Attach External File Storage to Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure
You can attach an external file storage deployed in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or on-premises to your Autonomous Database, provided the database and the file system are in the same private network. Depending on the version of the file system you want to access, both NFSv3 and NFSv4 are supported.
This allows you to load data from OCI File Storage in your Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) or any other Network File System in on-premises data centers.
- Connect to an Autonomous Database instance from a legacy application and use the file system to load and unload data.
- Analyze data from different sources in an Autonomous Database.
- Secure access to data in an Autonomous Database from the file systems in an on-premises data center or Private VCNs.
- External File Storage Requirements
- Attach External File System
- Query DBA_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS
- Detach External File System
Parent topic: Attach External Storage to Autonomous Database
External File Storage Requirements
To attach an external file storage successfully, ensure that your Autonomous Database version is 19.18 or later to use NFSv3 and 19.23 or later for NFSv4.
-
On-premises Data Center: Set up FastConnect or a Site-to-Site VPN to connect to the on-premises data center. See FastConnect and Site-to-Site VPN for more information.
-
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
-
Create Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) security rules for OCI File Storage Service (FSS) access: Before you can mount a file storage, you must configure security rules to allow traffic to the mount target's VNIC using specific protocols and ports. Security rules enable traffic for the following:
- Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (ONC RPC) rpcbind utility protocol
- Network File System (NFS) protocol
- Network File System (MOUNT) protocol
- Network Lock Manager (NLM) protocol
See Configuring VCN Security Rules for File Storage for more details.
- Create a file system in OCI FSS: Create a file system using the OCI console. When configuring mount target details for the file system, select the VCN and the private subnet of that VCN in which your database is deployed, and provide a hostname to automatically generate a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). See Creating File Systems for more information.
- Obtain the FQDN for the mount target: View the details of your file system's mount target from the OCI console as described in To view details of a mount target to get its FQDN.
-
Attach External File System
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
to attach a file system to a directory in your Autonomous Database.
The
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
procedure can only attach a private File Storage Service to databases that are on private endpoints.
-
Create a directory or use an existing directory to attach the external file system in your Autonomous Database. You must have
WRITE
privilege on the directory object on your Autonomous Database instance to attach a file system to a directory location in the database.For example, the following command creates the database directory namedFSS_DIR
and creates the file system directoryfss
:CREATE DIRECTORY FSS_DIR AS ‘fss’;
See Create a Directory for more information.
-
Run
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
to attach a file system to a directory in your Autonomous Database. To run this procedure, you must be logged in as the ADMIN user or haveEXECUTE
privilege onDBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN
.-
By default,
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
uses NFSv3. However, you can choose to explicitly use theparams
parameter and specify thenfs_version
with value 3 to specify NFSv3.BEGIN DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM ( file_system_name => 'FSS', file_system_location => 'myhost.sub000445.myvcn.oraclevcn.com:/results', directory_name => 'FSS_DIR', description => 'Source FSS for sales data' );END; /
-
To use NFSv4, include the
params
parameter withDBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
and specify thenfs_version
with value 4 to specify NFSv4.BEGIN DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM ( file_system_name => 'FSS', file_system_location => 'myhost.sub000445.myvcn.oraclevcn.com:/results', directory_name => 'FSS_DIR', description => 'Source FSS for sales data', params => JSON_OBJECT('nfs_version' value 4) ); END; /
This example attaches the network file system specified in the
file_system_name
parameter to the Autonomous Database.The
file_system_location
parameter specifies the location of the file system. The value you supply withfile_system_location
consists of a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and a file path in the form: FQDN:
file_path. For example:-
- FQDN:
myhost.sub000445.myvcn.oraclevcn.com
- File Path:
/results
- FQDN:
The
directory_name
parameter specifies the directory name in the Autonomous Database where you want to attach the file system. This is the directory you created in Step 1, or another directory you previously created.The
description
parameter specifies the description for the task. -
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
:
-
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage uses NFS Version 3 to share. See Overview of File Storage for more information.
