The Replication Warriors.

Oracle Data Guard

Vs Golden Gate

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Contents
Overview & Architecture: ............................................................................................................................... 3
Architecture of Golden gate. .............................................................................................................................. 3
Architecture of Active data guard. ..................................................................................................................... 4
Golden Gate + Data Guard Mixed architecture. ................................................................................................. 5
Fair Comparison: ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Platform .............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Replication: ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Datatypes ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
Backups: .............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Downtime: .......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Administration: ................................................................................................................................................... 6
Licensing: ............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Comparison Table ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Considerations for a Golden Gate Live Standby Configuration ........................................................ 10
Considerations for a Active Data Guard Standby Configuration ...................................................... 11
Conclusion: ....................................................................................................................................................... 12
When to use Oracle Active Data Guard.? ......................................................................................................... 12
When to use Oracle Golden Gate? ................................................................................................................... 12
When to use Oracle Golden Gate with Active Data Guard? ............................................................................. 12
References & Notes: ...................................................................................................................................... 13

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Overview & Architecture:
- The configuration of Oracle Golden Gate / Data Guard has the purpose of synchronizing data
between two or multiple systems.
- The basic features of the two products may look similar but usually Golden Gate uses
replication while data guard not.
- There have been multiple scenarios where in customers choose data guard over golden gate
or vice-versa.
- Even in many cases customers choose to combine the best of both worlds to achieve
advanced replication to suite multiple requirements.
- Golden Gate is ideal for heterogeneous environments – not just supporting different versions
of the same database or operation system/hardware but replicating and integrating data
across vendor systems.
- Data Guard is best for disaster recovery and data protection problems at a lower cost.

Architecture of Golden gate.

- Oracle GoldenGate can be configured for the following purposes:

o A static extraction of data records from one database and the loading of those records
to another database.
o Continuous extraction and replication of transactional Data Manipulation Language
(DML) operations and data definition language (DDL) changes (for supported
databases) to keep source and target data consistent.
o Extraction from a database and replication to a file outside the database.
- Oracle GoldenGate is composed of the following components:
o Extract

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 o Data pump
o Replicat
o Trails or extract files
o Checkpoints
o Manager &
o Collector.

Architecture of Active data guard.

- Active Data Guard is an option license for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. Active Data
Guard enables advanced capabilities that that extend basic Data Guard functionality.
- These include:
o Real-Time Query - offload read-only workloads to an up-to-date standby database
o Automatic Block Repair - automatic repair of physical corruption transparent to
the user
o Standby Block Change Tracking - enable incremental backups on an active standby
o Active Data Guard Rolling Upgrade - make it simple to reduce planned downtime
o Global Database Services - load balancing and service management across
replicated databases.

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Golden Gate + Data Guard Mixed architecture.

Fair Comparison:
- Following are few major or high-level areas to do a comparison between both:

Platform:
- Data Guard is an Oracle specific technology while Golden Gate support heterogeneous
database systems including all the major RDBMS as DB2, Sybase, MySQL.
- Golden Gate allows transformation of the data, with conflict management while it is being
replicated between both database systems.
- Golden Gate allows replication across platform. Data can be extracted from a Unix platform
and replicated to an Oracle database running on platform Windows.
- Platforms that are supported by Golden gate includes:
- Databases
o OracleDB2
o Microsoft SQL Server
o Sybase ASE
o Teradata
o EnscribeSQL/MPSQL/MXDelivery
o plus: HP Neoview, Netezza, Greenplum, and any ODBC compatible databases
- O/S and Platforms:
o ETL products e.g. JMS message queues, MySQL, Times Ten,
o Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Linux, Sun Solaris, HP Non-Stop, HP-UXHP TRU64HP
OpenVMS, IBM AIXIBM z/OS

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Replication:
- Data Guard supports active-passive replication. One of the database is the primary database
and the other one is in an inactive Data Guard mode.
- Golden Gate supports an active-active replication mode and allows both systems to work
simultaneously while maintaining the data integrity.

Datatypes
- With data guard w.r.t. data types there exists No restrictions - Oracle Data Guard Redo Apply
supports all Oracle features and transparently replicates all data and storage types, PL/SQL
packages and DDL without special considerations.
- Whereas with Golden gate there has been Restrictions on support to DATATYPES like XML,
BLOB etc

Backups:
- Transparency of backups - an Oracle Data Guard primary and standby are physically exact
copies of each other, RMAN backups are completely interchangeable.
- With Golden Gate Only DATA which are replicated are similar to each other. It does not have
transparency of backup.

