prevents data inconsistency between the source and destination databases. For example, if you use tools other than DTS to write data to the destination database, data loss may occur in the destination database when you use DMS to perform online DDL operations.

Billing

Synchronization type	Task configuration fee
Schema synchronization and full data synchronization	Free of charge.
Incremental data synchronization	Charged. For more information, see Billing overview.

Supported synchronization topologies

One-way one-to-one synchronization
One-way one-to-many synchronization
One-way cascade synchronization
One-way many-to-one synchronization

For more information about the synchronization topologies supported by DTS, see Synchronization topologies.

SQL operations that can be synchronized

Operation type	SQL statement
DML	INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
DDL	DDL operations can be synchronized only by the data synchronization tasks that are created after October 1, 2020. Important To use a data synchronization taskcreated before May 12, 2023 to synchronize DDL operations, you must create triggers and functions in the source database to capture DDL information before you configure the data synchronization task. For more information, see Use triggers and functions to implement incremental DDL migration for PostgreSQL databases. You cannot synchronize data of the BIT type during incremental data synchronization. The database account of the source self-managed PostgreSQL database must be a privileged account and the minor version of the database must be 20210228 or later. DTS supports the following DDL operations in data synchronization tasks: CREATE TABLE and DROP TABLE ALTER TABLE, including RENAME TABLE, ADD COLUMN, ADD COLUMN DEFAULT, ALTER COLUMN TYPE, DROP COLUMN, ADD CONSTRAINT, ADD CONSTRAINT CHECK, and ALTER COLUMN DROP DEFAULT TRUNCATE TABLE (The version of the source self-managed PostgreSQL database must be 11 or later.) CREATE INDEX ON TABLE Important You cannot synchronize additional information of DDL statements, such as CASCADE or RESTRICT. You cannot synchronize the DDL statements from a session that executes the `SET session_replication_role = replica` statement. If multiple SQL statements submitted by the source database at a time contain both DML and DDL statements, the DDL statements are not synchronized. If multiple SQL statements submitted by the source database at a time contain DDL statements not to be synchronized, the DDL statements are not synchronized.

Permissions required for database accounts

Database	Required permission	References
Self-managed PostgreSQL database	Permissions of the superuser role	CREATE USER and GRANT (Transact-SQL)
PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle)	Permissions of the database owner	The database owner is specified when you create a database.

Preparations

Note In the following example, the Linux operating system is used.

If the version of the self-managed PostgreSQL database is 10.1 or later, you must perform the following operations before you configure a data synchronization task:

Log on to the server on which the self-managed PostgreSQL database resides.
Set the wal_level parameter in the postgresql.conf configuration file to logical.
Add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the pg_hba.conf configuration file of the self-managed PostgreSQL database. Take note that you need to add only the CIDR blocks of the DTS servers that reside in the same region as the destination database. For more information, see Add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the security settings of on-premises databases.
Note For more information, see The pg_hba.conf File. Skip this step if you have set the IP address in the pg_hba.conf file to 0.0.0.0/0.
Create the corresponding database and schema in the destination cluster based on the information of the database and schema of the object to be synchronized.

If the version of the self-managed PostgreSQL database is in the range of 9.4.8 to 10.0, you must perform the following operations before you configure a data synchronization task:

Download the PostgreSQL source code from the official website, and compile and install PostgreSQL.
1. Log on to the server on which the self-managed PostgreSQL database resides.
2. Download the source code from the PostgreSQL official website based on the version of the self-managed PostgreSQL database.
3. Run the sudo ./configure, sudo make, and sudo make install commands in sequence to configure, compile, and then install PostgreSQL.
  Important
  When you compile the source code and install PostgreSQL, the operating system version of PostgreSQL must be consistent with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) version.
  If an error occurs when you run the sudo ./configure command, you can modify the command based on the error message. For example, if the error message is readline library not found. Use --without-readline to disable readline support, you can modify the command to sudo ./configure --without-readline.
  If you use other methods to install PostgreSQL, you must compile the ali_decoding plug-in in a test environment that has the same operating system version and GCC version.

Download the ali_decoding plug-in provided by DTS, and compile and install the plug-in.

Download the ali_decoding plug-in.
Copy the ali_decoding directory to the contrib directory of PostgreSQL that has been compiled and installed.

