Stelo Data Replicator, also known as StarQuest Data Replicator (SQDR), is a replication software product that allows users to copy data between IBM Db2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Informix database environments. Any table, portion of a table, or view can be replicated. Replications can be scheduled to take place at specified intervals or on demand. Replicating data from one database management system to another enables the user to:
Stelo Data Replicator provides:
If you will be using SQDR for snapshot replication, refer to the Quick Start Guide for the StarQuest Data Replicator for detailed information about installing StarQuest Data Replicator for the first time. If you will be using SQDR with its companion product Stelo Capture (also known as SQDR Plus) for incremental replication, refer to the SQDR Plus Quick Start Guide.
After you install the software, refer to the online help for information about configuring and using the Data Replicator. Press F1 or click the Help button in a dialog or on the toolbar to display the online help when using the Data Replicator Manager application.
The following topics are addressed in these Release Notes.
This release of the StarQuest Data Replicator introduces the following new features and improvements:
IMPORTANT: Users upgrading from SQDR v5 should refer to Upgrade Considerations for SQDR v6 & later.
The following considerations also apply to recent versions of SQDR 5.2x:
IMPORTANT: After upgrading from a version of SQDR Plus prior to 5.10, a harmless "Table Altered" condition will occur for all subscriptions. To resolve this condition, use Data Replicator Manager to either
Carefully consider the values for the DDL Replication settings before resuming replications after the update. Customers using "archive" subscriptions may want to change the group advanced property to specify "ignore" for dropping columns, as appropriate, to retain historical information. Customers who typically replicate only some subset of columns, and do not want to automatically add new columns may want to specify "ignore" for adding columns. However, most customers will want to use Automatic/Add-Perform/Drop-Perform in order to take advantage of the automatic handling of source schema changes (for source DBMS systems that are supported by SQDR Plus for automatic handling - see the ALTER Processing topic (under Creating a Group of Subscriptions) in the SQDR Help file (drmgr.chm).
The use of the latest ODBC driver for SQL Server (at minimum 17.6.1, released July 2020) is required when using SQL Server as a control database, and recommended when using SQL Server as a source or a destination.
IMPORTANT: CONTROL DATABASE SCHEMA VERSION
SQDR 6.1x introduces Control Database Schema version 6.10; you must be at Control Database Schema version 5.10 before updating to 6.1x.
Users of SQDR 5.10 through 6.11.0913: Run the Data Replicator Configuration to update your existing control database to the 6.10 format. Select the checkbox to run the Configuration on the final screen of the installation wizard, or select Data Replicator Configuration from the Program Group, and choose "Use an existing control database and tables".
Users of SQDR prior to 5.10: See the readme.txt file for SQDR 5.1x-5.2x for instructions for updating from earlier than SQDR 5.10.
If SQDR 32-bit version is running on a 64-bit operating system, SQDR must be upgraded to the 64-bit version. See Upgrading to 64-bit SQDR for upgrade instructions or contact Stelo Support.
SQDR requires Visual C++ 2015/2017/2019/2022 runtimes. The SQDR installer will install the Microsoft-supplied Microsoft Visual C++ 2015/2017/2019/2022 Redistributable package if it is not already present on the system. The Microsoft Redistributable package will remain on the system if SQDR is upgraded or uninstalled.
The Data Replicator requires a control database in which to store definitions for sources, destinations, and subscriptions. If you are using SQDR Plus to support incremental replication, we recommend using the instance of Db2 LUW installed with SQDR Plus. Otherwise, you can use any of the following versions of IBM Db2 for Linux, Unix Windows (LUW) or Microsoft SQL Server for the SQDR control database. You can obtain DB2 Community Edition free of charge from IBM. Similarly, you can obtain the Microsoft SQL Server Express free of charge from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads to use as a control database for the Data Replicator.
The control database can be either local or remote. For a remote database, install the appropriate ODBC driver:
Data can be replicated to and from any of the following database systems:
For incremental replication, SQDR Plus must be configured for the host database system.
Access to Db2 databases requires the StarSQL ODBC/DRDA driver (v6.2 or later recommended and included as part of the SQDR installation), the IBM DB2 ODBC driver, or the IBM i Access Client Solutions driver (for access to data sources on Db2 for i).
If you use IBM i Access Client Solutions (5733XJ1), the Windows Application Package must be at the June 2017 level or later.
For access to SQL Server, use the ODBC Driver 17.x or 18.x for SQL Server. We recommend using the latest ODBC Driver 17.x.
Access to Apache Derby (JavaDB) requires StarSQL 6.20 or later.
IBM DB2 ODBC driver
When using the IBM DB2 ODBC driver, set LongDataCompat=1 for correct replication of LOB data types. When replicating larger LOB columns, set LOBMaxColumnSize and the SQDR service property Inderterminant Column Size to the maximum value to be used.
PostgreSQL
When using the psqlODBC driver for PostgreSQL as a destination, we recommend configuring the Advanced panel as follows. See the Help file for a sample DSN-less connection string. We recommend using v10.1 or later of the psqlODBC driver; do not use v9.06.0500.
When using the SQDR bundled ODBC driver for PostgreSQL as a destination, we recommend configuring the Advanced panel as follows. See the Help file for a sample DSN-less connection string.
