Reading and Updating data of Oracle DB without License-CodePudding

I've got to update the data of an Oracle DB but I'm not the owner and ain't got any Oracle License. The goal is to explain to my interlocutor how to create a dump from his Oracle DB, to find out how to restore this dump in a DB (a free version of Oracle or something else), update some data in some tables, and then make another dump to send it back to my interlocutor.

So the differents questions I have are:

1- Is it possible to create a dump (maybe in SQL format) without any specifics dependencies to Oracle ?

2- Is there a way to restore this dump in a free lightweight Oracle, or another kind of DB like Postgresql ?

3- Does Oracle, is able to handle any kind of dump et restore it in an Oracle DB or is there any constraints to respect ?

I am very new to Oracle and ain't got, on my personal computer, any possibility to try out the dump/restore by myself; that's why, any help will be appreciated !

CodePudding user response：

1- Is it possible to create a dump (maybe in SQL format) without any specifics dependencies to Oracle ?

Oracle offers Data Pump utilities (export and import) for such purposes. You'd export table (or schema) - result is a ".dmp" file, readable by import utility. You'd then move that file to your own server (see #2 for the rest)

2- Is there a way to restore this dump in a free lightweight Oracle, or another kind of DB like Postgresql ?

On your own server (which could be a laptop; no problem), you'd install a free Oracle Express Edition (XE) database. Currently, the last version is 21c, but some others should still be available in Oracle Technology Network's Download section.

3- Does Oracle, is able to handle any kind of dump et restore it in an Oracle DB or is there any constraints to respect ?

XE database has its limits - from your point of view, the most important is that it can handle up to 12GB of user data. Therefore, if the .dmp file doesn't contain more data than that, you should be able to import it.

Another constraint is the compatibility. Not all exports can be imported into all databases. There's a matrix which shows which versions match; it is available on My Oracle Support site (but you have to have access to it, which you - as you said - don't. Though, generally speaking, "close" Oracle database versions can interchange .dmp files. It would be best if these two database versions match, of course.