Go to the ali_decoding directory and replace the content of the Makefile file with the following script:

# contrib/ali_decoding/Makefile
MODULE_big = ali_decoding
MODULES = ali_decoding
OBJS    = ali_decoding.o

DATA = ali_decoding--0.0.1.sql ali_decoding--unpackaged--0.0.1.sql

EXTENSION = ali_decoding

NAME = ali_decoding

#subdir = contrib/ali_decoding
#top_builddir = ../..
#include $(top_builddir)/src/Makefile.global
#include $(top_srcdir)/contrib/contrib-global.mk

#PG_CONFIG = /usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/pg_config
#pgsql_lib_dir := $(shell $(PG_CONFIG) --libdir)
#PGXS := $(shell $(PG_CONFIG) --pgxs)
#include $(PGXS)

# Run the following commands to install the source code:
ifdef USE_PGXS
PG_CONFIG = pg_config
PGXS := $(shell $(PG_CONFIG) --pgxs)
include $(PGXS)
else
subdir = contrib/ali_decoding
top_builddir = ../..
include $(top_builddir)/src/Makefile.global
include $(top_srcdir)/contrib/contrib-global.mk
endif

Go to the ali_decoding directory, and run the sudo make and sudo make install commands in sequence to compile the ali_decoding plug-in and obtain the files required to install the ali_decoding plug-in.
Copy the files to the specified locations.

Create the corresponding database and schema in the destination cluster based on the information of the database and schema of the object to be synchronized.

Procedure

Go to the Data Synchronization Tasks page.
1. Log on to the Data Management (DMS) console.
2. In the top navigation bar, click DTS.
3. In the left-side navigation pane, choose DTS (DTS) > Data Synchronization.
Note
- Operations may vary based on the mode and layout of the DMS console. For more information, see Simple mode and Customize the layout and style of the DMS console.
- You can also go to the Data Synchronization Tasks page of the new DTS console.
From the drop-down list to the right of Data Synchronization Tasks, select the region in which the data synchronization instance resides.
Note If you use the new DTS console, you must select the region in which the data synchronization instance resides in the top navigation bar.

Click Create Task. On the page that appears, configure the source and destination databases.

Category	Parameter	Description
N/A	Task Name	The name of the task. DTS automatically assigns a name to the task. We recommend that you specify a descriptive name that makes it easy to identify the task. You do not need to specify a unique task name.
Source Database	Select an existing DMS database instance	The database instance that you want to use. You can choose whether to select an existing instance based on your business requirements. If you select an existing instance, DTS automatically populates the parameters for the database. If you do not select an existing instance, you must manually configure parameters for the database.
	Database Type	The type of the source database. Select PostgreSQL.
	Access Method	The access method of the source database. Select Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN).
	Instance Region	The region where the self-managed PostgreSQL database resides.
	Replicate Data Across Alibaba Cloud Accounts	Specifies whether to synchronize data across Alibaba Cloud accounts. In this example, No is selected.
	Connected VPC	The virtual private cloud (VPC) that is connected to the self-managed PostgreSQL database.
	IP Address	The server IP address of the self-managed PostgreSQL database.
	Port Number	The service port number of the self-managed PostgreSQL database. Default value: 5432.
	Database Name	The name of the self-managed PostgreSQL database.
	Database Account	The database account of the self-managed PostgreSQL database. For more information about the permissions that are required for the account, see Permissions required for database accounts.
	Database Password	The password of the database account.
Destination Database	Select an existing DMS database instance	The database instance that you want to use. You can choose whether to select an existing instance based on your business requirements. If you select an existing instance, DTS automatically populates the parameters for the database. If you do not select an existing instance, you must manually configure parameters for the database.
	Database Type	The type of the destination database. Select PolarDB (Compatible with Oracle).
	Access Method	The access method of the destination database. Select Express Connect, VPN Gateway, or Smart Access Gateway.
	Instance Region	The region in which the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster resides.
	Connected VPC	The VPC in which the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster is deployed.
	Domain Name or IP Address	The IP address of the primary node in the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster. Note You can run the ping command on your computer to obtain the IP address that is used to access the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster.
	Port Number	The service port number of the destination database. Default value: 1521.
	Database Name	The name of the destination database in the PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster.
	Database Account	The database account of the destination PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) cluster. For more information about the permissions that are required for the account, see Permissions required for database accounts.
	Database Password	The password of the database account.

