Preface

Oracle9i Replication Management API Reference contains information that describes the features and functionality of the replication management API. Specifically, the Oracle9i Replication Management API Reference contains reference information for the packages in the replication management API, as well as examples of their use.

In addition, Oracle9i Replication Management API Reference contains reference information about the replication catalog and other data dictionary views that are important for replication.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience

Oracle9i Replication Management API Reference is intended for database administrators and application developers who develop and maintain replication environments. These administrators and application developers perform one or more of the following tasks:

Configure replication sites
Create master groups
Create deployment templates
Create materialized view groups
Configure conflict resolution
Manage replication environments
Use the replication management API
Monitor replication environments using data dictionary views
Plan and configure security options

To use this document, you need to be familiar with relational database concepts, distributed database administration, PL/SQL (if using procedural replication), and the operating system under which you run an Advanced Replication environment.

Organization

This document contains:

Part I, "Configuring Your Replication Environment"

Includes instructions on using the replication management API to set up both multimaster replication and materialized view replication. This part also contains instructions for configuring conflict resolution methods and instructions for managing your replication environment using the replication management API.

Chapter 1, "Replication Overview"

Provides an overview of the process for building a replication environment with the replication management API. This chapter also contains some prerequisites for building a replication environment.

Chapter 2, "Create Replication Site"

Describes in detail the process of setting up both a master and materialized view site. Consult this chapter when building a new replication environment and when adding either a new master or materialized view site to an established replication environment.

Chapter 3, "Create a Master Group"

Describes how to build a master group for use with multimaster replication or as a master for a materialized view site. Chapter 3 builds a master group that replicates data between the three master sites that were set up in Chapter 2.

Chapter 4, "Create a Deployment Template"

Describes how to build a materialized view environment with deployment templates, which are the most effective method of distributing a materialized view environment to any number of materialized view sites.

Chapter 5, "Create Materialized View Group"

Describes how to build a materialized view environment with materialized view groups. If deployment templates do not meet your requirements, then Chapter 5 describes in detail how to build a materialized view environment at the materialized view site.

Chapter 6, "Configure Conflict Resolution"

Describes the conflict resolution methods that can help your data converge at all sites when a data conflict arises.

Part II, "Managing and Monitoring Your Replication Environment"

Includes instructions on managing a replication environment using the replication management API.

Chapter 7, "Managing a Master Replication Environment"

Describes many of the management tasks that you may need to perform to manage a multimaster replication environment. Topics include adding new master sites, master group management, and more.

Chapter 8, "Managing a Materialized View Replication Environment"

Describes many of the management tasks that you may need to perform to manage a materialized view replication environment. Topics include using a group owner, managing materialized view logs, offline instantiation, and more.

Chapter 9, "Managing Replication Objects and Queues"

Describes many of the management tasks that you may need to perform to manage your replication environment. Topics include altering replicated objects, managing the deferred transactions queue, managing the error queue, and more.

Chapter 10, "Monitoring a Replication Environment"

Describes many of the queries you can run to monitor your replication environment.

Part III, "Replication Management API Packages Reference"

Includes reference information about the replication management API, including: the procedures and functions in each package, the parameters for each packaged procedure and function, and exceptions that each procedure or function can raise.

Chapter 11, "Introduction to the Replication Management API Reference"

Introduces the replication management API and includes examples for its use.

Chapter 12, "DBMS_DEFER"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_DEFER package.

Chapter 13, "DBMS_DEFER_QUERY"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_DEFER_QUERY package.

Chapter 14, "DBMS_DEFER_SYS"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_DEFER_SYS package.

Chapter 15, "DBMS_MVIEW"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_MVIEW package.

Chapter 16, "DBMS_OFFLINE_OG"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_OFFLINE_OG package.

Chapter 17, "DBMS_OFFLINE_SNAPSHOT"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_OFFLINE_SNAPSHOT package.

Chapter 18, "DBMS_RECTIFIER_DIFF"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_RECTIFIER_DIFF package.

Chapter 19, "DBMS_REFRESH"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_REFRESH package.

Chapter 20, "DBMS_REPCAT"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_REPCAT package.

Chapter 21, "DBMS_REPCAT_ADMIN"

Describes the procedures in the DBMS_REPCAT_ADMIN package.

Chapter 22, "DBMS_REPCAT_INSTANTIATE"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_REPCAT_INSTANTIATE package.

Chapter 23, "DBMS_REPCAT_RGT"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_REPCAT_RGT package.

Chapter 24, "DBMS_REPUTIL"

Describes the procedures and functions in the DBMS_REPUTIL package.

Part IV, "Replication Data Dictionary Reference"

Describes data dictionary views that provide information about your replication environment.

