SharePlex 10.2.1 - Installation and Setup Guide

Assign a directory to store the downloaded SharePlex installation package.

This directory requires approximately the following disk space:

• Windows: 60 MB plus 400 MB of temporary disk space

It can be removed after SharePlex is installed.

Plan the SharePlex product directory.

You can create a directory for the SharePlex software files or let the SharePlex installer create it. This directory requires approximately the following disk space:

• Windows: 600 MB plus 20 MB for the MKS Toolkit®

Install this directory on the following:

• Windows: a separate internal hard drive or partition from the one that contains the database.

Do not install SharePlex on a raw device.

Plan the SharePlex variable-data (working) directory.

This directory is installed by the SharePlex installer with a name of your choosing. It contains the working data and varies greatly in size in correlation to the volume of data being generated. Install this directory on a separate filesystem from the one that contains the database, but not on a raw device.

To estimate the required disk space:

1. Estimate the longest time that a replication outage can be tolerated.

2. Use the following formula to estimate the amount of data SharePlex would replicate during that amount of time.

   [size of a redo log] x [number of log switches per hour] x .333 x [number of hours downtime] = required disk space

   For example:

   [500 MB redo log] x [5 switches per hour] x [.333] x [8 hours] = 6.5 GB disk space

To replicate data from more than one database on a system, use a variable-data directory for each one. Ideally they should be on different filesystems.

Do not install the variable-data directory within the SharePlex product directory. Both directories contain identically named files, and SharePlex utilities that clean up the environment (if this becomes necessary) could remove the wrong files. You can install both directories under one parent directory if desired.

Note: Always monitor disk usage when there is an active SharePlex configuration, especially when there are peaks in transaction activity.

Install in a cluster (including Oracle RAC)

Most shared storage solutions can be used to house SharePlex. Such file systems include, but are not limited to:

• Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS2)
• Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) Cluster File System (ACFS)
• Oracle DataBase File System (DBFS)
• OCFS2 Note: This file system must be mounted nointr. Both SharePlex and Oracle report interrupt errors if nointr is not specified.
• Most general purpose cluster file systems

See Installation and setup for Oracle cluster for SharePlex installation requirements in a cluster. Many of those steps must be performed before you install SharePlex, while others are performed after installation.

Create the SharePlex security groups.

SharePlex provides three security groups to enable access control through sp_ctrl. For more information, see Assign SharePlex users to security groups.

Note: If you install as root, you are prompted by the installer to create these groups.

Choose a DBA-privileged operating system group to own SharePlex.

The SharePlex Administrator user must be in the Oracle dba group.

Confirm that the Windows version is supported.

Review the SharePlex Release Notes to make certain your operating system is supported.

Be prepared to restart the system.

On the Windows platform, SharePlex installs the MKS Toolkit® operating environment from Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). The default folder for the MKS Toolkit® is C:\Program Files\MKS Toolkit.

Set system permissions so that the MKS Toolkit files cannot be moved or removed after they are installed.

If this is a first-time MKS Toolkit installation, you will be prompted to restart the system.

Adjust the page size.

SharePlex needs an additional 200 MB of page file size if more than 80 percent of the current total page file size is being used. Greater page size enables SharePlex to process large transactions more quickly.

Assign a user who will own the SharePlex directories.

Assign a member of the Windows Administrator group to own the SharePlex installation and variable-data directories. This user must exist before you run the SharePlex installer and must have system privileges to read the Oracle redo logs.

(Oracle) Verify the Oracle Registry entries.

(Test machines only) On machines where Oracle has been installed and uninstalled many times, the Oracle entries in the Registry may be corrupted. Before you install SharePlex on a test machine, uninstall all Oracle software and delete all Oracle Registry entries. Then, re-install Oracle by using the Oracle installation program, which creates Registry entries correctly. SharePlex relies on these entries to obtain database environment information.

Perform any required database upgrades.

Perform any required database upgrades before you install SharePlex. This ensures that SharePlex gets the most current object definitions when you run Database setup during the installation and setup steps.

Confirm the Oracle release version and processor type.

(source and target databases)

Verify that the Oracle release version is supported by SharePlex.

Note: SharePlex does not support 32-bit Oracle versions.

