SharePlex for Oracle

SharePlex for RAC

Version 7.6.3.26

Release Notes

August, 2012

---

Contents

Welcome to SharePlex

New in this Release

Supported Platforms

System Requirements

Compatibility And Upgrades

Resolved Issues

Known Issues

Third Party Known Issues

Getting Started

Upgrading SharePlex

Upgrading SharePlex (RAC)

Supported and Non-Supported Operations

Global Operations

For More Information

 

---

Welcome to SharePlex

SharePlex provides high-speed, log-based replication between Oracle instances on Sun Solaris, IBM-AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Windows platforms.

 

This document contains the most recent information about SharePlex, including information that may not be included in the published documentation. Please review all sections of this documentation before starting your installation or upgrade. 

 

This version of the SharePlex release documentation supersedes all prior versions. Please ensure that you have the most up-to-date version of this document.

 

Note: Within the 7.6 manuals, the following text is no longer correct and should be changed as described below. These changes will be reflected in the manuals of the next release.

• All path names that starts with "C:\WINNT" should be changed to " C:\Windows". 
• For Windows registry for 64bit change "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Quest Software\SharePlex" to "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node\Quest Software\SharePlex".

 

Back to Top

---

New in This Release

This is the second update for the 7.6.3 release of SharePlex. This update provides updated plaform support for Oracle Solaris 11 (SPARC), Oracle Solaris 11 (x64), Red Hat 6 and Oracle Linux 6. See Supported Platforms for details.

SharePlex 7.6.3 is a maintenance release to improve the stability of the product. It does not contain any new features. Please refer to the Resolved Issues section for additional information on resolved issues. All fixes are cumulative.

 

SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.2

• Support for INTERVAL datatype
• Ability to track changes made to a source table, including user id and time, and store those changes on the target
• Post adds the RESTRICT_ALL_REF_CONS hint to delete operations on the target to avoid false out of sync messages due to cascade delete with referential key constraints.
• Ability to specify that commits on the target should be issued in NOWAIT mode

 

SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.1

• The "live" mode that was an activation option in prior releases of SharePlex is now the only activation mode. In 7.6.x, every activation activates "live".

 

SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.0

• This version of SharePlex is fully 64 bit compatible and only supports 64bit platforms.
• Support for Oracle Advanced Compression: SharePlex now supports changes to tables and LOBs stored in a compressed tablespace.
• Support for SecureFile LOBs: SharePlex now supports LOBs stored in an Oracle SecureFile.
• Support for Oracle Table encryption: SharePlex now supports encrypted columns if they are one of the following types: CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2, NVARCHAR2, NUMBER, DATE, and RAW. Replication of a table with encrypted key columns is not supported.
• Simpler command interface for the compare utility: The compare command syntax in this version mimics the copy command syntax. The old syntax is still supported.

 

Please refer to the Resolved Issues section for additional information.

 

Back to Top

---

Supported Platforms

SharePlex for Oracle supports replication of the following Oracle versions on, and between, the following platforms:

Note: Unless specified, RAC is supported for the same version

Platform	Oracle 9	Oracle 10gR1	Oracle 10gR2	Oracle 11gR1	Oracle 11gR2
HP-UX 11.23 (11i v2) (PA-RISC, Itanium)	X	X	X	X	NA
HP-UX 11.31 (11i v3) (PA-RISC, Itanium)	X	X	X	X	X
AIX 5.2	X	X	X	NA	NA
AIX 5.3	X	X	X	X	X
AIX 6.1	NA	NA	X	X	X
AIX 7.1	NA	NA	NA	NA	X
Oracle Solaris 8	X	X	X	NA	NA
Oracle Solaris 9	X	X	X	X	NA
Oracle Solaris 10 (SPARC)	X	X	X	X	X
Oracle Solaris 10 (x64)	NA	X	X	NA	X
Oracle Solaris 11 (SPARC)	NA	NA	NA	X	X
Oracle Solaris 11 (x64)	NA	NA	NA	X	X
RHEL 4 (x64)	X	X	X	X	X
RHEL 4 (Itanium)	X	X	X	NA	NA
RHEL 5 (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X
RHEL 5 (Itanium)	NA	NA	X	NA	NA
RHEL 6 (x64)	NA	NA	NA	X	X
Oracle Linux 4 (x64)	X	X	X	X	X
Oracle Linux 5 (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X
Oracle Linux 5 on Exadata2 (x64)	NA	NA	NA	X	X
Oracle Linux 6 (x64)	NA	NA	NA	X	X
SuSE SLES9  (x64, Itanium)	X	X	X	NA	NA
SuSE SLES10  (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X
SuSE SLES10  (Itanium)	NA	NA	X	NA	NA
SuSE SLES11 (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X
Windows 2003 (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X
Windows 2008 (x64)	NA	NA	X	X	X

