SharePlex 12.1 - Installation and Setup Guide

Run the installer in unattended mode

SharePlex can be installed unattended through the use of a response file. This installation method speeds the installation of multiple SharePlex instances. The file supplies responses to the standard installer prompts, while providing on screen status information.

Note:When running in unattended mode, the installation process does not call the system password utility. If you create a new SharePlex user during the installation, that user will remain locked until the password is set manually.

Response files that you can edit are located in the install subdirectory of the SharePlex product (installation) directory:

Enter responses in the File

Important! The response file contains two sections. Only the top section is user configurable. Do not edit the bottom section. The bottom section begins with the line "Do not change settings that appear below."

Edit the top section of the response file to provide the responses for the installation. Only edit the values to the right of the colon, and make certain there is a space between the colon and the response.

The following example is for non-root installation:

# Please modify the following settings for your particular system to

# install the SharePlex. Only values to the right of a

# colon may be editted. Incorrect changes on the left side may make

# the installer output questions and wait for answeres, thus becoming

# interactive instead of silent.

#

the SharePlex Admin group: spadmin

product directory location: /home/splex/proddir

variable data directory location: /home/splex/vardir

# not required for Open Target installations #

ORACLE_SID that corresponds to this installation: oracledb

# not required for Open Target installations #

ORACLE_HOME directory that corresponds to this ORACLE_SID: /home/oracle/products/version

TCP/IP port number for SharePlex communications: 2100

# To specify the platform for license key [ Oracle, File, JMS, Kafka, SQL Server, Postgres, MySQL, Event Hubs, All Platforms ]

the platform for license key: Oracle

the License key: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# only change the current version number of SharePlex in place of 11.0.0

# do not change the value from yes to no

valid SharePlex v. 11.0.0 license: yes

# Do not change settings below.

#

Proceed with installation: yes

Proceed with upgrade: no

OK to upgrade: no

To run the response file:

From the command shell of the operating system, run the .tpm installation file with the -r option followed by the full path to the response file.

# ./installation_file -r /users/shareplex/product.rsp

Next steps:

For additional setup requirements, see the Next Steps section in one of the following depending on the platform:

Install SharePlex on Linux/Unix for Oracle database

Install SharePlex on Linux/Unix for open target databases

Install SharePlex on Windows

Read this before you begin:

• These instructions assume that you understand and satisfied all requirements in the SharePlex Windows system checklist.

• Remove any existing Cygwin components installed on the Windows server.

• Remove any existing entries of Cygwin components from the user or system environment variable PATH.

• Perform the installation steps on all Windows machines involved in SharePlex replication. On Windows, install SharePlex on all nodes of each cluster, on the same port number, with identical path names. This is required to make the binaries available to all nodes, and to establish Registry entries.

To run the installer

1. Log in to Windows as the SharePlex Administrator.

2. (Re-installation only)

   1. Run SpUtils as an administrator from the shortcut on the Windows desktop.
   2. Select the SharePlex Services tab.
   3. Select the correct port, and then stop the SharePlex service.
   4. Close the utility.

3. Run the sp_setup installation program and follow the prompts:

4. Remove the MKS Toolkit environment manually through Add/Remove programs.

5. From the SP_Utils Licensing tab, select the required platform and add a license key for the selected platform.

6. Run the appropriate Database Setup utility. For more information see SharePlex Reference Guide.

7. Ensure that the Cygwin cygserver is running from the SharePlex installation directory.

8. From the SP_Utils SharePlex Services tab, remove the installed SharePlex service, then install the service and start it.

Next steps:

The following setup tasks must be finished before you start up replication.

Set up an Oracle environment for replication

Overview

This chapter contains instructions for preparing an Oracle source or target database environment for replication. The tasks outlined in this chapter must be performed before you perform initial synchronization to start replication in your environment. Perform all tasks that apply to your data and to your replication objectives.

Set up Oracle logging to support SharePlex

Set up Oracle logging to support SharePlex

SharePlex captures from the online and archived Oracle redo logs. SharePlex supports redo logs and datafiles that are stored on raw devices, on filesystem devices, and ASM instances.

Enable archive logging

If the Capture process stops (or is stopped by a SharePlex user) while replication is active, Capture records its location in the redo log and continues from that point when started again. However, Capture may need to read the archive logs instead of the redo logs if the following conditions occur:

• There is a long delay between when Capture stops and starts again, and the redo logs wrap during that time. When the archive logs are available, Capture reads through them to locate the records rhR it missed.
• Capture loses pace with Oracle transaction activity, and the redo logs wrap before Capture catches up to Oracle.

To support uninterrupted capture when an online log is not available, archive logging must be enabled on the source system and any other system from which SharePlex will capture data, such as an intermediate system in a cascading replication strategy. Otherwise, if the online logs wrap before Capture is finished processing them, a resynchronization of the source and target data will be necessary.

To avoid Capture issues, configure archive logging to support faster and uninterrupted replication as follows:

Configure the online logs

Ideally, the redo logs should be configured so that SharePlex can avoid reading the archive logs. In most cases, reading the online logs is faster than reading the archives. Ensure that the online redo logs are large and numerous enough to minimize processing from the archive logs. At minimum, there should be enough redo log capacity to hold several hours worth of data without wrapping.

To test an appropriate online log configuration:

In pre-production testing, you can determine if Capture is reading the archive logs by doing the following:

1. Determine the log that SharePlex is processing by querying the SHAREPLEX_ACTID table.

   SQL> select seqno from splex.shareplex_actid

2. Determine the log that Oracle is writing to by querying Oracle's V$LOG table.

   SQL> select sequence# from v$log where status='CURRENT'

3. Subtract the seqno value from the sequence# value. This reveals how many logs Capture lags behind Oracle.
4. Subtract the number of online redo logs from that value. If the number is negative, SharePlex is processing archive logs. For example, if you have 10 redo logs and SharePlex is 11 logs behind, it is processing archive logs. You can then use this result to adjust the online logging configuration.

Important: If Capture falls behind the pace at which Oracle generates redo volume, the following may apply:

• It might be more practical to resynchronize the data instead of waiting for SharePlex to restore parity by capturing from the archive logs.
• It is possible to run out of disk space on the source system while Capture processes and queues the operations that it missed.
• There is the potential for SharePlex to lose information needed for Post to construct SQL statements, especially if the needed archive logs no longer are available. Always monitor disk space and latency while SharePlex is running.

Set the appropriate logging level

• Minimal supplemental logging must be set before you activate the SharePlex replication configuration.

• In addition to minimal supplemental logging, it is strongly recommended that you enable both primary key and unique key supplemental logging, or that you create a supplemental log group on unique columns for every table in replication. When the key column values for a row update are in the redo log, SharePlex does not have to fetch them from the database. On a busy system, this greatly improves the performance of the Read process. Some SharePlex features require primary key and unique key logging to be enabled.

  Note: ALTER TABLE DDL commands that change the rowid of a table can affect subsequent DML operations if the primary or unique keys of the tables in replication are not being logged. When the keys are not logged, SharePlex fetches their values based on the rowid. Any operation that changes the rowid, such as ALTER TABLE...MOVE, can cause the wrong key values to be used for subsequent DML operations.

• If you are using vertically partitioned replication for any table, you can use table-level logging to log only the columns that you want to replicate, plus any other columns that may be referenced by them, such as foreign keys. If you are using horizontally partitioned replication for the same table, make certain that you log the columns that you specified as the filters.