GoldenGate Tools and Utilities

let’s take a quick look at some of the GoldenGate tools and utilities. The following sections provide a brief overview of the tools and utilities.

GGSCI

GGSCI is the GoldenGate Software Command Interface. GGSCI is delivered as part of the GoldenGate software and can be started from the software installation directory using the ggsci command. From the GGSCI command prompt, you can enter commands to manage all parts of the GoldenGate environment including Extracts, Replicats, trails, the Manager, and so on. The Help command is built into GGSCI to give information about each command and its syntax.

DEFGEN

You can use the GoldenGate DEFGEN utility to generate GoldenGate table-definition files when your source and target tables are different (if the source and target tables are identical, it isn’t necessary to run DEFGEN). You can also use DEFGEN to generate a data-definitions file for a data-pump Extract that is doing data transformations on a middle-tier server. DEFGEN is included as part of the regular GoldenGate installation and is available in the GoldenGate software-installation directory.

Logdump

You can use the GoldenGate Logdump utility to view records in the GoldenGate trail files. The Logdump utility is part of the regular GoldenGate software installation. Logdump lets you view the unstructured trail data in hex and ASCII format and count the number of records in the trail for debugging purposes. You can also filter the trail for desired records and save them to a new trail for reprocessing if needed.

Reverse

If you ever need to undo database changes, you can use the GoldenGate Reverse utility. Reverse uses a special Extract to capture the before images of changes and then reverses the order of the transactions and writes a new trail file for doing the reversal. A Replicat then processes the special reversed trail to undo database changes. Reverse can be useful for backing out unwanted changes to the database or quickly restoring a test database back to its original state. Reverse is another utility that is included with the GoldenGate software installation.

Veridata

Veridata is an additional product from GoldenGate that you can use to verify that your source and target databases match. For critical business applications, you should always verify that your source and target databases match when doing replication. If the databases being replicated are used for failover, this is especially important. Data verification is usually time consuming and difficult to accomplish for large amounts of data. Veridata reduces the amount of time verification takes and does high-speed data verification while the databases are online. Results are presented on a web interface. 

Director

Another add-on product available from GoldenGate is Director. Director is a graphical tool that you can use to centrally design, configure, manage, and monitor your entire GoldenGate environment. Director is made up of several components, including a centralized server and database repository, a client application, and a web browser interface. Director can also be integrated with third-party monitoring solutions. Director can manage all the databases and platforms that GoldenGate replication supports.