* SharePlex 7.6 supports Oracle 9 running on Linux Itanium using SuSE SLES9 or RHEL 4
NA: Not applicable since Oracle does not support this configuration
Note: Linux users running Oracle 11g must be running on Oracle 11.1.0.6.0+ or must apply the one-off provided for Oracle Bug 6598432.
Note: SharePlex can be installed on OCFS2 but the file system must be mounted nointr. Both SharePlex and Oracle report interrupt errors if nointr is not specified.
Note: Since the source and target databases can be of different versions in SharePlex replication, the source and target objects can be different. When DDL is applied to the target, it may fail if the operation is forbidden on the target but allowed in the source.
 

Back to Top

---

System Requirements

The following list of system requirements pertains only to SharePlex requirements that may be greater than or in addition to operating system requirements. Before installing SharePlex, users should meet or exceed minimum operating system and Oracle database requirements:

 

Platform	UNIX/Linux
Memory	- 1 GB RAM - Per process memory greater than or equal to 256 MB.
Additional Software	- SQL*Plus
Additional Requirements	- Recommend hard limit system file descriptors setting of a min. of 1024 or higher, as system permits. - The Oracle database must employ at least the minimal level supplemental logging enabled.

Note: See platform specific Preinstallation Checklist in the Installation and Demonstration Guide for additional system and/or database requirements.

 

Back to Top

---

Compatibility And Upgrades

SharePlex 7.6.x is not architecturally compatible with all previous releases. A source system running SharePlex 7.6.x can not replicate to a 6.0.x version of SharePlex.  To support replication from a higher to a lower version, the SP_OCT_COMPATIBILITY parameter MUST be set to the lowest version.

For information about restrictions when replicating between SharePlex versions, refer to those listed under “Interoperability” in the Known Issues section of this document.

 

Interoperability Matrix

Source System	Target System
7.6.x	6.1.x, 7.x
7.5.x	6.1.x, 7.x
7.0.x	6.1.x, 7.x
6.1	6.x, 7.x
6.0	6.x, 7.x
5.3	5.x, 6.x, 7.x
5.2	5.x, 6.x, 7.x
5.1	5.x, 6.x, 7.x
5.0	5.x, 6.x, 7.x

 

Note: Downgrading is not supported (For example, 6.1.1 to 7.5 then back to 6.1.1).

Note: In cases when a lower version of SharePlex is configured to replicate to a higher version of SharePlex, the replication is subject to limitations of the lower as well as upper source versions.

 

 

Back to Top

---

Resolved Issues

The following is a list of issues addressed and included in this release of SharePlex.

 

SharePlex 7.6.3.26

Functional Area	Resolved Issue	Defect ID
Capture	Add utilization timer for time spent “ignoring” a redo record (free/malloc time)	ST100087
Capture	Issuing a DDL on a non-replicated table of the parent-child tables caused capture to replicate the DDL on the other replicated table if the replication space contains IOTs.	ST103979
Capture	Fixed problem regarding Oracle resources being used up on Exadata/ ASM	ST104260
Capture	Disable audit to prevent growth tranx file due to some "commit less" operations inside the redo logs	ST104516
Compare	Fixed issue with horizontal partitioning where the target IP address high order bit is set	ST103765
Compare	Issue with constraint violation check and for multiple columns with null	ST103859
Compare	Repair issue with buffer allocated to select and IOT tables	ST104654
Compare	Buffer overflow caused sigsegv	ST105064
Compare	Remove query to get row count	ST105197
Compare	Drop of temporary tables failed on 9i	ST105250
Cop	Error starting Cop when group entry gets too long	ST102620
Read	Reader bug related to update/delete batches when there are non null and null data in the key columns	ST103593
Post	Post core dump when writing to errorlog.sql	ST92403
Post	qstatus age size abnormal	ST103564
Post	Lots of defunct child processes	ST103865
Post	Upgrade to 64 bit fails on Windows	ST104482
Post	Post gets stuck updating SharePlex trans on a rollback commit	ST104966
Post	Suppress OOS logic causing core dump	ST105012

 

