In today’s complex, hybrid (Cloud and On-premises) IT environment with the same data stored in multiple locations or while migrating the data from one system or application to another, some data discrepancies are almost inevitable. If not discovered and addressed, bad data can lead to poor decision-making; failed service level agreements; and, ultimately, operational, financial, and legal risk.
To provide a comprehensive explanation, let’s delve into the following diverse use cases:
1. Data Migration
It is the process of transferring data from one location or one system to another. Data migration is a critical task in various scenarios, including:
a. Database Upgrades
When organizations upgrade their software or hardware systems, they often need to migrate data from the old system to the new one. For example, when transitioning to a new database management system (DBMS) or a newer version of an application.
b. Cloud migration
Many businesses are moving their data and applications to cloud platforms. Data migration in this context involves moving data from on-premises servers to cloud-based storage or from one cloud provider to another.
c. Data center relocation
When a company moves its data center to a new physical location, data migration is essential to ensure the continuity of operations.
There are various factors involved in the Data Migration out of which Data Validation post migration is an important task. After the migration is complete, it’s essential to verify that the data in the new system functions correctly and retains its integrity.
2. Auditing & Compliance
As compliance standards evolve, corporations and their leaders are increasingly required to uphold exceptionally high levels of responsibility. Organizations must ensure their alignment with auditing and compliance standards and furnish data to regulatory authorities such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and others.
3. Data Consistency
In any replication scenario, it is essential to ensure data consistency across all systems, whether it involves replicating data between data centers, migrating data from on-premises to the cloud, or transferring data from a relational database to a data lake. It is imperative that no data discrepancies occur.
4. Application Upgrades
When conducting application upgrades, numerous DDL (Data Definition Language) and DML (Data Manipulation Language) operations are executed on the database tables. If this database has replication configured, it is imperative to ensure that all changes made in the source systems are seamlessly and accurately replicated to the target systems.
In all the situations mentioned above, it is necessary to conduct post-validation of data to guarantee data integrity across all the systems that are part of the process. How is this verification accomplished?
As an illustration, one can execute a “select count” operation for both the source and target tables. While the row counts might appear identical, what about the actual content within each column? Do they match, and if so, how can we verify this?
Oracle GoldenGate Veridata
Oracle GoldenGate Veridata is a high-speed, data-comparison and repair solution that identifies, reports on, and fixes data discrepancies between heterogeneous databases without interrupting ongoing business processes automatically. It provides an easy-to-use yet powerful solution for identifying out-of-sync data before it negatively impacts the business.
With its advanced data comparison and validation capabilities, GoldenGate Veridata empowers businesses to confidently make critical decisions based on reliable, up-to-date information. Whether it’s mission-critical systems, data migrations, or disaster recovery, Veridata ensures data integrity, reduces downtime, and enhances overall productivity.
Oracle GoldenGate Veridata – Highlights
Heterogeneous data comparison and repair tool
Works with or without real-time data replication
Minimal impact to the database systems
No table locking during the data comparisons
All the operations like Data hashing, sorting, and comparison happens outside the database
Maintains comparison audit history and detailed statistics
Automatic repair of data
Oracle GoldenGate Veridata Architecture
The Oracle GoldenGate Veridata architecture is made up of the following components.
1. Veridata Agent
It is a light-weight java program, runs on DB systems or remotely. Interacts with the source or target DBs to fetch and return blocks of data rows, the column-level detail, and execute updates for repairs.
2. Veridata Web Server
Compares data, confirms out-of-sync data, repairs data and produces reports. It also coordinates the jobs across all other components.
3. Repository Database
It is a database, either a Oracle Database or MS SQL Server database, to store the metadata.
The architecture also consists of three main utilities.
4. Vericom Utility
It is a command line interface. Veridata Command Line Interface. All the administration tasks performed in GUI can be done via this utility.
5. Export Import Utility
Used to Export Configuration files of existing Veridata and Import it to the New Veridata. Mainly used in migration of Veridata Servers.
6. OGVPP Utility
It is a command line tool to help you manage your Extract or Replicat parameter files.
I have already written an article on how to install Oracle GoldenGate Veridata. Plese refer to the link below,
Also a recurring question regarding Veridata pertains to its sizing, and addressing this query is quite challenging due to its dependency on several variables. Nevertheless, I’ve made every effort to furnish as much information as possible to assist you in determining the appropriate sizing for Oracle GoldenGate Veridata.
Plese refer the link below,
https://blogs.oracle.com/dataintegration/post/how-to-size-oracle-goldengate-veridata
Say goodbye to data inconsistencies and costly errors. Embrace the power of Oracle GoldenGate Veridata and experience seamless, real-time data synchronization for a future-proof and agile enterprise. Enhance your data reliability and gain a competitive edge in the market. Join us on the path to data excellence with Oracle GoldenGate Veridata!”
Cheers 🙂