A Comprehensive Guide to Oracle Data Replication

June 11, 2020

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A Comprehensive Guide to Oracle Data Replication

In the modern business scenario, massive amounts of data are generated with databases and the Internet combining and collaborating for information sharing and analytics. Database applications are used throughout organizations for crucial decision making and hence there is a need for data to be available and accessible round the clock. Without data, revenue and sales cannot be continually tracked and operational efficiencies would fall dramatically. This is where the Oracle database has a key role to play. It offers integration features and data replication that is essential for the success and well-being of any organization.

But first, what is replication? It is the process of copying and maintaining database objects like tables in multiple databases that make up the complete distributed database system. Any changes at one site can, therefore, be captured and stored locally before being forwarded and applied at a remote location.

Oracle replication is not a separate server but a fully integrated feature of the Oracle server. Most businesses have familiarity with Oracle database replication because Oracle is one of the most widely used database management systems. Oracle data replication is generally used to create and synchronize data across multiple copies of an Oracle database for reporting, testing, distributed data processing, and disaster recovery.

There are several benefits of Oracle database replication. First, it can be used to distribute data sets between multiple locations. This ensures that data from remote offices and locations are consolidated, data shared across partners or suppliers, and analytics overhead on transactional databases through query offload is eliminated. With Oracle replication software it is possible to increase the performance of mission-critical applications and databases, enhance data and application availability across the organization, and enable real-time analytics and reporting.

There are a couple of options before businesses for finding the best Oracle data replication solution to optimally match their needs.

Oracle Streams – Oracle Streams is built into an Oracle database and is a data replication and integration feature. It offers a flexible infrastructure that can be used by organizations to meet a range of information sharing needs. Oracle Streams also ensures the circulation of data, transactions, and events in a data stream. This can either be within a database or from one database to another.

Long standing Oracle users will generally be familiar with the features of Oracle Streams as this Oracle data replication tool was introduced about two decades back in 2002 as a replacement for the then prevailing Oracle Advanced Integration.

Even though Streams provides powerful data propagation functionality in Oracle settings, there is a flip side to it too. Many organizations have traditionally found it difficult to configure and setup. It is also not particularly suitable for heterogeneous database replication tasks. To get around this issue, Oracle, in 2015, introduced Oracle GoldenGate, another Oracle data replication tool that can also cater to the demands of a heterogeneous environment.

Oracle GoldenGate – Oracle GoldenGate is a complete software package that enables the replication of data between both Oracle and non-Oracle data stores. It is a key component of Oracle Fusion Middleware and forms a strategic data replication offering from Oracle.

GoldenGate is an excellent Oracle data replication solution. However, it is not cheap, especially if the costs of additional plug-ins and optional packs are taken into consideration. This tool is also quite complex to manage in certain settings.

Further, GoldenGate is short of a comprehensive graphical interface and in environments where other types of databases are used, it might not provide the level of replication support required for non-Oracle systems. Additionally, this tool does not support DDL replication for non-Oracle environments or replication to AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. GoldenGate also requires agents on mainstream endpoints to introduce administrative and performance overheads.

For both Oracle data replication solutions, there are several pros and cons. Organizations can choose one over another according to their specific requirements.