SharePlex should be at the top of your list for replication software
March 14, 2018
SharePlex should be at the top of your list for replication software
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SharePlex
We've used SharePlex in two capacities. Its primary use is to provide heterogenous replication of production data into auxiliary systems (data marts, data lakes, BI, analytics). That has been an ongoing use for several years. We initially used it for Oracle -> Oracle replication only but have since extended its reach to utilize newer features that allow replication to SQL Server and JSON targets.
Our secondary use of Shareplex was to facilitate a major, complex database migration. It enabled us to migrate to new servers, new storage, update the OS, upgrade the database version, and apply critical patches with little (literally a few seconds) of downtime. We were able to run the old and new systems side by side and compare performance prior to the migration. It also allowed us to provide fail-back capability in the event of an issue, without data loss.
Our secondary use of Shareplex was to facilitate a major, complex database migration. It enabled us to migrate to new servers, new storage, update the OS, upgrade the database version, and apply critical patches with little (literally a few seconds) of downtime. We were able to run the old and new systems side by side and compare performance prior to the migration. It also allowed us to provide fail-back capability in the event of an issue, without data loss.
- Speed. We see little to no delay in replication streams between source and target databases.
- Tuning and options: There are a myriad of options available for tuning and customizing replication streams.
- Support: I've been consistently pleased with the support we've received from Quest. They're prompt and knowledgable and solve issues quickly and without drama.
- Documentation: There are some areas where the documentation is weak or dated. In particular, running SharePlex on RAC is a more involved process than the implementation guides would have you believe. When reaching out for assistance, the answer from Dell (a few years ago) was to engage their consulting team.
- Built in scripts/agents: SharePlex comes with a handful of monitoring and management scripts that can be run as cron jobs. Unfortunately, these scripts are primitive and rigid, requiring the user to hard-code values into the script body and limiting their usefulness when you're running multiple replication streams. Some of the methods and dependencies are heavy. We ended up writing custom scripts that do what we need but it would be helpful if there were greater functionality and flexibility out of the box.
- Compared to other tools, there is not as wide (or at least as active) a user presence. If you're having difficulties you may have to engage a consultant since it's less likely that you'll find an answer in a forum or blog post.
- SharePlex allowed us to relieve the load on our production databases by migrating batch and analytic processes to dedicated resources.
- SharePlex performed admirably during a migration and upgrade of our production databases, allowing us to accomplish ambitious goals without endangering availability of critical systems.
- Quest is regularly adding value to the product with enhancements and new features.
SharePlex was a clear winner in comparison to its competitors. It beats GoldenGate on price, providing equivalent features and performance at a fraction of the price and without the need to license costly Oracle features at the database level. DB Visit was a strong contender for us as well and it is an excellent product I would also recommend, but it did not have quite enough of a user and community presence and penetration for our management to feel comfortable with.