SharePlex 9.2.7 - Upgrade Guide for Oracle Source

Assign a directory to store the downloaded SharePlex installation package.

This directory requires approximately the following disk space:

• Unix and Linux: 200 MB
• 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:

• Unix and Linux: 120 MB
• Windows: 600 MB plus 20 MB for the MKS Toolkit®

Install this directory on the following:

• Unix and Linux: a separate filesystem from the one that contains the database.
• 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. On Unix and Linux, unless you install SharePlex as a root user, the SharePlex Administrator user and the SharePlex admin group must exist prior to installation. 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. For Oracle RAC and ASM 11gR2 and above, the user must also be in the Oracle Inventory group. For example: $ useradd –g spadmin –G dba,oinstall. The membership in Oracle Inventory group must be listed explicitly in the etc/group file.