Using Oracle™ GoldenGate to add alternate key files/values

This started as an alternative to a long and highly impactful application downtime.

The problem initially was the need to add alternate keys for application use, on the order of 4 times the key values.

Additionally, the issue of the sheer size of the primary file, Type 2 Enscribe and several gigabytes of archived data that needed to remain available. To reduce the outage window to the smallest possible amount of time, it was decided a copy of the primary file, with the additional alternate key definitions be created, then loaded with a direct data pump using GoldenGate to load both the primary and  alternate key files.

Advantages included being able to use restart capabilities of GoldenGate and using TMF Disk Buffers to expedite the load process.

Files were already replicated to a Target Site, so in addition to duplicating the primary and alternate keys at the Primary Site the process also called for duplicating the activity at the Target.

Source data generated by the applications was already being captured, extracted and replicated so it was a simple matter of building new file structures, performing the initial load of of primary and alternate key files, then enabling change capture until the switch could be scheduled at the least impactful time.

Next I'll explain the details of creating and loading the new file structures with the initial GoldenGate data pump....