Create a Refreshable Clone for an Autonomous Database Instance

Shows you the steps to create an Autonomous Database refreshable clone from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console.

Perform the following prerequisite steps as necessary:

  • Open the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console by clicking the navigation icon next to Oracle Cloud.

  • From the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure left navigation menu click Oracle Database and then, depending on your workload click one of: Autonomous Data Warehouse, Autonomous JSON Database, or Autonomous Transaction Processing.
  • On the Autonomous Databases page select your Autonomous Database from the links under the Display name column.

To create a refreshable clone do the following:

  1. On the Details page, from the More actions drop-down list, select Create clone.
  2. On the Create Autonomous Database clone page, choose the clone type Refreshable clone from the choices:
    • Full clone: creates a new database with the source database’s data and metadata.
    • Refreshable clone To create a refreshable clone, select this clone type.
    • Metadata clone: creates a new database with the source database’s metadata without the data.
  3. Provide basic information for the Autonomous Database clone.
    • Choose your preferred region. Use the current region or select a different region. When you create a refreshable clone, the preferred region list only shows a remote region if your tenancy is subscribed to the remote region (you must be subscribed to the remote region where you create a refreshable clone).

      The list of available regions only shows a remote region if your tenancy is subscribed to the remote region (you must be subscribed to the paired remote region for the target region where you are cloning your database). See Autonomous Database Cross-Region Paired Regions for more information.

    • Create in compartment. See Compartments for information on using and managing compartments.

    • Source database name This field is read-only and shows the name of the source database.

    • Display name Specify a user-friendly description or other information that helps you easily identify the database.

      You can use the name provided, of the form: Clone-of-DBname or change this to the name you want to use to identify the database. The supplied DBname is the name of the source database that you are cloning.

    • Database name: Specify the database name; it must consist of letters and numbers only. The maximum length is 30 characters. The same database name cannot be used for multiple Autonomous Databases in the same tenancy in the same region.

      The default database name is a generated 16-character string.

  4. Configure the database (with ECPU compute model)
    • ECPU count: Specify the number of ECPUs for your database. The minimum value for the number of ECPUs is 2.

    • Compute auto scaling: By default compute auto scaling is enabled to allow the system to automatically use up to three times more CPU and IO resources to meet workload demand. If you do not want to use compute auto scaling then deselect this option.

      See Use Auto Scaling for more information.

    • Show advanced options: Click to show the compute model options or if you want to create or join an elastic pool:

    Note

    The storage for a refreshable clone is set to the same size as on the source database. To change the storage size for a refreshable clone, you must change the storage value on the source database.
  5. Select Enable automatic refresh to specify that the refreshable clone automatically refreshes. By default, Enable automatic refresh is deselected and you must manually refresh at least once every 7 days. When you select Enable automatic refresh, the dialog shows two fields:
    • Frequency of refresh: specifies the refresh frequency in hours or days. The minimum is one hour and the maximum is 7 days. The default Frequency of refresh value is 1 hour.
    • Data lag: specifies the data lag in minutes, hours, or days, the minimum is 0 minutes and the maximum is 7 days. This is the value that specifies the amount of time behind the source that the data refresh is, where a value of 0 specifies that the refreshable clone refreshes to the latest available timestamp. The default Data lag value is 0.
  6. Choose network access
    Note

    After you clone your Autonomous Database you can change the network access option you select for the cloned instance.
    • Secure access from everywhere

      By default all secure connections are allowed from everywhere.

    • Secure access from allowed IPs and VCNs only

      This option restricts connections to the database according to the access control rules (ACLs) you specify. To add multiple ACLs for the Autonomous Database, select this option and click Add access control rule.

      See Configure Access Control Lists When You Provision or Clone an Instance for more information.

    • Private endpoint access only

      This option assigns a private endpoint, private IP, and hostname to your database. Specifying this option allows traffic only from the VCN you specify; access to the database from all public IPs or VCNs is blocked. This allows you to define security rules, ingress/egress, at the Network Security Group (NSG) level and to control traffic to your Autonomous Database.

      See Configure Private Endpoints When You Provision or Clone an Instance for more information.

  7. (Optional) Provide contacts for operational notifications and announcements

    Click Add contact and in the Contact email field, enter a valid email address. If the database you are cloning has a customer contact list, the list is copied. To enter multiple Contact email addresses, repeat the process to add up to 10 customer contact emails.

    See View and Manage Customer Contacts for Operational Issues and Announcements for more information.

  8. (Optional) Click Show advanced options to select advanced options.
    • Encryption key

      A refreshable clone uses the encryption key of the source Autonomous Database.

      See Use Customer-Managed Encryption Keys on Autonomous Database for more information.

    • Maintenance

      Patch level By default the patch level is the patch level of the source database. Select Early to configure the instance with the early patch level. When cloning a source database with Early patch level, you can only choose the Early patch level for your clone.

      See Set the Patch Level for more information.

    • Management

      Shows the character set and national character set for your database.

      See Choose a Character Set for Autonomous Database for more information.

    • Tools

      Refreshable clones inherit their tool status for each built-in tool from the refreshable clone's source database. If the source of a refreshable clone changes its tool configuration, the change is reflected in the refreshable clone after the next refresh.

      See Configure Autonomous Database Built-in Tools for more information.

    • Tags

      If you want to use Tags, enter the Tag key and Value. Tagging is a metadata system that allows you to organize and track resources within your tenancy. Tags are composed of keys and values which can be attached to resources.

      See Tagging Overview for more information.

  9. Click Create Autonomous Database clone.

On the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console the State shows Provisioning... until the refreshable clone is available.

After the provisioning completes the Lifecycle state shows Available and the Mode is Read-only.

After you download the wallet for the refreshable clone and connect to the database, you can begin using the database to perform read-only operations such as running queries or building reports and notebooks.

When automatic refresh is disabled, after you create a refreshable clone, the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console shows a banner similar to the following with a message indicating the date prior to which the next refresh must be completed (the banner shows the 7 day refresh limit).

Description of adb_refreshable_clone_refresh_clone.png follows

See Refresh a Refreshable Clone on Autonomous Database for details on refreshing a refreshable clone.