- If you attach to non-Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage systems, the procedure supports NFSv3 and NFSv4.
-
If you have an attached NFS server that uses NFSv3 and the NFS version is updated to NFSv4 in the NFS server, you must run
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM
and thenDBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM
(using theparams
parameter withnfs_version
set to 4. This attaches NFS with the matching protocol so that Autonomous Database can access the NFSv4 Server. Without detaching and then reattaching, the NFS server will be inaccessible and you may see an error such as:"Protocol not supported"
.
Query DBA_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS
After you attach a file system you can query the DBA_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS
view to retrieve information about the attached file system.
SELECT file_system_name, file_system_location, directory_path
FROM dba_cloud_file_systems
WHERE file_system_name = 'FSS';
This query returns details for the FSS
file system name. See DBMS_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS View for more information.
With an attached file system you can read and write to files on an attached file system using any PL/SQL API that accepts a directory name. For example, you can use any of the following methods to work with an attached FSS directory:
-
The
UTL_FILE
package. -
Data Pump Export and Import utilities.
-
The
DBMS_CLOUD
APIs that work with directories such asDBMS_CLOUD.LIST_FILES
andDBMS_CLOUD.PUT_OBJECT
.
UTL_FILE
:DECLARE
l_file UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;
l_location VARCHAR2(100) := 'FSS_DIR';
l_filename VARCHAR2(100) := 'test.csv';
BEGIN
-- Open the file.
l_file := UTL_FILE.FOPEN(l_location, l_filename, 'w');
UTL_FILE.PUT(l_file, 'Scott, male, 1000');
-- Close the file.
UTL_FILE.FCLOSE(l_file);
END;
/
UTL_FILE
:DECLARE
l_file UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;
l_location VARCHAR2(100) := 'FSS_DIR';
l_filename VARCHAR2(100) := 'test.csv';
l_text VARCHAR2(32767);
BEGIN
-- Open the file.
l_file := UTL_FILE.FOPEN(l_location, l_filename, 'r');
UTL_FILE.GET_LINE(l_file, l_text, 32767);
-- Close the file.
UTL_FILE.FCLOSE(l_file);
END;
/
DBMS_CLOUD.LIST_FILES
:SELECT object_name FROM DBMS_CLOUD.LIST_FILES('FSS_DIR');
DBMS_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS View
DBA_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS
view lists the information about the external file system attached to a directory location in the database.
Column | Data Type | Description |
---|---|---|
FILE_SYSTEM_NAME |
VARCHAR2(128) |
File system name |
FILE_SYSTEM_LOCATION |
VARCHAR2(4000) |
File system location |
DIRECTORY_NAME |
VARCHAR2(128) |
Attached directory name |
DIRECTORY_PATH |
VARCHAR2(4000) |
Attached directory path |
NFS_VERSION |
NUMBER |
The NFS version |
DESCRIPTION |
VARCHAR2(4000) |
The value provided for the description parameter when you run DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.ATTACH_FILE_SYSTEM |
CREATION_TIME |
TIMESTAMP(6) WITH TIME ZONE |
Creation timestamp |
UPDATE_TIME |
TIMESTAMP(6) WITH TIME ZONE |
Update timestamp |
Detach External File System
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM
procedure to detach a file system from a directory in your Autonomous Database.
The
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM
procedure can only detach a private File Storage Service from the databases that are on private endpoints.
You must have the WRITE
privilege on the directory object to detach a file system from a directory location.
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM
procedure to detach a file system from a directory location in your Autonomous Database. To run this procedure, you must be logged in as the ADMIN user or have the EXECUTE
privilege on DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN
.BEGIN
DBMS_CLOUD_ADMIN.DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM (
file_system_name => 'FSS'
);END;
/
This example detaches the network file system specified in the file_system_name
parameter from the Autonomous Database. You must provide a value for this parameter. The information about this file system is removed from the DBA_CLOUD_FILE_SYSTEMS
view.
See DETACH_FILE_SYSTEM Procedure for more information.