Configuring the CDC Replication Engine for Oracle XStream instances for local log reading

CDC Replication relies on Oracle XStream to provide a sequence of Logical Change Records (LCR) for database DML and DDL. As such, CDC Replication does not directly interact with either online or archive redo logs.

Procedure

  1. If you are configuring the first instance of the CDC Replication Engine for Oracle XStream after installation, you can proceed to Step 4.
  2. At the command prompt, launch the configuration tool by issuing the following command in the specified directory: 
    \CDC_installation_directory\bin\dmconfigurets
  3. If you are configuring instances subsequent to the first instance, enter 2 and press Enter. Proceed to Step 5.
  4. At the welcome message, press Enter to continue.
  5. Enter the name of the instance that you want to add and press Enter.
    The instance name must be unique.
  6. Enter the port number that CDC Replication uses for communication with client workstations that run Management Console and other servers. CDC Replication displays a default port of 11001. Press Enter.

    This port number cannot be used by other applications that are installed on the same server. You use this port number when you specify access parameters for your datastore in the Access Manager perspective in Management Console.

  7. Enter the maximum amount of disk space that will be utilized by the CDC Replication staging store on your source system. The default value is 100 GB.

    Specify 1 GB if you are creating an instance that will be used as a target of replication. This reduces the disk resources that CDC Replication requires on your target system.

  8. Enter the amount of physically available RAM that you want to allocate for this instance of CDC Replication and press Enter.

    By default, the configuration tool allocates 1024 MB of RAM for each instance. Using values other than the defaults or allocating more RAM than is physically available on your server should only be undertaken after considering the impacts on product performance.

  9. Select the encryption profile from the list.
    If you would like to enable TLS for communication between source and target, you must select an encryption profile with encryption enabled. Click Manage to view and manage the available encryption profiles. Encryption profiles can be shared between multiple instances of CDC Replication.
  10. Enter the path of the Oracle database (ORACLE_HOME environment variable) that you want to replicate data to or from and that contains all of the tables for replication. This is the database that you configured as part of the pre-installation tasks. Press Enter.
  11. Enter the number that corresponds to the TNS name for your Oracle database that you defined for CDC Replication in the tnsnames.ora file and press Enter.
  12. If you want to specify extra JDBC parameters, perform the following steps. Otherwise, enter n and press Enter.
    1. Enter y and press Enter.
    2. Enter the extra JDBC parameters in a semicolon-delimited list and press Enter.
  13. At the prompt Use kerberos authentication (y/n), specify the authentication method for the database. Choose one of these options:
    Authentication method Steps
    Kerberos Choose whether to use Kerberos authentication (y) or not (n):
    y
    Enter y and press Enter.

    You are prompted to enter any additional JVM parameters to enable Kerberos authentication. The following example shows a JVM parameter that you might be prompted to enter:

    -Djava.security.auth.login.config=JAAS-conf-file-location

    The JAAS-conf-file-location must have the following format:

    JDBC_DRIVER_01 {
com.ibm.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
useDefaultCcache=true
credsType=both
useKeytab="/IIDRForOracle/krboracle.tab"
principal="krboracle@KERBEROS.DOMAIN.COM";
};

    JDBC_DRIVER_01 is the required entry name. Because the CDC Replication Engine for Oracle databases bundles the IBM® JVM with the product, the parameter and format must follow IBM Java™ format.

    n
    Enter n to specify that you do not want to use Kerberos authentication, then press Enter.
    External secret store through Java user exit Choose whether to use an external secret through Java user exit authentication (y) or not (n):
    y
    1. Enter y and press Enter. You are prompted to enter the Java class name of the external secret store user exit, for example com.datamirror.ts.external.keystore.VaultExternalSecretStoreTest.
    2. Enter the case-sensitive database user key from external secret store for the specified database and press Enter.
    3. Enter the case-sensitive database password key from external secret store for the specified database and press Enter.

    See Creating an instance by using database credentials stored in an external secret store for more details.

    n
    Specifies to not use an external secret store.
    User name and password
    1. Enter n and press Enter.
    2. Enter the user name for the specified database and press Enter. If you configured an Oracle database with a read-only connection, specify the read-only user for that database.
    3. Enter the case-sensitive password for the specified database and press Enter.
    After you select and configure the authentication method, the configuration tool searches the database for schemas.
  14. Enter the number that corresponds to the database schema that is used by CDC Replication for metadata tables and press Enter.

    You can specify any schema except those in use by other installed instances of CDC Replication for the given database. If the number of detected schemas is large, you are given the option of entering the schema name directly or you can press Enter to view the pages of schema names.

    Note: CDC Replication metadata tables contain important configuration information and should be backed up as part of your database backup strategy.
  15. Provide the Log Processing Database TNS name. It can be the same as the source database TNS name. If the configuration is against Oracle RAC, review Oracle RAC requirements for TNS name.
  16. Choose N if you want to configure the Log Processing Database connection by using database credentials or database credentials from an external secret store and Y if you want Kerberos authentication to be used to connect to the Log Processing Database.
  17. Type the user name to connect to the Log Processing Database or enter the user name key from an external secret store for the specified database if Kerberos authentication is not used.
  18. Type the password to connect to the Log Processing Database or enter the password key from an external secret store for the specified database if Kerberos authentication is not used.
    Note: The Log Processing Database TNS name along with the authentication method that you chose are used by CDC Replication to manage Oracle XStream objects to obtain changed data from the database.
  19. If CDC Replication detects an unsupported encoding, an error message is displayed and you are asked to choose an alternate encoding.
    1. Enter y to proceed. If you enter n and press Enter to cancel, the instance is not created.
    2. Enter a value to choose how the alternate encodings are displayed:
      • 1: Displays the available alternate encodings that are the closest match to the database.
      • 2: Displays the available alternate encodings in order of byte length.
      • 3: Displays all available alternate encodings.
    3. Enter the number for the encoding to be used and press Enter.
  20. The configuration tool creates the CDC Replication instance and prompts you to start the instance. Enter y to start the instance.

    The configuration tool prompts you if your configuration is about to overwrite the metadata for an existing instance.