Set up Oracle online and archive logging.

(source databases)

• Enable archive logging to avoid the need to resynchronize data after a log wrap.
• Enable minimum supplemental logging.
• Enable supplemental logging of primary and unique keys.
• Configure the logs to support replication.

For more information, see Set up Oracle logging to support SharePlex.

Set up database objects to support replication.

Set up Oracle objects to support replication properly, including:

• Log primary and unique keys (source database only).
• Handle tables that do not have keys.
• Handle indexes, triggers, constraints, and sequences.

For more information, see Set up Oracle database objects for replication.

Configure database properties to support replication

(source databases)

Make the recommended database settings to support SharePlex processes:

• Verify character sets are compatible with SharePlex.
• Adjust log buffer size.
• Adjust open cursors and processes parameters.
• Adjust initrans setting of SHAREPLEX_TRANS table.

For more information, see Set up an Oracle database to support SharePlex.

Set privileges to capture TDE-protected data.

(source databases)

To decrypt TDE-protected data from the redo log, the SharePlex Administrator must open the Oracle Wallet with the wallet password. By default, only the Oracle Wallet owner-user has read and write permissions for this file. To enable SharePlex to open the wallet, you can either of the following:

Grant read permission to the wallet file to the dba group, because the SharePlex Administrator user is a member of that group.

Or...

Have the owner of the wallet start SharePlex.

For more information, see Set up TDE Support.

Plan the SharePlex Oracle account.

(source and target databases)

During SharePlex installation, you will run the Database Setup utility to create a database account (user and schema) for SharePlex. The following is a list of privileges required for the database user who runs the this utility:

Non-multitenant (standard) database

The user who runs the setup utility must have DBA privileges.

Multitenant database

The user who runs the setup utility should have SYSDBA privileges (recommended), but at minimum the user should be a DBA user with privileges for sys.users$ and sys.enc$. The minimum following grants are required for the SharePlex user:

create user c##sp_admin identified by sp_admin;

grant dba to c##sp_admin container=ALL;

grant select on sys.user$ to c##sp_admin with grant option container=ALL;

Plan the SharePlex objects tablespace.

(source and target databases)

The Database Setup utility installs some tables into a tablespace of your choosing. All but the SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table use the default storage settings of the tablespace.

The SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table contains entries for LOBs stored out-of-row. It is created with a 1 MB INITIAL extent, 1 MB NEXT extent, and PCTINCREASE of 10. The MAXEXTENTS is 120, allowing the table to grow to 120 MB.

Preferred action: If you enable supplemental logging for primary and unique keys, you can set the SP_OCT_ENABLE_LOBMAP parameter to 0, and nothing will be stored in the SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table. In this case, you do not have to consider its size growth. It is recommended that you enable supplemental logging for primary and unique keys to maximize the performance of the Read process.

Alternate action: The default storage usually is sufficient for SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP, permitting more than 4 million LOB entries. If the Oracle tables to be replicated have numerous LOB columns that are inserted or updated frequently, consider increasing the size the SharePlex tablespace accordingly. Take into account that this table shares the tablespace with other SharePlex tables.

If the database uses the cost-based optimizer (CBO) and the tables that SharePlex processes include numerous LOBs, incorporate the SHAREPLEX_LOBMAP table into the analysis schedule.

Note: A new installation of SharePlex does not change storage parameters from a previous installation.

Plan the SharePlex temporary tablespace.

(source and target databases)

The Database Setup utility prompts for a temporary tablespace for SharePlex to use for sorts and other operations, including sorts performed by the compare commands. The default temporary tablespace is the one where the SharePlex objects are installed. If you plan to use the compare commands to compare large tables, especially those without a primary or unique key, specify a dedicated temporary tablespace for SharePlex.

Plan for theSharePlex index tablespace.

(source and target databases)

The Database Setup utility prompts for a tablespace to store the indexes for the SharePlex tables. The default index tablespace is the one where the SharePlex objects are installed. To minimize I/O contention, specify a different index tablespace from the one where the tables are installed.

Note: If indexes from a previous version of SharePlex are installed in the SharePlex objects tablespace, you can move them to a different tablespace and then specify that tablespace when you run the setup utility.

