Best practices with Oracle GoldenGate – Part 1

Strategically planned Oracle GoldenGate migration using best practices provides efficient and most comprehensive Oracle database availability solution to the user. If you are considering Oracle GoldenGate technology, familiarity with the product to successfully design and implement a highly available Oracle GoldenGate environment is really important.

This blog describes some of the best practices for configuring Oracle GoldenGate for the best performance, easy manageability, and stability while working with Oracle databases. Let’s have a look at three of those proven methodologies:

Oracle Software

Starting with Oracle GoldenGate Release 12.1.2 or later is recommended to take advantage of increased functionality and enhanced performance features.You can download Oracle GoldenGate latest release from My Oracle Support and Updates.

It comes with integrated Extract and integrated Replicat GoldenGate features. Replicat can run in integrated mode starting with Oracle GoldenGate Release 12.1.2 for increased scalability in the environments that Oracle targets. Apply processing feature can automatically manage data description language (DDL) and referential integrity so that operations are carried out in the right sequence. Utilise Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.4) as a minimum to benefit from both.

Database Configuration

The source and destination databases used in an Oracle GoldenGate replicated environment are mentioned here in configuration best practises section.

It is assumed that the destination database has one or more Replicat processes running alongside the extract and data pump processes on the source environment. Combine the target and source database configuration stages when using Oracle GoldenGate in an active-active bi-directional environment or when it is possible to change the target database into a source database. Further to that, you’d need to follow the right steps to configure the source database.

For detailed database configuration requirements, contact our Installing and Configuring team of experts with extensive experience working with Oracle GoldenGate technology.

Oracle GoldenGate Configuration

Extract Configuration Oracle recommends using Oracle GoldenGate to use the latest version comes with integrated capture mode Extract to leverage the integration with the LogMiner server. More data formats, including compressed data, can be extracted more easily with integrated capture than with classic mode Extract.

Here we cover the configuration best practices for Oracle GoldenGate components; Extract, Data Pump, and Replicat.

When it comes to Data Pump, it’s primary role is to read the trail files that Extract creates and release data to the target host. To improve Data Pump performance and lower CPU consumption when table names and table structures are not changed or data is being filtered, use the PASSTHRU parameter in the Data Pump parameter file.

Replicat Configuration The Oracle GoldenGate Replicat processes running on the target database read the trail files and apply the data using SQL DML statements on the replicated objects. We recommend to configure integrated Replicat as it offers automatic parallelism which automatically changes the number of based on the current workload and database performance. It will simplify the management of replicat since you do not have to manually configure multiple replicat processes to distribute the tables between them.

Apart from the covered best practices above, there are many other things to keep in mind while working with Oracle GoldenGate to get the maximum efficiency and output. In this scenario, Oracle consulting services are highly recommended for any kind of customized implementation. Get in touch with our experts if you are looking for experts in Oracle technology or have any questions regarding Oracle GoldenGate.