SharePlex 7.6.3

Functional Area	Resolved Issue	Defect ID
Activation	Allow activation of a table with a nested column if nested column is vertically partitioned out of replication	ST100826
Activation	Activation cored on Sun Solaris with a configuration with 50000 tables	ST101998
Capture	Update on migrated row sometimes replicated with incorrect key column values	ST84901
Capture	Post core dump processing LMN record	ST101313
Capture	Query performance issue when redo logs stored in ASM	ST101431
Capture	LOB column OOS after DDL that drops, or sets unused, multiple columns and adds multiple columns in one command	ST101651,102642
Capture	OOS on target after compressed row deleted	ST101655
Capture	Error 10410 - Error in column number or length in record	ST101696
Capture	"set_olt_dload: failed to parse DLOAD record" with compressed data	ST101993,102413
Capture	Core dump processing DLOAD record containing compressed column data	ST102045
Capture	Problem with auto-add on 9i when system table change is a QMI instead of insert	ST102411
Compare	Repair failed with LONG and LONG raw due to ORA-24338	ST100350
Compare	Repair failed when the number of rows being repaired by inserting into the target exceeded 65536	ST100942
Compare	Compare client timed out too early when there were lots of files in the state directory	ST101433
Compare	Repair constraint violation with NVARCHAR2 columns	ST101504
Compare	Compare reported false out-of-sync due to NVARCHAR2 key columns	ST101534
Compare	Compare reported false out-of-sync due to RAW key columns	ST101649
Compare	Compare results are incorrect when the key column is INTERVAL	ST101932
Compare	Repair failed "failed to allocate buffer (4100)"	ST101985
Compare	Compare config failed - not in replication	ST102371
Compare	Invalid target table names when compare a horizontally partitioned table	ST102720
Compare	Same partition compared multiple times when compare a horizontally partitioned table	ST102752
Compare	Compare failed when cop is version less than 7.6 and sp_ctrl is 7.6	ST102951
Compare	Fixed a bug comparing when table is replicated to multiple targets	ST103056
Compare	Fixed a bug with compare's ability to compare a horizontally partitioned table	ST103418
Compare	Fixed repair in master-to-master environment to prevent DML from looping back to source	ST103598
Control	Allow longer "version full" strings in sp_cnc - enough room for one off CRs	ST101605
Post	Post core in VerifyThread	ST100009
Post	Post cored running out of memory at 1.5GB	ST101081
Post	Problem with post hanging and not processing	ST102306
Post	Backlog shows value even if all messages are read	ST102311
Post	Add parameter sp_opo_skip_fail_ddl_on_restart to tell whether to skip failed DDL	ST103207
Post	Fixed bug where poster gets stuck while resolving blocking situation with large transactions	ST103502
Read	Fixed bug in batching update operations	ST103363
Utilities	Standalone-capture (sa_ocap) dumps core	ST101673

 

SharePlex 7.6.2

Functional Area	Resolved Issue	Defect ID
Activation	Fixed core if a UDT column is vertically partitioned out	ST98934
Capture	Support commit for distributed transactions	ST99626
Capture	Capture killed due to SIGSEGV	ST95597
Capture	Fixed memory leak when throwing away messages.	ST95731
Capture	Fixed issue connecting to ASM instance if different Oracle version from database that is being replicated	ST96171
Capture	Fixed problem with SP_OPO_SUPPRESSED_OOS when OOS is on array or batch operation	ST99330
Capture	Certain operations/DMLs on IOTs could cause Capture to core	ST100242
Capture	QMI operation on IOT with overflow segment caused capture to generate ODR_INSERTN record with bad/incomplete column data	ST100746
Command/Control	Fixed core when issue "show sql"	ST98765
Command/Control	Remove unused data files during queue initialization	ST98975
Compare	Fixed a problem with comparing a table with a compound route	ST99589
Compare	Fixed constraint violation during repair phase	ST94796
Compare	Would start processing tables not in replication	ST99053
Compare	Repair did not clear the statusdb out-of-sync messages	ST99665
General	Fixed usage of SP_SYS_HOST_NAME on Windows.	ST97433
Post	Fixed hang due to double unlock	ST94366
Post	Fixed SP_OPO_POSTER_DELAY on Windows	ST98119
Post	Fixed false out-of-sync with invalid tablename reported	ST95348
Post	Fixed out-of-sync on SecureFile LOB	ST96084
Post	Don't check for rowid if the sql statement fails	ST94422
Post	Fixed problem with high version count in Oracle cursors	ST99794
Read	Fixed bug where commit is sometimes not sent on a table that is both vertically and horizontally partitioned	ST96769
Read	Rename entries in reader's configuration cache when processing rename DDL	ST91060
Read	Don't error out when object not found in object cache during pass1	ST92580
Read	Added ability to skip messages that do not have complete keys so read does not have to go to pass 2	ST95868
Read	Fixed bug with horizontal partitioning on an array insert operation with SP_OCT_FIRST_FIND set to 0 that results in errors in post	ST97622
Read	Compare of a multi-route table caused reader to dispatch extra messages	ST99541

