SharePlex 9.0 - Administration Guide

Use sp_ctrl commands to activate, deactivate and view information about a configuration activation, as well as to reconcile ongoing changes with a copy. For more information about these commands, see the SharePlex Reference Guide.

Purpose	Command
Activate a configuration file	activate config Starts the activation and retains control of the sp_ctrl command line until the activation is finished.
View configuration statistics	show config Shows statistics for active configurations. It displays the status of a configuration (active or inactive), the datasource, the date and time the configuration was activated, and the number of objects that are configured.
Deactivate a configuration file	deactivate config or abort config The purposes of these commands are different, but both deactivate a configuration file. deactivate config gracefully terminates replication for an active configuration. It stops all Capture activity for the configuration, posts all data currently in the queues, and removes the associated SharePlex processes and queues. abort config is a forceful deactivation. It stops all replication activity for the configured datasource on the source and target systems, whether or not data in the queues has been posted. Deactivating or aborting a configuration stops replication. If users continue making changes to the configured objects, the source and target data can go out of synchronization.
Reconcile replicated changes with the copy	reconcile (Valid for an Oracle source only) Coordinates the results of ongoing replication with a copy of the source data that is applied to the target system, so that changes that occurred before the copy are discarded.
View replication status	status Shows a summary of the status of replication to help you ensure that processes are running and to check for errors, warnings or notices.
View queue status	qstatus Shows statistics for the capture, post, and export queues.

Requirements for activating a configuration

Activate replication in your production environment > Requirements for activating a configuration

Activation of a configuration is an event that requires a series of actions to be taken in a timely manner, uninterrupted. Therefore, it is important to have all of your preparations done ahead of time, leaving nothing in question. You can activate a configuration if you performed the minimal requirements outlined in this topic.

Note: These instructions apply to Oracle and SQL Server source databases, unless otherwise noted.

Required authorization level

Only a SharePlex Administrator can activate a configuration. Additional users should be assigned to monitor SharePlex and perform basic operational procedures. For more information, see Assign SharePlex users to security groups.

Required setup

(SQL Server) A SQL Server source database must be quiesced (no transaction activity allowed) while a configuration is being activated.
Before you activate a configuration, make certain that the objects that you want to replicate exist in the source database.
If a table will be partitioned, create those partitions before you activate a configuration to begin replication processing. Partitioning a table while it is actively replicating causes SharePlex to lose the identifying information it has compiled, and DML from that table partition will not be replicated. You can add a partition to a table already in replication, but you will need to reactivate the configuration to update that table in the SharePlex object cache.

Prerequisites

Make certain you satisfy the following prerequisites before you activate a configuration.

Requirement	Documentation to Read
Understand how to start and stop the sp_cop program.	Run SharePlex
Understand how to issue SharePlex commands.	Execute commands in sp_ctrl
Understand the commands you will use during activation.	Activation commands
Make certain your SharePlex configuration and setup are complete and any optional features are included in the configuration or setup.	Configure SharePlex to replicate data Configure partitioned replication Configure named queues Configure SharePlex security features Transform data Set up error handling
Prepare the database to support replication.	Set up an Oracle environment for replication
Plan and configure SharePlex to support your replication strategy	Configure a replication strategy
Start the source and target databases.	Database documentation
Unless your applications only generate SharePlex-supported DDL, prevent DDL operations, including TRUNCATE, during activation. Where permitted, DML changes are the only permissible changes during activation.	Database documentation

Test the configuration before activation

Activate replication in your production environment > Test the configuration before activation

Before you activate a configuration in production, perform a test activation by using the verify config command. If there are syntax errors, misspellings or duplicate entries in the configuration file, the entire activation will fail.

This command will test the configuration to find and report the following conditions:

Verify the syntax of the entries in the configuration file.
Report an error if the source object is not supported for replication by SharePlex.
Report if a host name specified in a route is unreachable.
Report if there are duplicate specifications for a single object.
Report if an object specification will be skipped and the reason why.
List the qualifying objects included under wildcard specifications.

The verify config command does not verify how long the activation will take, nor will it verify the target objects or database connection (as represented by the database identifier listed in the routing map.)

For more information, see the verify config command in the SharePlex Reference Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions about activation

Activate replication in your production environment > Frequently Asked Questions about activation

What happens during activation?

During activation, SharePlex gets the information it needs to identify and understand the objects that are configured for replication and build routing maps. For more information, see What is activation?.

How long does activation take?

The length of time that activation takes varies, depending on the size, number and structure of the configured objects.

Do users have to stop access to the data?

A SQL Server source database must be quiesced (no transaction activity allowed) while a configuration is being activated.

An Oracle database can remain available for transactions. Each source table is briefly locked so SharePlex can build its internal object information. Then the lock is released. This happens very quickly and may not even be noticeable by users. However, if a business application has NOWAIT locking, the SharePlex lock may cause the application to fail if it attempts to obtain a lock on an object that is being activated.

Can DDL be performed during activation?

No. The definition of objects cannot be changed during activation.

Can I activate multiple configurations for the same datasource?

No. You can create as many configurations for the same source data, but only one of those can be active at the same time.

Can I activate configurations for different datasources at the same time?

Yes. For more information, see How to activate multiple configuration files.

Can I test a configuration before I activate it?

Yes. This is highly recommended. Use the verify config command. For more information, see Requirements for activating a configuration.

Can I interrupt an activation to make changes?

No. Activation is meant to be an uninterrupted procedure that initiates replication while maintaining the same series of transactional events as those appearing in the redo log. You can use the abort config command to terminate an activation, but you may then need to clean out the queues and resynchronize the source and target data again. Ideally, you should have a tested configuration file ready to be activated and be prepared to issue commands to the database and to SharePlex.

Can I activate against a quiet database?

Yes. A quiet database is required to activate SQL Server capture, but optional to activate Oracle capture. The Oracle database must be mounted and open, however.

Can I increase the number of activation threads?

Yes, but only for an Oracle source. The number of threads is controlled globally by the SP_OCF_THREAD_COUNT parameter, which must be set before you issue the activate config command. You can override this value for a particular activation by using the threads option when you issue the activate config command.