Downtime:
- With Data Guard Minimize planned downtime and risk using Data Guard standby. Standby
first patching, database rolling upgrades, and select platform migrations.
- With Golden Gate also possible to have Zero Downtime Upgrade/Migration: you may want to
setup an exact replica of your database for upgrade or migration, keep the data in sync till the
last moment. but a Bi-Directional replication should be configured

Administration:
- Utility like DGMGRL can be used with Data Guard, optionally they support standard SQL
ALTER Statements to maintain standby databases.
- Similarly, with golden gate with utility like GGSCI is available to perform database operations.
- With Data guard
o A single command will convert a physical standby database as a test system open
read-write.
o Another second command will convert it back to a physical standby database and
resynchronize it with the primary
- With Golden Gate
o No such testing is required since both the systems are in open read-write mode.

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Licensing:
- Golden gate license comes with all full bundle replication features. i.e. a Golden gate
purchase includes license for Oracle Active data guard.
- Golden Gate license needs to be purchased for each source as well as target machines
individually.
- Basic Data Guard also referred as standby database does not requires any additional license
and is included with Oracle DB Enterprise Edition options.
- “Oracle Active data guard Options” do require additional license purchases with Oracle DB
Enterprise Options.

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Replication Topologies:
- Golden gate offers multiple topologies to achieve replication e.g. Unidirectional, bi-
directional, Peer-to- Peer, Broadcast, Consolidation, Cascading.
- Oracle GoldenGate enables the exchange and manipulation of data at the transaction level
among multiple, heterogeneous platforms across the enterprise. It moves committed
transactions with transaction integrity and minimal overhead on your existing infrastructure. I

- With data guard we can have a reader farm/ cascading affect and is Active- Passive One-way
replication.
- Data Guard configuration can support multiple standby databases, it can be extended to
boost the read performance of the most demanding applications beyond what the primary
database alone could support e.g. offloading reporting or offloading backup etc.
- Following shows an Active Data Guard configuration with a single primary database that
supports read/write transactions, and multiple standby databases that provide read-only
access to users.

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Comparison Table
S
No. Data Guard Golden Gate
Data Guard is Oracle Specific
1 Heterogeneous Database technology.
technology
Platform
Do not support other vendor Supports multiple Database
2
databases. tecchnologies.
Supports Active-Passive Supports Active-Acive replication
3
Replication, Seamlessly
Any advanced replication
Replication requirements such as: multimaster
Simplest, fastest, one-way
and bidirectional replication, subset
4 replication of a complete Oracle
replication, many to one replication,
Database
cross endian replication, and data
transformations
No restrictions – Oracle Data Guard
Redo Apply supports all Oracle
Restrictions on support to DATATYPES
5 Datatypes features and transparently
like XML, BLOB etc
replicates all data and storage
types
Transparency of backups – an
Only DATA which are replicated are
Oracle Data Guard primary and
6 Backups similar to each other. It does not have
standby are physically exact copies
transparency of backup
of each other
Minimize planned downtime and
risk using Data Guard standby. Zero downtime for Maintenance and
7 Downtime Standby first patching, database migrations, but a Bi-Directional
rolling upgrades, and select replication should be configured
platform migrations
- A single command will convert a
physical standby database as a test
system open read-write. No such testing is required since both
Administrati
8 - A second command will convert it the systems are in open read-write
on
back to a physical standby mode
database and resynchronize it with
the primary

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 No additional license for Basic Data
guard. Need purchase of "Oracle Golden Gate
Is included in Oracle DB Enterprise license" for both Source & Target
Edition. Machine
9 Licensing
"Active Data Guard Options" can
be purchased with Oracle Database
Enterprise Edition. Active Data guard is also included with
AD is superset of basic Data guard. Golden Gate

Considerations for a Golden Gate Live Standby Configuration

These sections describe considerations for a live standby configuration.

Trusted Source The primary database is the trusted source. This is the database that is the active
source during normal operating mode, and it is the one from which the other database is derived in
the initial synchronization phase and in any subsequent resynchronizations.
Duplicate Standby In most implementations of a live standby, the source and target databases are
identical in content and structure. Data mapping, conversion, and filtering typically are not
appropriate practices in this kind of configuration, but Oracle GoldenGate does support such
functionality if required by your business model. To support these functions, use the options of the
TABLE and MAP parameters.
DML on the Standby System If your applications permit, you can use the live standby system for
reporting and queries, but not DML. If there will be active transactional applications on the live
standby system that affect objects in the Oracle GoldenGate configuration, you should configure this
as an active-active configuration.