 

SharePlex 7.6.1

Functional Area	Resolved Issue	Defect ID
Activation	Incorrect processing of function-based indexes causing out-of-sync	ST95761
Activation	Activation fails if the Oracle version is 11gR2 and compatibility is set to less than 11gR2	ST95848
Activation	If a table has a unique index with a function on one or more columns, a cursor may not be closed	ST96923
Capture	DROP TABLE DDL loops back to the source in master-to-master configuration and post fails issuing the DDL	ST94855
Capture	Resource not released in sequence replication which can lead to slow capture performance	ST95339
Capture	ALTER TABLE ... SHRINK SPACE DDL replicated incorrectly when issued from an Oracle 10g database	ST86927
Capture	The default value of SP_OCT_OLOG_QUEUE_SIZE was changed from 1000 to 5000	ST95862
Capture	Capture was incorrectly identifying an object as being compressed, leading it to drop valid objects from replication	ST95991
Capture	Added parameter SP_OCT_USE_DST to allow disabling the correction for daylight savings time in redolog ensure logic	ST95344
Capture	Starting in version 7.5.2.24, there was an issue that prevented capture from working on Windows	ST95S959
Capture	Fixed an issue in processing ALTER TABLE DDL which may result in post not processing the DDL	ST97301
Read	Fixed an issue during an upgrade when one or more activations occurred just before the previous version of SharePlex was shutdown such that the activation had not yet been processed by capture. Under these conditions read would drop objects from replication	ST95885
Read	Added a parameter, SP_ORD_ROLLBACK_TXNS_MAX, that limits the number of entries the reader will keep in its transaction cache that indicate a transaction was completely rolled back	ST95577
Post	Fixes to prevent post core dump when releasing resources associated with an unused session	ST95330, ST95765, ST95898
Post	Post coring when processing an ALTER TABLE RENAME column when the column has a default value	ST87107

 

SharePlex 7.6.0

Functional Area	Resolved Issue	Defect ID
Activation	Get current SCN after object is locked and log in the activation process log.	ST72779
Activation	Activation should not allow the same table to be specified twice where one or both of the specifications include HP, even if the target table specs are different.	ST87501
Capture	Support ASM where the redo logs are stored on EXADATA.  To support this platform we added an option that causes capture to use the ASM package to get the redo log data. The new parameter is SP_OCT_ASM_USE_OCI and it is off by default.	ST88717
Capture	Capture failed to read object cache after upgrade from 6.1.1 to 7.5.2.	ST90680
Capture	Fixed a leak a memory leak associated with truncate table DDL	ST91087
Capture	Fixed error: can't parse log record at... too many CHANGE # vectors	ST89680
Capture	Sometimes capture cores when ALTER TABLE ... EXCHANGE PARTITION between two tables that are both in replication	ST82902
Capture	Fixed bug where DDL that involves more than one table (ALTER TABLE .. EXCHANGE PARTITION) the wrong table might be altered on the target	ST90080
Compare	Compare with NAT failed	ST89748, ST90438
Compare	Show compare report cored. Show compare has been replaced with Compare Status.	ST93961
Compare	Running multiple compares against same table causes compare to hang for 30 min	ST58012
Compare	compare failed with ORA-1801	ST91652
Compare	Enhancement request that “show compare” display completion time and route information.  This request satisfied by the new “compare status” command	ST91762
Compare	Fixed a bug comparing a table that is vertically partitioned	ST92332, ST92896
Compare	Fixed a bug comparing a table that is replicating to two targets where only one target was being compared	ST92674
Compare	Fixed a problem comparing a table when the SP_DEQ_SKIP_LOB parameter is set, and the number of LOB columns in the table is equal to or greater than the number of non-LOB columns	ST91638
Compare	The new “compare status” command displays the current state of the compare or repair job	ST93299
Copy	On 64-bit Windows, copy reports a valid specified Oracle Sid as not found in registry	ST90402
General	No messages are sent to the event_log for a table that is disabled from replication.	ST88526
General	Allow users to enter service name( tsn ) on RAC for ora_setup.	ST75979
General	sp_cop generates "unknown error", no startup banner, does not create import or post processes.	ST80164
General	Introduce controls for preserving par and log files created for interaction with EXP/IMP Oracle processes.	ST81861
General	sp_ctrl cores when issue "show post detail"	ST84192
General	ora_setup should put ALL indexes in index tablespace	ST87168
General	Native windows processes don't create a core file when they crash	ST87618
General	SpClient gets a garbage host name and won't connect	ST90208
General	License utility splex_add_key option "read from file" generates false "Customer name" error.	ST91751
Post	Poster: ERROR: Index out of bounds: spo::cache::udt::Depot#getConstructorItemAt()	ST89733
Post	At times when running STP, "qstatus" show messages in Post Queue, while "show post detail" shows none (Number of Messages=0). After sp_cop is bounced, then "qstatus" shows Number of Messages=0	ST35171
Post	Post should fail if it cannot find the object id in the object cache	ST88612
Post	Post should not try to open the sp_conf object cache if its object cache does not exist	ST90212
Post	Post error not clearing from statusdb (detrimental to SPM monitoring)	ST91179
Post	Post stopped due to: Can't read poster queue (que_RRLS_SEQ: Readrelease sequence	ST86715
Post	Poster core dumps when first message is an out of band deactivate message	ST87767
Post	Fixed core dump, error in event log: Assertion failed: fval_redispatch	ST90116
Post	Fixed problem processing SDO_GEOMETRY varray column	ST91129
Post	Fixed a bug posting to XMLTYPE columns that have a not-null constraint on the target	ST73733
Post	Logging wrong table name in errorlog.sql	ST80990
Post	ORA-01008 when update fails and there is a conflict resolution routine for the table	ST91526
Post	Log a message in the process log when the conflict resolution routine returns failure state	ST93928
Compare	Compare would fail when comparing between different versions of SharePlex, where one of the versions was 7.5.2.24.	ST95835