Oracle
For more information about the NLS_LANG environment variable, see:
Oracle 11g Appendix C Configuring Oracle Database Globalization Support
Oracle 12c Appendix C Configuring Oracle Database Globalization Support
MySQL
Informix
Salesforce
Snowflake
alter user myuser set TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING = 'TIMESTAMP_LTZ'
BigQuery
In addition, you can use the Data Replicator with other databases if they can be accessed through an ODBC driver that complies with Level 2 of the ODBC 3.51 specification.
MySQL Considerations
Indexes and primary keys on a MySQL source table may appear incorrectly in the subscription wizard; verify that only valid indexes are selected for replication purposes.
Precision Limitation for Oracle CHAR and RAW Column Types
The Oracle ODBC driver driver has a limitation that affects replicating from SQL Server or Db2 columns to an Oracle column of data type CHAR or RAW. Although the Oracle CHAR and RAW data types allow larger values, you must set the precision for the destination column that uses these types to 255 or less. If the source column precision is greater than 255, you can avoid data truncation by changing the destination column to a data type that allows a larger precision value. For character data, change the Oracle destination column data type to VARCHAR or LONG. For binary data, change the data type to LONG RAW.
Oracle Destination (Oracle driver) and Use Unicode Intermediates disables Mutirow Row Fetch and Insert:
If the destination is an Oracle database (using the Oracle ODBC driver) and the SQDR service is configured with Use Unicode Intermediates, the setting for Multirow Fetch and Insert is ignored, and the message "useUnicodeIntermediates disables MultiRow option for replication to Oracle destination" will appear in the replication statistics. Solution: use the SQDR bundled driver or DataDirect driver for Oracle.
Oracle destination limited to only one unsizable LONG mapping
If the destination is an Oracle database, you can replicate only one column that contains an unsizable LONG mapping; this is an Oracle limitation. If your source table contains more than one such column (e.g.multiple columns that map to BLOB or CLOB datatypes), you will need to choose which column to replicate and remove the other columns from the subscription.
Oracle Object Types are not supported
Oracle Object Types (also known as Abstract Data Types (ADT) or user-defined types) are complex compound structures that are not supported using ODBC and thus cannot be replicated by SQDR. You can replicate other data contained in tables with Object Type columns by deleting those columns in the Subscription Wizard.
Incremental Replication of Oracle LOB columns
There is a known issue when performing incremental replication of LOB columns from an Oracle source. When updating the contents of length of a LOB column that is greater than 4000 bytes, you must also update another column of the same row.
BCP error when replicating to SQL Server
Replication to SQL Server may fail in certain situations, such as when there is at least one LOB column n the source table and more than one ''image" column in the target table. You can work around this problem by specifying "Insert using ODBC" rather than BCP in the destination options of the subscription.
Replicating XML columns to and from Db2 for i (iSeries) and Db2 for LUW
When replicating tables containing XML columns to Db2 for i and Db2 for LUW destinations, the following limitations apply:
Replicating NULL-valued XML columns to Db2 for LUW with StarSQL
If you are using StarSQL 6.19 or later to connect to a Db2 for LUW destination and inserting NULL-valued XML data, you will need the fix for one of the following APARS, included in the listed fixpak:
Memory usage of Service increases when communicating with Manager
Leaving the Data Replicator Manager running for extended periods of time could cause a memory management problem in the Replicator Service. To avoid this, we recommend running the Replicator Manager only when you need to configure the service or subscriptions or monitor the replication operations. In addition, the Replication Manager will automatically exit after running for twelve hours.
Saving Subscriptions to AS/400 Member Files
If you encounter a subscription validation error while saving a new subscription that will replicate to a member of a physical file on an AS/400, you may need to cancel the subscription wizard and completely redefine the subscription in order to specify a member for the destination file.
Columns with a DEFAULT value
If the source table has columns that are defined with a DEFAULT value, that information is not preserved when the destination table is created using SQDR.
Solutions:
e.g. ALTER TABLE MYTABLE ALTER COLUMN LOG_DATE SET WITH DEFAULT 'CURRENT TIMESTAMP'
or
Config: Control database naming
Do not use a hyphen when naming a SQL Server control database; an ODBC syntax error: "Incorrect syntax near 'Control-DB'" will result when sqdrconf attempts to create the control database.
SQDR Service fails to start
If the SQDR Service fails to start with the error "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.", be sure that the user specified to run the service is authorized to use DCOM. On Windows Server 2008, this can be accomplished by adding the user to the group Distributed COM Users.
MySQL: table not found error
If the name of a MySQL source table contains a period, the table will appear in the list of available source tables, but selecting it for replication will result in a "table not found" error. Either rename the table or create a view over the table and choose the view for replication.
Kognitio WX2 Issues
See the SQDR Release History .
If you need to contact technical support, please provide the following information to help the support engineers address your issue. You can contact Stelo via phone, email, or facsimile as indicated at the bottom of this page.
| Company Information | Address Phone |
| Contact Information | First and Last Name of individual contact Email Address |
| Host Type | Hardware and Operating System (i.e., IBM i 7.3) |
| Network Protocol/Gateways | Protocol and/or Gateways used (i.e., TCP/IP, SSL/TLS) |
| Client Type | Client Type and Operating System (i.e., Windows Server 2019, Oracle Linux 8.6) |
| Stelo Product, Version, and Source |
Which Stelo product and what version is installed (i.e., StarSQL for Windows v6.41.0719) Where you obtained the software (i.e., direct from Stelo, name of specific reseller) |
| Problem Information | Provide as much detail as possible, including information about any application that is using the Stelo product when the problem occurs and the exact error message that appears. |
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