Basics

GoldenGate pre-12.2.0.1 doesn’t store table structure in trail files and in some cases it was an issue: when we received trail file — we didn’t know source table structure from the file. We had only record and this record contained field values. But we didn’t know field names. So earlier we chose how to manage this. There are two ways:

— assume that source table is the same as target table (ASSUMETARGETDEFS). In this case first value from trail record was written to first field of target table, the second value to the second field, etc. But this method doesn’t work in general case where source and target tables are different

— extract table definitions from source and gave this definition to replicat (SOURCEDEFS). In this case trail files were parsed and applied according to the static source table definition (stored in file). This method gave us flexibility but increased number of manual work: when source table structure changes — we must regenerate DEF-file or we can lose data consistency.

Now we don’t need ASSUMETARGETDEFS and SOURCEDEFS anymore. GoldenGate automatically transfers definitions in trail files. Moreover it retransfer definition when table structure changes (but retransfer will be triggered only after DML on this table) and also retransfer will be done after switch to new trail file (also we should wait for first DML).

There are two special new record types for table definition transfer: DDR (Database Definition Record) and TDR (Table Definition Record). The first one describes database, the second one is for table structure.

Continue reading ‘GoldenGate 12.2.0.1 New Features: Metadata Encapsulation’ »