 

Back to Top

---

Known Issues

The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of this release. (Items new to the 7.6 release appear in bold.)

 

Back to Top

---

Third Party Known Issues

The following is a list of third party issues known to exist at the time of this release. (Items new to the 7.6 release appear in bold.)

 

 

Back to Top

---

Getting Started

Contents of the Release Package

The SharePlex for Oracle release package contains the following products:

1. Quest SharePlex for Oracle or SharePlex for RAC version 7.6.3
2. Product Documentation, including SharePlex Release Notes v7.6.3

If You Are Running Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux must have the ksh shell installed before SharePlex is installed. A version of ksh called pdksh is included on the Red Hat Linux CDs. Refer to the Red Hat Linux documentation for more information. For more information on installing SharePlex, refer to the SharePlex for Oracle Installation and Demonstration Guide.

 

Replication Between Different Oracle Versions

Use caution when replicating from a newer Oracle version to an older one. New object types, datatypes, and other enhancements to RDBMS functionality can make data from the new Oracle version incompatible with the earlier one. To replicate from a newer Oracle version to an earlier one, make certain that the data to be replicated is common to both versions.

 

Replication Between Oracle Versions on the Same System

SharePlex replication between two different versions of Oracle on the same server requires two installations of SharePlex, because there are different sets of binaries for different Oracle versions. This configuration also requires simulating two different hosts by using two virtual IP addresses on the same host. To establish replication in this configuration, contact Quest Technical Support.

 

Downloading the Installer

To download SharePlex, follow these instructions.

1. Log onto the Quest SupportLink home page at: http://support.quest.com.
2. Click Downloads, then enter SharePlex for Oracle into the Product box and select Search.
3. The available files are displayed. To narrow the results to the file you are looking for, select the appropriate SharePlex for Oracle version, the platform, and the database version.
4. Click the file name to download.
5. You are ready to begin the installation/upgrade process. Be sure to thoroughly read the version specific Release Notes prior to running the installer.

 

Note: Please refer to the Readme.txt file for a list of SharePlex for Oracle installers, by platform, chipset, and OS version.

 

.tpm Installer File

The .tpm file is a self-extracting installation file which uses the following naming convention:

SharePlex-[Release #]-[Oracle Version #]-[Platform].tpm

Example

SharePlex-7.6.0-b42-oracle110-aix-53-ppc-m64.tpm

In the above example, the file name represents an installer for SharePlex version 7.6.0, build 42, for Oracle 11g, on an AIX 5.3 system (or higher) that is running on a PowerPC chip set.

Note: The .tpm creates a temporary target directory, within the current directory, for extraction. This temporary target directory is removed upon installation completion.

.tpm Command Line Options

Upon installation, upgrade or patch, users do not need to run the .tpm file with additional command line options. These options are typically employed when working with Quest Support to resolve specific issues.