Chapter 25, "Replication Catalog Views"

Describes the replication catalog, which contains data dictionary views that are used by master and materialized view sites to determine such information as what objects are being replicated, where they are being replicated, and if any errors have occurred during replication.

Chapter 26, "Replication Dynamic Performance Views"

Describes the dynamic performance views that are used by master and materialized view sites to determine such information as which materialized views are being refreshed currently and statistics about the deferred transaction queue.

Chapter 27, "Deferred Transaction Views"

Describes the data dictionary views that contain information about deferred transactions. These views provide information about each deferred transaction, such as the transaction destinations, the deferred calls that make up the transactions, and any errors encountered during attempted execution of the transaction.

Chapter 28, "Materialized View and Refresh Group Views"

Describes data dictionary views that provide information about materialized views and materialized view refresh groups.

Part V, "Appendixes"

Includes the following appendixes:

Appendix A, "Security Options"

Describes setting up security for multimaster and materialized view replication using the replication management API.

Appendix B, "User-Defined Conflict Resolution Methods"

Describes building user-defined conflict resolution methods and notification functions using the replication management API.

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles or emphasis.	Oracle9i Database Concepts Ensure that the recovery catalog and target database do not reside on the same disk.
`UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width) font`	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, usernames, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a `NUMBER` column. You can back up the database by using the `BACKUP` command. Query the `TABLE_NAME` column in the `USER_TABLES` data dictionary view. Use the `DBMS_STATS`.`GENERATE_STATS` procedure.
`lowercase monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables, filenames, directory names, and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, usernames and roles, program units, and parameter values. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	Enter `sqlplus` to open SQL*Plus. The password is specified in the `orapwd` file. Back up the datafiles and control files in the `/disk1/oracle/dbs` directory. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table. Set the `QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED` initialization parameter to `true.` Connect as `oe` user. The `JRepUtil` class implements these methods.
`lowercase italic monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase italic monospace font represents placeholders or variables.	You can specify the `parallel_clause`. Run `U``old_release``.SQL` where `old_release` refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE}
\|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE} [COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]
`...`	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery; SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees;
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.	SQL> SELECT NAME FROM V$DATAFILE; NAME ------------------------------------ /fsl/dbs/tbs_01.dbf /fs1/dbs/tbs_02.dbf . . . /fsl/dbs/tbs_09.dbf 9 rows selected.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as shown.	acctbal NUMBER(11,2); acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;
Italics	Italicized text indicates placeholders or variables for which you must supply particular values.	CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password DB_NAME = database_name
UPPERCASE	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES; DROP TABLE hr.employees;
`lowercase`	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; sqlplus hr/hr CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9;

Conventions for Windows Operating Systems

The following table describes conventions for Windows operating systems and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Choose Start >	How to start a program.	To start the Database Configuration Assistant, choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Configuration and Migration Tools > Database Configuration Assistant.
File and directory names	File and directory names are not case sensitive. The following special characters are not allowed: left angle bracket (<), right angle bracket (>), colon (:), double quotation marks ("), slash (/), pipe (\|), and dash (-). The special character backslash (\) is treated as an element separator, even when it appears in quotes. If the file name begins with \\, then Windows assumes it uses the Universal Naming Convention.	c:\winnt"\"system32 is the same as C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32
`C:\>`	Represents the Windows command prompt of the current hard disk drive. The escape character in a command prompt is the caret (^). Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the command prompt in this manual.	C:\oracle\oradata>
Special characters	The backslash (\) special character is sometimes required as an escape character for the double quotation mark (") special character at the Windows command prompt. Parentheses and the single quotation mark (') do not require an escape character. Refer to your Windows operating system documentation for more information on escape and special characters.	C:\>exp scott/tiger TABLES=emp QUERY=\"WHERE job='SALESMAN' and sal<1600\" C:\>imp SYSTEM/password FROMUSER=scott TABLES=(emp, dept)
HOME_NAME	Represents the Oracle home name. The home name can be up to 16 alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.	C:\> net start OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener
`ORACLE_HOME` and `ORACLE_BASE`	In releases prior to Oracle8i release 8.1.3, when you installed Oracle components, all subdirectories were located under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory that by default used one of the following names: `C:\orant` for Windows NT `C:\orawin98` for Windows 98 This release complies with Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines. All subdirectories are not under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory. There is a top level directory called `ORACLE_BASE` that by default is `C:\oracle`. If you install Oracle9i release 1 (9.0.1) on a computer with no other Oracle software installed, then the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is `C:\oracle\ora90`. The Oracle home directory is located directly under `ORACLE_BASE`. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions. Refer to Oracle9i Database Getting Started for Windows for additional information about OFA compliances and for information about installing Oracle products in non-OFA compliant directories.	Go to the `ORACLE_BASE``\``ORACLE_HOME``\rdbms\admin` directory.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

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