SharePlex Data Replication

Quest Software has been providing Oracle data replication products for a long time. Quest’s replication product is called SharePlex and has been used in many enterprises. SharePlex uses the transaction details stored in the redo log files for data replication.

SharePlex focuses on diverting the replication scheme from the primary database system to the data stored in the redo log files. As a result, the SharePlex replication process does not impact the source database transactions. SharePlex works outside of the database to capture the database changes and transmits them to the destination database. SharePlex does not use the Oracle database engine for the capture and propagation of changes.

SharePlex log-based replication captures every modification to selected objects immediately. As soon as the changes are written to the Oracle Redo log, even before the transaction is committed, they are extracted by the SharePlex module. Therefore, it can update the changes at the destination site very quickly. SharePlex also completely follows the Read Consistency Model so that the target instances are accurate representations of the source database. Thus, it is a logical solution that replicates transactions as they occur without waiting for the commit.  Details on Quest’s solutions are available at www.quest.com.

Now, the Oracle Streams methodology has been developed to include the best features of the existing RDBMS and third party data sharing products.  Many of these features have been built into Oracle10g Database.  In addition to the built-in features, Streams allows the implementation of user developed PL/SQL routines and other applications to achieve specific data replication goals.  This combination has yielded an extremely powerful and flexible data replication package over which the DBA still retains ultimate control.