Preface

This Preface contains the following topics:

• Overview of the Oracle8i Replication Manual

• Audience

• How This Book Is Organized

• Conventions Used in This Manual

• Your Comments Are Welcome

Oracle8i Replication contains information that describes the features and functionality of the Oracle8i and the Oracle8i Enterprise Edition products. Oracle8i and the Oracle8i Enterprise Edition have the same basic features. However, several advanced features are available only with the Enterprise Edition, and some of these are optional. For example, to use partitioning, you must have the Enterprise Edition and the partitioning option.

See Also: Getting to Know Oracle8i for information about the differences between Oracle8i Standard Edition, Oracle8i Enterprise Edition, and Oracle8i Personal Edition.

Overview of the Oracle8i Replication Manual

This manual describes Oracle8i server replication capabilities. To use Oracle replication, you must have installed Oracle's advanced replication option. Basic replication (read-only and updateable snapshots) is standard Oracle distributed functionality. Procedural replication requires PL/SQL and the advanced replication option.

Information in this manual applies to the Oracle8i Server running on all operating systems. Topics include the following:

• Replication
  • Read-only snapshots

  • Updateable snapshots

  • Singe master replication

  • Multimaster replication (requires Orcle8i Enterprise Edition)

  • Deployment templates

• Conflict resolution

• Administering a replicated environment

• Advanced techniques

• Troubleshooting

• Using job queues

• Deferred transactions

Audience

This manual is written for database administrators and application developers who develop and maintain advanced Oracle8i distributed systems.

Knowledge Assumed of the Reader

This manual assumes you are familiar with relational database concepts, distributed database administration, PL/SQL (if using procedural replication), and the operating system under which you run an Oracle replicated environment.

This manual also assumes that you have read and understand the information in the following documents:

• Oracle8i Concepts

• Oracle8i Administrator's Guide

• Oracle8i Distributed Database Systems

• PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference (if you plan to use procedural replication)

How This Book Is Organized

This manual contains the following chapters and appendices:.

Chapter 1, "Replication Overview"
Introduces the concepts and terminology of Oracle replication.

Chapter 2, "Master Concepts & Architecture"
Describes the concepts and architecture of multimaster replication.

Chapter 3, "Snapshot Concepts & Architecture"
Describes the concepts and architecture of snapshot replication. This chapter also discusses the prerequisites of building a snapshot environment.

Chapter 4, "Deployment Templates Concepts & Architecture"
Describes the concepts and architecture of deployment templates. This chapter also discusses designing deployment templates.

Chapter 5, "Conflict Resolution Concepts & Architecture"
Describes the concepts and architecture of conflict resolution. This chapter describes conflict resolution methods.

Chapter 6, "Advanced Concepts & Architecture"
Describes advanced replication techniques, including how to do the following: use procedural replication, design for survivability, use dynamic ownership conflict avoidance, and modify tables without replicating the modifications.

Chapter 7, "Planning Your Replication Environment"
Describes planning your replication environment, including information about setting initialization parameters and preparing your environment for replication.

Chapter 8, "Introduction to Replication Manager"
Introduces you to the features of Oracle Replication Manager, a Java-based tool for creating, administering, and monitoring a replication environment.

Appendix A, "New Features"
Briefly describes the new features of this release and refers to sections of this document, and other documents, that have more information.

Appendix B, "Troubleshooting Replication Problems"
Describes diagnosing and solving common replication problems.

Appendix C, "Configuring the Oracle8i Server for RepAPI"
Discusses configuring an Oracle8i server to be accessed by Java RepAPI clients. Java RepAPI is a runtime library that enables Oracle8i Lite clients to replicate data with Oracle servers.

Changes To This Book

The following major changes were made to this book:

• In past releases, this book contained detailed information about using Replication Manager. In the current release, detailed documentation about using Replication Manager is only in the Replication Manager online help. This book contains two new chapters: Chapter 7, "Planning Your Replication Environment" and Chapter 8, "Introduction to Replication Manager".

• Two appendices were added: Appendix B, "Troubleshooting Replication Problems" and Appendix C, "Configuring the Oracle8i Server for RepAPI".

• The appendix on migration and compatibility was moved to the Oracle8i Migration book.

Conventions Used in This Manual

This manual uses different fonts to represent different types of information.

Special Notes

Special notes alert you to particular information within the body of this manual:

Note: Indicates special or auxiliary information.

See Also: Indicates where to get more information.

Caution: Indicates important information about possible damage to your system or your data.

Text of the Manual

The following sections describe conventions used this manual.

UPPERCASE Characters

Uppercase text is used to call attention to statement keywords, object names, initialization parameters, and data dictionary views.

For example, "If you create a private rollback segment, the name must be included in the ROLLBACK_SEGMENTS initialization parameter".

Italicized Characters

Italicized words within text indicate the definition of a word, book titles, or emphasized words.

An example of a definition is the following: "A database is a collection of data to be treated as a unit. The general purpose of a database is to store and retrieve related information".

An example of a reference to another book is the following: "For more information, see Oracle8i Designing and Tuning for Performance."

An example of an emphasized word is the following: "You must back up your database regularly".

Code Examples

SQL, Server Manager line mode, and SQL*Plus statements appear separated from the text of paragraphs in a monospaced font. For example:

INSERT INTO emp (empno, ename) VALUES (1000, 'SMITH'); 
ALTER TABLESPACE users ADD DATAFILE 'users2.ora' SIZE 50K; 

Example statements may include punctuation, such as commas or quotation marks. All punctuation in example statements is required. All example statements terminate with a semicolon (;). Depending on the application, a semicolon or other terminator may or may not be required to end a statement.

Uppercase words in example statements indicate the keywords within Oracle SQL. When issuing statements, however, keywords are not case sensitive.

Lowercase words in example statements indicate words supplied only for the context of the example. For example, lowercase words may indicate the name of a table, column, or file.

Your Comments Are Welcome

We value your comments as an Oracle user and reader of our manuals. As we write, revise, and evaluate, your opinions are the most important input we receive. This manual contains a Reader's Comment Form that we encourage you to use to tell us what you like and dislike about this manual or other Oracle manuals. Please mail comments to:

Server Technologies Documentation Manager

Oracle Corporation

500 Oracle Parkway

Redwood City, CA 94065

U.S.A.

Fax - 650.506.7228 Attn: Server Technologies Documentation Manager

You can send comments and suggestions to the Information Development department at the following e-mail address:

infodev@us.oracle.com