Shareplex only allows one active config per datasource per port. But the reverse is not true. Meaning, it is possible to have an active config file with more than one datasource. What this means is that you can bring more than one source SID into replication using one Shareplex instance. This solution delves on the way to achieve this and on the pros and cons of this uncommon approach.
General information.
It is possible to have a single Shareplex instance replicate data from two or more source SID. To do that (assuming that there are two source SIDs involved):
1. Set appropriate value for ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID for datasource_A besides the SP_COP_TPORT, SP_COP_UPORT and SP_SYS_VARDIR when running ora_setup for the first SID.
2. Set appropriate value for ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID for datasource_B besides the SP_COP_TPORT, SP_COP_UPORT and SP_SYS_VARDIR when running ora_setup for the second SID.
3. Start Shareplex.
4. Set appropriate value for ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID for datasource_A and activate the first config file that has the datasource pointing to datasource_A .
5. Set appropriate value for ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID for datasource_B and activate the second config file that has the datasource pointing to datasource_B.
6. At this point "list config", will show two active config file. Also, "status" will show two sets of Capture, Read and Export processes and "qstatus" will show two Capture and Export queues. The following example of the qstatus output shows two Capture queues:
sp_ctrl (server_name:2100)> qstatus
Queues Statistics for server_name
Name: o.SID1 (Capture queue)
Number of messages: 2 (Age 0 min; Size 2 mb)
Backlog (messages): 0 (Age 0 min)
Name: o.SID2(Capture queue)
Number of messages: 0 (Age 0 min; Size 5 mb)
Backlog (messages): 0 (Age 0 min)
The only advantage this type of setup will offer is that upon start, Shareplex will be able to gather changes from two or more SIDs concurrently. So only one startup or shutdown script is required. This saves effort and requires less attention for these two functions. Moreover, only one set of product directory (proddir) and variable directory (vardir) are required. This may offer marginal resource conservation. However, the maintenance can get very cumbersome. The resync, reactivation, ora_cleansp, etc, may need special attention and procedure. A preferred approach is to set up the replication for second datasource using another port. See Administrator's Guide chapter "Running multiple instances of SharePlex" for more information.