Plan for required queue space

SharePlex stores replicated data that is being processed in queues on the local system. There must be enough disk space for these queues to grow in the event that a SharePlex process stops (for example, a target system is down) and replicated data accumulates in the queues.

To determine the amount of queue space on each system

1. Use a worst-case scenario and estimate the length of downtime to be tolerated.

2. Determine how much data is replicated in that time, using the following formula as a guide. This formula multiplies the redo log value by one-third because only about one-third of the redo log is actually data that is replicated. The rest is data used by Oracle to maintain and operate the instance itself.

   [size of a redo log x number of log switches in 1 hour] x 1/3 x [number of hours downtime] = amount of disk space needed for the queues on each system

Example:

Suppose you expect to recover from 8 hours of downtime and your redo logs are 60 MB. They switch five times an hour. According to the formula, you need 800 MB of space on the source machine and on the target machine for the SharePlex queues.

[60 MB redo log] x [5 switches/hour] x [1/3] x [8 hours] = 800 MB disk space

Install the Oracle client.

(on-premises databases)

The Oracle client libraries are needed both for installation and setup as well as for the operation of SharePlex.

Perform any required database upgrades.

Perform any required database upgrades before you install SharePlex. This ensures that SharePlex gets the most current object definitions when you run Database setup during the installation and setup steps.

Confirm the database release version.

Verify that the release version of the database is supported by SharePlex.

Consider character sets

When replicating to an Open Target target (non-Oracle target), SharePlex supports replication from any Oracle Unicode character set and the US7ASCII character set. SharePlex posts data to Open Target in the Unicode character set, and therefore if the source data is Unicode or US7ASCII, no conversion on the target is required.

However, if the following are true, conversion is required on the target:

• If the character set of the source data is anything other than Oracle Unicode or US7ASCII, you must install an Oracle client on the target to perform the conversion to Unicode for posting to the target.
• If the data must be posted to the target database in any character set other than Unicode, you must install an Oracle client on the target to perform the conversion and use the target command to identify the target character set for Post to use.
• If you are replicating LOB data, conversion is required regardless of what the source character set is.

To perform conversion with an Oracle client on Windows

1. Install an Oracle Administrator client on the target system. The client must be the Administrator installation type. The Instant Client and Runtime installation types are not supported.
2. In the SharePlex Registry key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\QuestSoftware\SharePlex\port_number, set ORACLE_HOME to the Oracle client installation location, and set ORACLE_SID to an alias or a non-existing SID. No Oracle database is required. SharePlex only needs to use the client libraries.
3. Install SharePlex using the Windows installer.
4. Make certain the SP_OPX_NLS_CONVERSION parameter is set to the default of 1.

To apply Unicode and US7ASCII data without conversion

If the source data is Unicode or US7ASCII and you are not replicating LOB data, no conversion or Oracle client is needed. Set the SP_OPX_NLS_CONVERSION parameter to 0 to disable conversion, and then restart Post if it is running.

Consider Case

To support replication between a source of one database type and a target of another type, the letter case of the names of the source and target columns must be the same, for example the column names on both sides in lower case or both sides in upper case. If the case differs between the source and target column names, use the column mapping feature to map the column names in the configuration file.

Install the appropriate ODBC driver.

Verify that the appropriate ODBC driver is installed for your target, and install one if there is not one present.

To test a driver with SharePlex you can use the OTS utility. You can use a standalone version of this utility before you install SharePlex, or you can run the utility from the installation directory after you install SharePlex. See the OTS documentation in the SharePlex Reference Guide for more information.

Enable case sensitivity on key columns

Enable case-sensitivity for the data of any character-based primary key columns or columns that form a unique index. This ensures that Post compares the correct source and target key values so that it updates the correct target row and prevents unique constraint errors. Unless the key values are case sensitive, cases like the following can happen:

Create table Sales (CustName varchar(20) primary key);

insert into Sales values (‘abc company’);

(Succeeds)

insert into Sales values (‘ABC Company’);

(Fails with unique constraint violation error)

Configure a System Data Source Name (Windows installations)

If you are replicating data to a Postgres target on Windows, you must use a DSN (data source name) as the connection method. This DSN must exist before you install SharePlex.