EXPORT:

* Set the BUFFER parameter to a high value (e.g. 2Mb — entered as an integer “2000000″)
* Set the RECORDLENGTH parameter to a high value (e.g. 64Kb — entered as an integer “64000″)
* Use DIRECT=yes (direct mode export)
* Stop unnecessary applications to free-up resources for your job.
* If you run multiple export sessions, ensure they write to different physical disks.
* DO NOT export to an NFS mounted filesystem. It will take forever.

IMPORT:

* Create an indexfile so that you can create indexes AFTER you have imported data. Do this by setting INDEXFILE to a filename and then import. No data will be imported but a file containing index definitions will be created. You must edit this file afterwards and supply the passwords for the schemas on all CONNECT statements.
* Place the file to be imported on a separate physical disk from the oracle data files
* Increase DB_CACHE_SIZE (DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS prior to 9i) considerably in the init$SID.ora file
* Set the LOG_BUFFER to a big value and restart oracle.
* Stop redo log archiving if it is running (ALTER DATABASE NOARCHIVELOG;)
* Create a BIG tablespace with a BIG rollback segment inside. Set all other rollback segments offline (except the SYSTEM rollback segment of course). The rollback segment must be as big as your biggest table (I think?)
* Use COMMIT=N in the import parameter file if you can afford it
* Use STATISTICS=NONE in the import parameter file to avoid time consuming to import the statistics
* Remember to run the indexfile previously created