 

The .tpm command line options and their descriptions follow:

Usage
	tpm [<options>] [ [<package> | <location>] ... ]
OPTIONS
-v,	--verbose	Turns verbose mode on
-h, -?,	--help	Prints out this message>
	--debug	Starts the interactive debugger
	--info	Print information about installed packages
	--install	Perform product installation
	--remove	Perform product deinstallation
	--commit	Commit last installation
	-revert	Revert last installation
-t,	--tmp <directory>	Temporary directory location
-d,	--directory <directory>	Working directory
-f,	--force	Unconditionally update existing files
	--no-cleanup/font>	Do not perform cleanup on failure
	--nocleanup	Same as --no-cleanup, for compatibility
	--list	List the content of the archive
	--extract	Extract the archive into the current directory
-r,	--responses <yaml file>	Use the responses from a specified file
-D,	--defaults	Accept default answers
-l,	--log	Leave the installation log file
DESCRIPTION
Provides package management facilities. Packages can be installed, removed, reverted or committed. The utility also figures out its role based on the command name of its invocation path. For example, "tpm-install" is treated as "tpm --install", "tpm-remove" as "tpm --remove", etc. It can also be invoked as part of a self extracting package invocation, in which case it is treated as "tpm --install".

 

Note: All command line options for the .tpm file are preceded by two dashes.

 

New Installations

If you are installing SharePlex for Oracle for the first time please refer to the installation instructions contained in the Installation and Demonstration Guide.

If you are installing SharePlex for Oracle on a system that contains a prior installation of SharePlex for Oracle the installer will treat this as an upgrade. The behavior varies significantly from an installation on a machine that has never seen SharePlex for Oracle. Please select the appropriate upgrade scenario from the options that follow this section and carefully follow the instructions. Pay particular attention to the notes and warnings.

 

Upgrade Instructions

This section contains instructions for upgrading to SharePlex Version 7.6.x from version 5.3.4 and higher.

 

There are two procedures for upgrading to SharePlex 7.5.x:

• If you are upgrading Oracle in conjunction with a SharePlex upgrade, please refer to the Procedures for Users Upgrading Oracle and SharePlex for users upgrading Oracle and SharePlex.
  
• If you are only upgrading SharePlex, proceed to Procedures for Upgrading SharePlex for Oracle.
• If you are upgrading SharePlex for RAC, please refer to Procedure for Upgrading SharePlex for RAC.
  

 

Important! There is no direct upgrade path from SharePlex pre-5.3.4 to SharePlex 7.6.x. Users should upgrade to SharePlex 5.3.4 or higher, with Oracle 9i or higher, before upgrading to SharePlex 7.6.x. Intermediate upgrades should be performed using the corresponding Release Notes and/or Patch Notes instructions.

 

Note: When upgrading to SharePlex 7.6.x from a pre-5.3.4 version, please note that after the intermediate upgrade to SharePlex 5.3.4 the sp_cop process must be started for each SP_SYS_VARDIR prior to beginning the 6.x upgrade process. After which, you may proceed to upgrading to SharePlex 7.6.x.

Note: If you are using the parameter SP_QUE_DFILESIZE, you must contact Support for a special procedure before upgrading. Look in the SP_SYS_VARDIR/data/paramdb file to see if the SP_QUE_DFILESIZE parameter is set before beginning the upgrade procedure.

Note: When upgrading peer-to-peer replication configurations, the source and target systems must be upgraded at the same time.

Note: For peer to peer configurations you will need to stop post after verifying that Capture is caught-up and before shutting down SharePlex.

 

Important! When SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL is enabled, DDLs generated by ora_setup cause issues. It should be turned off during the upgrade process to avoid problems. [ST56904]

 

Important! If upgrading on Linux from a version of SharePlex prior to 7.0, contact Quest Software for a new license. Failure to do so could result in invalidated SharePlex License Keys. [ST61795]

 

Procedures for Upgrading SharePlex

Users must be running SharePlex for Oracle version 5.3.4 or higher before running this upgrade procedure. If you are not running a version of SharePlex for Oracle that meets this requirement, please download the latest 5.3.4 patch and perform the upgrade according to the instructions in the corresponding Patch Notes.

If you are not upgrading your Oracle database and you meet the SharePlex for Oracle version requirement you may begin the SharePlex upgrade process using the following information.

You will need the following information to perform the upgrade:

Note: Depending upon what version of SharePlex you are upgrading from, you may not be prompted for all the information listed below.

