The information in this section helps you to adapt the configuration of your Oracle Solaris Cluster software for the installation of Geographic Edition software. This section also helps you to plan the installation of your data replication software.
This section provides the following information:
Geographic Edition software must be installed on a cluster that is running the Oracle Solaris operating system and the Oracle Solaris Cluster software. You can install Geographic Edition software at the same time that you install Oracle Solaris Cluster software or at any time afterwards. The Geographic Edition software configuration is identical to the Oracle Solaris Cluster software configuration.
The clusters in a Geographic Edition configuration can run different versions of Geographic Edition software, as long as they are no more than one consecutive version different. For example, the same Geographic Edition configuration could have clusters running either version 4.3 or 4.2. But a cluster running version 4.3 cannot run in the same Geographic Edition configuration as a cluster running version 4.0.
A cluster that is using Geographic Edition software with a data replication product is subject to the standard configuration rules of a cluster that is running the data replication product with Oracle Solaris Cluster software. Partner clusters must have compatible software configurations to support data replication between the clusters.
The Geographic Edition product supports the following data replication products:
The Availability Suite feature of the Oracle Solaris OS
EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility software
Hitachi TrueCopy and Universal Replicator software
MySQL software
Oracle Data Guard software, in configurations that use Oracle Database software
Oracle GoldenGate software
Oracle Solaris ZFS snapshots feature
Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance software
Geographic Edition script-based plug-ins
These products provide the following types of replication:
Host-based replication – The ZFS snapshots and Availability Suite features of Oracle Solaris software are host-based replication methods. This method consists of software installed on a host that controls replication from one server to a secondary server.
Storage-based replication – Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance, Hitachi TrueCopy and Universal Replicator, and EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility replication use a storage-based method. This method uses replication that is built into the storage hardware. If you use Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance software, Hitachi TrueCopy and Universal Replicator RAID Manager software, or EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility software, you must install the software on each node of the cluster.
Replication for databases – Oracle Data Guard functionality is part of the Oracle Database software and so does not require you to install additional software onto your system. The Geographic Edition module for Oracle Data Guard can only be used with Oracle databases.
Oracle GoldenGate is a data replication software for databases. It takes changes from a source database and replicates them to a target database.
Built-in replication – MySQL database software offers a built-in replication protocol. Configuring the Geographic Edition MySQL replication module enables you to control replication between MySQL instances on each site.
Custom replication – The Geographic Edition script-based plug-in enables the user to develop replication modules to integrate additional replication protocols into Geographic Edition. The plug-in provides the interface to register custom replication control scripts with Geographic Edition.
See the Oracle Solaris Cluster 4 Compatibility Guide (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris-cluster/overview/solariscluster4-compatibilityguide-1429037.pdf) for information about volume management support for your data replication product.