VERSION

Default: You should rarely have to specify the VERSION parameter on an import operation. Data Pump uses whichever of the following is earlier:

  • the version associated with the dump file, or source database in the case of network imports

  • the version specified by the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter on the target database

Purpose

Specifies the version of database objects to be imported (that is, only database objects and attributes that are compatible with the specified release will be imported). Note that this does not mean that Data Pump Import can be used with releases of Oracle Database earlier than 10.1. Data Pump Import only works with Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) or later. The VERSION parameter simply allows you to identify the version of the objects being imported.

Syntax and Description

VERSION=[COMPATIBLE | LATEST | version_string]

This parameter can be used to load a target system whose Oracle database is at an earlier compatibility release than that of the source system. Database objects or attributes on the source system that are incompatible with the specified release will not be moved to the target. For example, tables containing new data types that are not supported in the specified release will not be imported. Legal values for this parameter are as follows:

  • COMPATIBLE - This is the default value. The version of the metadata corresponds to the database compatibility level. Database compatibility must be set to 9.2.0 or later.

  • LATEST - The version of the metadata corresponds to the database release. Specifying VERSION=LATEST on an import job has no effect when the target database's actual version is later than the version specified in its COMPATIBLE initialization parameter.

  • version_string - A specific database release (for example, 11.2.0).

Restrictions

  • If the Data Pump VERSION parameter is specified as any value earlier than 12.1, then the Data Pump dump file excludes any tables that contain VARCHAR2 or NVARCHAR2 columns longer than 4000 bytes and any RAW columns longer than 2000 bytes.

  • Full imports performed over a network link require that you set VERSION=12 if the target is Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.1) or later and the source is Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3) or later.

  • Dump files created on Oracle Database 11g releases with the Data Pump parameter VERSION=12 can only be imported on Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) and later.

Example

In the following example, assume that the target is an Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.1) database and the source is an Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3) database. In that situation, you must set VERSION=12 for network-based imports. Also note that even though full is the default import mode, you must specify it on the command line when the NETWORK_LINK parameter is being used.

> impdp hr FULL=Y DIRECTORY=dpump_dir1
  NETWORK_LINK=source_database_link VERSION=12

See Also:

"Exporting and Importing Between Different Database Releases"