Alternatives to Database Replication

[treedstang]

I want to know if anyone could tell me a alternative to database replication. We currently have a Sun system at our H.Q. location running Oracle 8i and we would need to implement another System on a NT/Win2k platform for our second office. Due to lack of experience and Knowledge of IT staff and Management at my H.Q. location they will not consider a replication solution at all.

Any ideas on how to keep both databases in sync will be a big help even if requires manual labor.
please don't recommend Citrix thats not a option


Thanks

[deggzy]

Does this have to be in a real time??? Or would 3-4 times per day refresh be acceptable?

Would this be a seperate DB or would it have to share the same data as the primary site?

Would you want to update data insert data etc on either site and these changes be visable on both systems?

If the data is to be shared between sites then any sort of data sharing could be considered to be replication anyway whatever the solution.

Transportable tablespaces, or export/import utilities even if used manually could be considered a primitive form of replication.

The new features in 8i for distributed databases are probably going to be the best solution in the end?? Depending on your / business needs.

IMHO

Regards

[treedstang]

Steve thanks for the reply,

No the data don't have to be real time but it would be nice to import/export frequently enough
so we can have most of the same infomation every few days or so each office can see certain historical information.


Tell me where to go for more info the processes you listed so can take a look at the steps involved to make this happen


Thanks

Tim

[deggzy]

If you want to go don the export import route (I personally don't think it is the best way) then I would point all clients to one DB Live, and do incremental exports and imports to the 'replicated' site. You could also experiment with SQLLOADER.

To my knowledge there is no way to update both databases independently and keep the synced with export import.

You could write some triggers to write changes made to a flat file and then upload them to the other database.

I personally recommend if you wish to make thins easy on yourself and one site is to view the data only then use simple snapshots. They are not very difficult to set up or maintain.

This will be the most simple I think, depending on your needs of course.

To find out more look on technet.oracle.com

Search for distributed datbases or somthing like that.

The online Doc that comes with the RDBMS is a good place to start though!

Good Luck.

[treedstang]

If my remote office use snapshot data will that protect me in a situation if the main Server at the H.Q location
failed and will the remote site be able to continue to work with the snapshot data?

[LND]

remote tables can be updated via sql*plus COPY command and database link (provided network connection can support that in terms of data volumes and connection time)

anyway, snapshots are best option as they deal both with data consistency and incremental updates.

[treedstang]

LND,

do recommend any other resources to check into outside of technet.oracle.com so I have as much info as possible.

[svk]

Can you replace the NT/Win2k by another Sun ? You will have a good and viable option of creating standby database.

[treedstang]

Explain to me how would a standby system work in my type of enviroment (UNIX/NT). You will have to excuse me if some these questions are remedial in world of Oracle but I'm new at this and I'm just trying
fully understand who to make this thing work

thanks

[JDoyle]

BOOK:
Oracle Distributed Systems
Charles Dye, O'Reilly Press 1999
Cost around $40, I got it at Borders.