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Oracle GoldenGate Processes During normal operating mode, leave the primary Extract and the data
pump on the live standby system stopped, and leave the Replicat on the active source stopped.
This prevents any DML that occurs accidentally on the standby system from being propagated to the
active source. Only the Extract, data pump, and Replicat that move data from the active source to the
standby system can be active.
Failover Preparedness
Make certain that the primary and live standby systems are ready for immediate user access in the
event of a planned switchover or an unplanned source failure.
The following components of a high-availability plan should be made easily available for use on each
system:
o Scripts that grant insert, update, and delete privileges.
o Scripts that enable triggers and cascaded delete constraints on the live standby
system. (These may have been disabled during the setup procedures that were
outlined in the Oracle GoldenGate installation and configuration document for your
database type.)
o Scripts that switch over the application server, start applications, and copy essential
files that are not part of the replication environment.
o A failover procedure for moving users to the live standby if the source system fails.

Considerations for a Active Data Guard Standby Configuration

Read-Only Applications and Application Workloads: Read-only applications are those that do not cause
any database changes, i.e. they do not generate any redo data in an Oracle database and are commonly
referred to as reporting applications. With Active Data Guard, you can move this type of application to the
standby database, thereby freeing additional resources on the primary database to execute read-write
transactions.

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Operations Disallowed on a Read-Only Database: An Active Data Guard standby database is subject to
the same restrictions as any Oracle database that is open read-only. These include:
• Any DMLs (excluding simple SELECT statements) or DDLs
• Query accessing local sequences • DMLs to local temporary tables

Reader Farms: Scaling Read-Only Workload Because a Data Guard configuration can support multiple
standby databases i.e. an Active Data Guard configuration with a single primary database that supports
read/write transactions, and multiple standby databases that provide read-only access to users.

Accommodating Read-Mostly Applications Read-mostly applications perform many more read operations
than writes. For example, certain reporting applications perform mainly read I/Os but must issue limited
INSERTs, UPDATEs, or DELETEs to track user logons or report history and status. Such applications may be able
to use Active Data Guard by redirecting write I/Os to a separate database.

Conclusion:
When to use Oracle Active Data Guard.?
Use Active Data Guard where emphasis is on
- Full Database protection.
- Highest performance, simple, drop-in solution for HA and DR.
-
When to use Oracle Golden Gate?
Use Oracle Golden Gate when a replica database must be open read-write while replication is active,
or for advanced replication requirements beyond what is addressed by Active Data Guard:
- Information distribution and consolidation.
- Heterogeneous, Active-active, transformations & sub setting.
- HA with flexibility i.e. schema changes, different platforms.
- Multiple OS/ Database vendors etc.
-
When to use Oracle Golden Gate with Active Data Guard?
The following examples of high availability architectures that include the simultaneous use of both
technologies:
- An Active Data Guard standby is utilized for disaster protection and database rolling upgrades
for a mission critical OLTP database.

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 - Golden Gate is used to extract data from the Data Guard primary database (or from the
standby database) for ETL update of an enterprise data warehouse.
- Golden Gate subset replication is used extract, transforms, and aggregate data from
numerous data sources into a central operational data store (ODS). The ODS supports mission
critical application systems that generate significant revenue for the company. An Active Data
Guard standby database is used to protect the ODS, providing optimal data protection and
availability.
- Golden Gate multi-master replication is utilized to synchronize several databases, each
located in different geographies.
- Each Golden Gate copy has its own local synchronous Data Guard standby database that
enables zero data loss failover should an outage occur. Golden Gate capture and apply
processes are easily restarted on the new primary database following a failover since primary
and standby are an exact, up-to-date replica of each other.
- Reducing planned downtime for various planned maintenance activities not supported by
Data Guard – such as cross-endian platform migration or application upgrades that modify
back-end database objects.

References & Notes:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/availability/maa-wp-11gr1-activedataguard-1-
128199.pdf
https://docs.oracle.com/goldengate/1212/gg-winux/index.html
Disclaimer: This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to
change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties
or conditions. Image sources and copyright credit are from respective product vendor and used here for
education or product promotional purpose only.

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