When preparing to taking export backup of application tables from a target database(source) and importing to another database(destination), You need to do the following: 1. You need to create directory where the dump file to be created with reside. CREATE DIRECTORY DUMPDIR AS '<filesystem_path with enough space>'; example: CREATE DIRECTORY DUMPDIR AS '/u01/export/dumpdir'; 2. Grant required permission to the directory. GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY DUMPDIR TO <USERNAME>; 3. Select the properties of the objects/tables to be exported in the source database. select owner,segment_name,segment_type,tablespace_name, sum(bytes/1024/1024) from dba_segments where segment_name IN ('table_name','object_name','table_name','table_name'...) group by owner,segment_name,segment_type,tablespace_name ; example: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OWNE