• [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] root login information (The upgrade must be performed as root when upgrading from SharePlex 5.3.4.)
• [SharePlex 6.x, 7.x users only] SharePlex Installation owner
• [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] SharePlex Admin user name (a user that is in the SharePlex Admin group)
• Location of the installation directories, e.g. the product directory and the variable-data directory
• SharePlex Admin group name (default at install is spadmin)
• ORACLE_SID that corresponds to the system under upgrade
• ORACLE_HOME that corresponds to the system under upgrade
• [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] Oracle DBA group name
• SharePlex communications port number
• SharePlex licensing information

 

UNIX: Perform the following procedure

1.    To begin the upgrade process, proceed with the following:

o   [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] Ensure that your are running as superuser (root).

o   [SharePlex 6.x, 7.x users only] Ensure that you are running as the SharePlex installation owner

o   Copy the appropriate .tpm file to a temporary directory where you have write permissions.

o   Change the permissions of the SharePlex-[Release #]-[Oracle Version #]-[Platform].tpm file as follows:

# chmod 555 SharePlex-[Release #]-[Oracle Version #]-[Platform].tpm

Example:

# chmod 555 SharePlex-7.6.0-b42-oracle110-aix-53-ppc-m64.tpm

2.    [Supplemental Logging DISABLED only] Perform the following procedure to enable supplemental logging:

Note: Verify that activation was completed with supplemental logging enabled by referring to the event_log file.

     i.   Enable Oracle supplemental logging.

           ii.     Issue the ALTER SYTEM SWITCH LOGFILE command.

         iii.   Verify again that the Capture process is caught-up.

           iv.     Reactivate the SharePlex configuration.

3.    As the SharePlex Admin user, shut down SharePlex on the system that you are upgrading.

4.    As:

              o     [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] superuser (root)

              o     [SharePlex 6.x, 7.x users only] the SharePlex installation owner

execute the .tpm file:

# ./SharePlex-[Release #]-[Oracle Version #]-[Platform].tpm

Example:

# ./SharePlex-7.6.0-b42-oracle110-aix-53-ppc-m64.tpm

In the above example, the file name represents an installer for SharePlex version 7.6.0, build 42, for Oracle 11g, on an AIX 5.3 system that is running on a PowerPC chipset.

The installer will begin by displaying install package version information. Please verify that the information displayed corresponds to the Oracle version and platform you are upgrading.

5.    Follow the prompts that guide you through the upgrade process.

Note:[SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] During the upgrade process you may opt to change the SharePlex Admin user. If the user provided at this prompt does not exist there will be additional prompts to confirm the creation of the new user. Please follow the instruction given with each prompt.

Important! If you have SharePlex 5.3.4 installed on your system, and you wish to retain the binaries and libraries for that version, select the appropriate option to perform a new installation of SharePlex 7.6.X. Otherwise, the 5.3.4 binaries will be overwritten. If you wish to retain your current binaries please use the installation instructions contained in the Installation and Demonstration Guide.

Note: During the upgrade process all of the valid variable directories contained in the vardirs.log file will be upgraded regardless of which variable-data directory location is provided.

6.    When the upgrade is complete the installer will exit after displaying the location of the install log file.

Installation log saved to: /home/splex/.shareplex/INSTALL-SharePlex-7.6-0704251334.log

SharePlex for Oracle v. 7.6 installation successful.

7.    [SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] When the upgrade is complete switch the user to SharePlex Administrator.

# su {SharePlex Admin}

8.    Export the SP_SYS_VARDIR environment variable that corresponds to the variable-data directory used in this upgrade procedure.

9.    Run ora_setup using the existing SharePlex Oracle database user and referring the "Establishing SharePlex as an Oracle user" instructions in the Installation and Demonstration Guide.

Note:[SharePlex 5.3.4 users only] Users will note that the bin directory and the util directory now contain shell scripts and not actual binary files. The shell scripts should be employed in the same manner as the previous binary files. Users should never launch binaries from the .app-modules directory where the shell scripts point, as this will lead to errors.

10.  Start SharePlex.

11.  Old versioned library files may not have been removed from your SharePlex library directory during the upgrade. While they can be left in the directory without causing issues, you may want to remove them. To remove the unused libraries, you can use the sp-bininfo utility. Run the following command:

              o      <optdir>/util/sp-bininfo -n | xargs rm

where <optdir> is a product installation folder.
 

Note: If for any reason you need to undo the upgrade, please contact Quest Support for procedure.

 

Procedures for Users Upgrading Oracle and SharePlex

Important! Users upgrading Oracle must first upgrade to SharePlex 5.3.4 or higher, with Oracle 9i or higher, before upgrading to SharePlex 7.6.x.

Important! Users upgrading Oracle and upgrading SharePlex are required to upgrade to SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.x twice. The first time the upgrade is run (prior to the Oracle upgrade) using the installation file that corresponds to the existing version of Oracle. The second time the upgrade is run (after the Oracle upgrade) using the installation file that corresponds to the newly upgraded version of Oracle.

