How long do Archive Logs need to be retained on Source and Target?
Source:
On Source, SharePlex captures transactions to be replicated by reading the online/archive redo logs.
Once the SharePlex Export process sends these transactions to the Target, they are not required to be read again by SharePlex, and the archive logs can be removed (and sent to backup tape, etc.).
If, for any reason like errors, queue corruption, etc., the messages in SharePlex queue need to be cleaned up, then it is possible to restore these archive logs to the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST and have the SharePlex Capture process re-read these logs.
The procedure requires assistance from Support as it is prone to errors.
Target:
On Target, SharePlex does not care about archiving of redo logs.
It simply submits the SQL to the Target database and the archive logs do not come into play.
This is different from Source where SharePlex captures changes on the Source database by reading the online or archived redo logs.
So the archived logs can be removed or backed up anytime from Target.