In the lower part of the page, click Test Connectivity and Proceed.
If the source or destination database is an Alibaba Cloud database instance, such as an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL or ApsaraDB for MongoDB instance, DTS automatically adds the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the whitelist of the instance. If the source or destination database is a self-managed database hosted on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, DTS automatically adds the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the security group rules of the ECS instance, and you must ensure that the ECS instance can access the database. If the source or destination database is a self-managed database that is deployed in a data center or provided by a third-party cloud service provider, you must manually add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the whitelist of the database to allow DTS to access the database. For more information, see Add the CIDR blocks of DTS servers to the security settings of on-premises databases.
Warning
If the CIDR blocks of DTS servers are automatically or manually added to the whitelist of the database or instance, or to the ECS security group rules, security risks may arise. Therefore, before you use DTS to synchronize data, you must understand and acknowledge the potential risks and take preventive measures, including but not limited to the following measures: enhancing the security of your username and password, limiting the ports that are exposed, authenticating API calls, regularly checking the whitelist or ECS security group rules and forbidding unauthorized CIDR blocks, or connecting the database to DTS by using Express Connect, VPN Gateway, or Smart Access Gateway.

Configure objects to synchronize and advanced settings.

Parameter	Description
Synchronization Type	By default, Incremental Data Synchronization is selected. You can select only Full Data Synchronization. You cannot select Schema Synchronization. After the precheck is complete, DTS synchronizes the historical data of the selected objects from the source database to the destination database. The historical data is the basis for subsequent incremental synchronization.
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 tables that have identical table names, the precheck is passed. Otherwise, an error is returned during the precheck and the data synchronization task cannot be started. Note You can use the object name mapping feature to rename the tables that are synchronized 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 inconsistency may occur, and your business may be exposed to potential risks. If the source and destination databases have the same schemas, and a data record has the same primary key value as an existing data record in the destination database: During full data synchronization, DTS does not synchronize the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is retained. During incremental data synchronization, DTS synchronizes the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is overwritten. If the source and destination databases have different schemas, data may fail to be initialized, only some columns are synchronized, or the data synchronization task fails. Operate with caution. Precheck and Report Errors: checks whether the destination database contains collections that have the same names as collections in the source database. If the source and destination databases do not contain collections that have identical collection names, the precheck is passed. Otherwise, an error is returned during the precheck and the data synchronization task cannot be started. Note You can use the object name mapping feature to rename the collections that are synchronized to the destination database. You can use this feature if the source and destination databases contain collections that have identical names and the collections in the destination database cannot be deleted or renamed. For more information, see Rename an object to be synchronized. Ignore Errors and Proceed: skips the precheck for identical collection names in the source and destination databases. Warning If you select Ignore Errors and Proceed, data inconsistency may occur, and your business may be exposed to potential risks. DTS does not synchronize data records that have the same primary key values as data records in the destination database. Data may fail to be initialized, only some columns are synchronized, or the data synchronization task fails. 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 tables that have identical table names, the precheck is passed. Otherwise, an error is returned during the precheck and the data synchronization task cannot be started. 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 inconsistency may occur, and your business may be exposed to potential risks. If the source and destination databases have the same schemas, and a data record has the same primary key value as an existing data record in the destination database: During full data synchronization, DTS does not synchronize the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is retained. During incremental data synchronization, DTS synchronizes the data record to the destination database. The existing data record in the destination database is overwritten. If the source and destination databases have different schemas, data may fail to be initialized, only some columns are synchronized, or the data synchronization task fails. Operate with caution.
Source Objects	Select one or more objects from the Source Objects section and click the icon to add the objects to the Selected Objects section. Note You can select columns, tables, or schemas as the objects to be synchronized.
Selected Objects	To rename an object that you want to synchronize 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 To select the SQL operations performed on a specific database or table, perform the following steps: In the Selected Objects section, right-click an object. In the dialog box that appears, select the SQL operations that you want to synchronize. For more information about the SQL operations that can be synchronized, see SQL operations that can be synchronized. To specify WHERE conditions to filter data, right-click an object in the Selected Objects section. In the dialog box that appears, specify the conditions. For more information about how to specify the conditions, see Use SQL conditions to filter data.