 

1.    Perform the following procedure:

                       i.       Upgrade to SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.x. Refer to Procedures for Upgrading SharePlex. Use the installation file that correspond to your existing version of Oracle and NOT to the version of Oracle that you are upgrading to. When prompted during the upgrade, use your existing product and variable-data directories.

                      ii.       Shutdown sp_cop.

2.    Upgrade your database to Oracle 10g/11g per Oracle instructions.

3.    Run the SharePlex for Oracle 7.6.x upgrade again, this time using the installation file corresponding to the newly upgraded version of Oracle.

4.    Export the SP_SYS_VARDIR environment variable that corresponds to the variable-data directory used in this upgrade procedure.

5.    Run ora_setup using the existing SharePlex Oracle database user and referring to the directions in the SharePlex Installation and Demonstration Guide.

6.    Start sp_cop.

 

Procedures for Upgrading SharePlex for RAC

 

Important! There is no direct upgrade path from SharePlex pre-5.3.4 to SharePlex 7.6.x. Users should upgrade to SharePlex 5.3.4 or higher, with Oracle 9i or higher, before upgrading to SharePlex 7.6.x. Intermediate upgrades should be performed using the corresponding Release Notes and/or Patch Notes instructions.

 

Important! Supplemental logging must be enabled on all Oracle instances within the RAC cluster.

 

There are no RAC specific upgrade instructions for this release. Please refer to the Upgrade Instructions section.

 

Back to Top

---

Supported and Non-Supported Operations

Review this section to decide which objects to include in your replication configuration and which ones to exclude because they are not supported by SharePlex replication.

What SharePlex Replicates

In general, SharePlex replicates changes to objects listed in the configuration file. The changes can be made with any Oracle application. SharePlex replicates the following:

 

Supported DML Operations

Supported	Oracle 9i	Oracle 10g	Oracle 11g
DML (INSERTS, UPDATES, DELETES, COMMITS, ROLLBACKS) on tables, partitioned tables, and subpartitioned tables	x	x	x
Replication from materialized views to regular tables	x	x	x
Direct-path loads (SQL*Loader)	x	x	x
Full rollback of Direct-path loads (SQL*Loader)	x	x	x

 

Supported DDL Operations for Tables for SharePlex Version 7.0.2

Supported Objects	Supported Operations	SP_OCT_REPLICATE_DDL set to 3 AND SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 0	SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 1
Table
	Create Table		X
	Drop Table		X
	Create Index		X
	Drop Index		X
	Truncate	X	X
	Comment on Table		X
	Comment on Column		X
	Associate Statistics		X
	Disassociate Statistics		X
	Alter Table	X	X

 

Supported DDL Operations for Tables for SharePlex Version 7.5 and higher

Supported Objects	Supported Operations	SP_OCT_REPLICATE_DDL set to 3 AND SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 0	SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 1
Table
	Create Table	X (if wildcard)	X
	Drop Table	X	X
	Create Index	X (if SP_OCT_AUTOADD_ENABLE=1)	X
	Drop Index	X (if SP_OCT_AUTOADD_ENABLE=1)	X
	Truncate	X	X
	Comment on Table		X
	Comment on Column		X
	Associate Statistics		X
	Disassociate Statistics		X
	Alter Table	X	X

 

Supported DDL Operations for other objects

Supported Objects	Supported Operations	SP_OCT_REPLICATE_DDL set to 3 AND SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 0 (when the object is in replication)			SP_OCT_REPLICATE_ALL_DDL set to 1
		Oracle 9i	Oracle 10g	Oracle 11g	Oracle 9i	Oracle 10g	Oracle 11g
Sequence
	create				x	x	x
	alter^	x	x	x	x	x	x
Index
	create				x	x	x
	alter				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
View
	create				x	x	x
	alter				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
	comment on view				x	x	x
Synonym
	create				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
Directory
	create				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
User-defined type
	create type body				x	x	x
	alter type				x	x	x
	drop type				x	x	x
	drop type body				x	x	x
Stored procedure
	create				x	x	x
	alter				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
Stored function
	create				x	x	x
	alter				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
Package
	create package				x	x	x
	create package body				x	x	x
	alter package				x	x	x
	drop package				x	x	x
	drop package body				x	x	x
User
	create user				x	x	x
	alter user				x	x	x
	drop user				x	x	x
	grant				x	x	x
	revoke				x	x	x
Role
	create role				x	x	x
	alter				x	x	x
	drop				x	x	x
	grant				x	x	x
	revoke