Zero Data Loss and Real-Time Monitoring: How StreamSets Enhances Oracle CDC

While CDC has been an established practice for years in support of data replication, in today’s fast-paced digital landscape, it opens all sorts of new opportunities to support various use cases such as customer 360, regulatory compliance, and financial reporting to name a few. It keeps a close eye on real-time changes in databases, capturing every update and generating a stream of change data for timely insights. It’s like gold for decision-making and spotting market trends. Beyond insights, CDC ensures data consistency across systems and enables seamless cloud integration.  

CDC with Oracle Database is a critical component in modern data integration strategies for enterprises seeking real-time insights. CDC acts as an astute observer, closely tracking and capturing every change occurring within the database, ensuring the generation of a continuous stream of change data. This stream of data not only facilitates timely decision-making but also guarantees a level of accuracy that business teams rely on. However, traditional CDC methods fall short when applied to Oracle databases.  

For instance, the recent deprecation of LogMiner’s continuous mine feature leaves a void in real-time CDC capabilities, while trigger-based approaches might struggle with the complexities of Oracle Databases, potentially leading to performance bottlenecks and administrative complexities (carefully defining and maintaining the triggers to accurately capture desired changes). StreamSets seamlessly addresses these challenges by offering a reliable data integration solution for CDC pipelines on Oracle databases.  

StreamSets employs a sophisticated approach to leverage Oracle Redo Logs for CDC, an essential function now included in the standard product offering of StreamSets Data Collector. Data Collector is a powerful tool designed to build continuous data ingestion pipelines. It enables reading data from nearly any source, transforms it in flight, and writes it to various destinations.  

 The process of leveraging Oracle Redo Logs can be thought of as two main steps, all coordinated and managed by StreamSets. In the first step, the physical files are read and translated into SQL statements; for this step, StreamSets Oracle CDC Origin interfaces with Oracle LogMiner, which interprets the raw files and converts to a SQL statements – given that the log files are in proprietary format and liable to change as Oracle introduces new functionality, this is the best option to get consistent, high quality translation of log entries into readable SQL statements. 

The second step in the process is to read the SQL statements, parse them, enrich them with relevant metadata, e.g. timestamps, operation type, user and System Change Number (SCN), and turn them into Data Collector records that can be applied, in the right order, to any target system. 

StreamSets is a comprehensive solution for real-time CDC on Oracle databases, offering support for various configurations, including Primary and Standy databases, Oracle RAC, and ExaData, with Oracle Cloud support on the horizon. A key strength lies in StreamSets’ sophisticated algorithm, which tracks dictionary changes and adjusts record formats without burdening users with DBA administrative complexities. This ensures a streamlines CDC process.  

StreamSets also prioritizes data integrity, guaranteeing zero data loss even in challenging scenarios like Oracle RAC node failures, rapid redo log rotations, and high-volume nightly bulk processes. Real-time summary information empowers users to monitor lengthy CDC processes, while advanced options provide flexibility, allowing users to customize records precisely for their business needs. StreamSets stands out as the ideal choice for Oracle CDC by combining reliability, performance, and flexbility in a single solution.  

By leveraging StreamSets, organizations can take advantage of real-time data synchronization, enabling them to make informed decisions at the speed of business. In addition, StreamSets’ precise capture of changes guarantees data accuracy, making it a trusted tool for critical business applications. The platform capabilities ensure seamless handling of large data volumes, catering to mission-critical environments. With StreamSets, businesses gain a competitive edge by unlocking the true potential of Oracle CDC and maximizing the value of their data.  

The post Zero Data Loss and Real-Time Monitoring: How StreamSets Enhances Oracle CDC appeared first on StreamSets.

Read MoreStreamSets