Click Next: Advanced Settings to configure advanced settings.

Parameter	Description
Set Alerts	Specifies whether to configure alerting for the data synchronization task. If the task fails or the synchronization latency exceeds the specified threshold, alert contacts will receive notifications. Valid values: No: does not configure alerting. Yes: configures alerting. In this case, you must also configure the alert threshold and alert contacts. For more information, see Configure monitoring and alerting when you create a DTS task.
Specify the retry time range for failed connections	The retry time range for failed connections. If the source or destination database fails to be connected after the data synchronization task is started, DTS immediately retries a connection within the time range. Valid values: 10 to 1440. Unit: minutes. Default value: 720. We recommend that you set the parameter to a value greater than 30. If DTS reconnects to the source and destination databases within the specified time range, DTS resumes the data synchronization task. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. Note If you set different retry time ranges for multiple DTS tasks that have the same source or destination database, the shortest retry time range that is set takes precedence. When DTS retries a connection, you are charged for the DTS instance. We recommend that you specify the retry time range based on your business requirements. You can also release the DTS instance at your earliest opportunity after the source and destination instances are released.
The wait time before a retry when other issues occur in the source and destination databases.	The retry time range for other issues. For example, if the DDL or DML operations fail to be performed after the data synchronization task is started, DTS immediately retries the operations within the time range. Valid values: 1 to 1440. Unit: minutes. Default value: 10. We recommend that you set the parameter to a value greater than 10. If the failed operations are successfully performed within the specified time range, DTS resumes the data synchronization task. Otherwise, the data synchronization task fails. Important The value of the The wait time before a retry when other issues occur in the source and destination databases parameter must be smaller than the value of the Retry Time for Failed Connection parameter.
Configure ETL	Specifies whether to configure the extract, transform, and load (ETL) feature. For more information, see What is ETL?. Valid values: Yes: configures the ETL feature. You can enter data processing statements in the code editor. For more information, see Configure ETL in a data migration or data synchronization task. No: does not configure the ETL feature.

Click Next: Save Task Settings and Precheck in the lower part of the page.
You can move the pointer over Next: Save Task Settings and Precheck and click Preview OpenAPI parameters to view the parameter settings of the API operation that is called to configure the instance.
Note
- Before you can start the data synchronization task, DTS performs a precheck. You can start the data synchronization task only after the task passes the precheck.
- If the task fails to pass the precheck, click View Details next to each failed item. After you troubleshoot the issues based on the causes, run a precheck again.
- If an alert is triggered for an item during the precheck:
  If an alert item cannot be ignored, click View Details next to the failed item and troubleshoot the issues. Then, run a precheck again.
  If an alert item can be ignored, click Confirm Alert Details. In the View Details dialog box, click Ignore. In the message that appears, click OK. Then, click Precheck Again to run a precheck again. If you ignore the alert item, data inconsistency may occur, and your business may be exposed to potential risks.
Wait until the success rate becomes 100%. Then, click Next: Purchase Instance.

On the Purchase Instance page, configure the Billing Method and Instance Class parameters for the data synchronization instance. The following table describes the parameters.

Section	Parameter	Description
New Instance Class	Billing Method	Subscription: You pay for the instance when you create an instance. The subscription billing method is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method for long-term use. Pay-as-you-go: A pay-as-you-go instance is charged on an hourly basis. The pay-as-you-go billing method is suitable for short-term use. If you no longer require a pay-as-you-go instance, you can release the pay-as-you-go instance to reduce costs.
	Resource Group	The resource group on which the instance is run. Default value: default resource group. For more information, see What is Resource Management?.
	Instance Class	DTS provides various synchronization specifications that provide different performance. The synchronization speed varies based on the synchronization specifications that you select. You can select a synchronization specification based on your business scenario. For more information, see Specifications of data synchronization instances.
	Subscription Duration	If you select the subscription billing method, set the subscription duration and the number of instances that you want to create. The subscription duration can be one to nine months, one year, two years, three years, or five years. Note This parameter is available only if you select the Subscription billing method.

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