SharePlex 9.2.6 - Administration Guide

Before you use Compare and Repair

Before running the compare or repair commands, review these guidelines.

• All of the SharePlex processes (Capture, Read, Export, Import, Post) must be running when you run a comparison or repair command.
• The tables that you want to compare or repair must be part of an active configuration file.
• Uncommitted transactions on a source table prevent the compare and repair processes from obtaining the brief locks they need to obtain read consistency. Make certain that all transactions are committed before you run a comparison or repair.

• If a table is large, it will probably need to be sorted in the TEMP tablespace. Before running the compare or repair commands, the TEMP tablespace may need to be made larger. The size depends on the setting of the SP_DEQ_THREADS parameter or the threads option within the command syntax, both of which controls the number of processing threads used by SharePlex on the target. Each thread processes a table. At the default of two threads, the size of the tablespace should be larger than the sum of the sizes of the two largest tables. If you set the number of threads higher, then increase the size of the tablespace to accommodate a proportionate number of the largest tables. However,
• The UNDO tablespace may also need to be increased. Based on transaction volume and the length of time it takes to compare the largest table, increase the size of the UNDO tablespace and increase the undo_retention database parameter to avoid an ORA-1555 Snapshot too old error. Tables with LOBs take much longer to compare or repair than tables without them.

The following are commonly modified compare and repair parameters. Do not increase the values unless necessary. For details about these parameters, see their documentation in the SharePlex Reference Guide.

How to use the repair and compare commands

The recommended procedure for maintaining synchronized data through the comparison and repair commands is to run the compare or compare using command first, then view the results with the repair status command. This command shows any rows that are out-of-sync and the possible cause. Unless the cause of the out-of-sync condition is corrected, replication will go out of synchronization again, even if you repair the rows this time. After the problem is fixed, issue the repair or repair using command.

You can run the repair or repair using command without doing a preliminary comparison. The command performs a comparison first, to identify the out-of-sync rows, and then it repairs those rows. However, the underlying cause of the out-of-sync condition must be corrected to prevent future out-of-sync conditions.

See for causes and solutions for out-of-sync conditions.

To view the status or results of a comparison, use the compare status command in sp_ctrl.

To view the status or results of a repair, use the repair status command in sp_ctrl.

When to run a repair

The best time to repair a target table depends on its size, the cause of the problem, the extent of out-of-sync rows, and how long you are willing to tolerate users being locked out. Before you initiate a repair, consider the following:

• Although the users of the tables are not usually affected by the brief locks that are applied when tables are compared, they are locked out of the target table for the duration of the repair process. For a small table, this might not be disruptive, but for a large table needing extensive repairs, the wait can be significant.
• Locks on a target table can reduce posting performance if Post must wait for the repair to finish before it can apply changes to that table and move on to other tables. This increases the latency of the target data and causes operations to accumulate in the post queue. If the objects that Post needs to change are different from those being repaired, the two processes run simultaneously.

• If you must repair a table immediately, but cannot tolerate locks or replication latency, you can use the where option to limit the repair to certain rows. An alternative is to use the key option, but this option may cause the repair to miss some out-of-sync rows.

• If the repair can wait, correct the cause of the problem immediately and then do the repair during non-peak hours.

• Replication latency can slow down the compare and repair processing. The message sent from the source to spawn the command processes on the target is sent through the queues along with regular replicated data. Delays caused by a data backlog will delay the spawn message and cause the process on the source to lose its read consistency, which results in errors. If possible, perform comparisons and repairs during off-peak hours.

How to run the compare and repair commands

To get additional information and syntax for the compare and repair commands, see the command documentation in the SharePlex Reference Guide.

Tune the Capture process

This chapter contains instructions for improving the performance of the Capture process to prevent Capture from losing pace with the volume of redo that an Oracle source database generates.

Contents

Disable LOB Mapping

If you have PK/UK logging enabled on the source database (recommended to support more SharePlex features and faster processing), check the setting of the SP_OCT_ENABLE_LOBMAP parameter. This parameter controls whether or not SharePlex uses a LOB map when replicating tables that contain out-of-row LOB columns. The LOB map is used by the Capture process to map LOBIDs and rows when PK/UK logging is not enabled. LOB mapping is enabled by default. The SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table stores these mappings.Transactions with numerous LOB operations can slow down Capture because it needs to maintain and refer to the mappings. If PK/UK logging is enabled on the database, you can disable LOB mapping by setting this parameter to 0.

To disable LOB mapping during active replication

1. Run sp_ctrl on the source system.

2. Set SP_OCT_ENABLE_LOBMAP to 0.

   sp_ctrl> set param SP_OCT_ENABLE_LOBMAP 0

3. Stop Capture.

   sp_ctrl> stop capture

4. Truncate the SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table.

5. Restart Capture.

   sp_ctrl> start capture