StarQuest Data Replicator Plus v6.12 Release Notes

January 2023

Introduction

StarQuest Data Replicator (SQDR) is a replication software product that allows you to copy data between IBM Db2, Oracle, MySQL, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server database environments.

The base StarQuest Data Replicator software runs on Windows and provides full refresh replication, which copies all the source data that you specify for replication, regardless of when that data was last replicated. This provides a “snapshot” of the specified source data at the time of replication.

SQDR Plus is a separately licensed component that provides incremental replication support for SQDR users. Incremental replications copy only the data that has changed, reducing the amount of data that is transferred and allowing the replication to occur more frequently.

SQDR Plus also provides the following advanced features:

• Comprehensive statistics and easy-to-use graphical interface and Wizards.
• Enterprise-level security, allowing only operations that are permitted by the operating system, database system, and network.
• Ability to replicate what you want, when you want, with horizontal and vertical partitioning and flexible subscription scheduling.
• Ability to "mirror" the source database. In addition to configuring how frequently SQDR Plus polls for changes to the source database you can configure subscriptions to be notified when change data is available and reduce the latency such that updates occur at the target database almost instantaneously after they are committed on the source database.
• Ability to restrict which database tables can be subscribed to for replication. SQDR Plus provides centralized control for publishing and unpublishing database tables. If you enable the publishing feature, SQDR users can create replication subscriptions only to tables that have been published for replication.

The following topics are addressed in these Release Notes. Refer to SQDR Plus Quick Start Guide for detailed information about installing StarQuest Data Replicator Plus for the first time. The SQDR Plus Quick Start Guides include instructions for installing both SQDR and SQDR Plus. Refer to the SQDR Control Center (SQDR Manager) Online Help for detailed information about using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus software.

• What's New in this Release
• Upgrade Considerations
• System Requirements
• FixPak and PTF Notes
• Installing and Using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus Software
• Known Issues
• Release History
• Contacting Stelo

What's New in this Release

This release of the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus introduces the following new features and improvements:

• SQDR Streaming Support - ability to stream baseline and change data as Kafka messages, including sending to Databricks destinations
• Updates to the latest versions of OpenJDK 17, Apache Derby, and Eclipse Jetty.

Upgrade Considerations

• Users who are upgrading from a StarQuest Data Replicator Plus earlier than v5.11 must update host components on any Db2 for i source system. Using SQDR Control Center, select and stop each agent and select Update Host Components from the Database menu; you will be prompted for a user (e.g. QSECOFR) and password that has sufficient authority to update the source system.
• If you plan to use an existing staging database for multiple agents, connect to that database as a user with secadm privileges (e.g. DB2ADMIN, db2inst1) and issue the command db2 grant dbadm on database to user sqdr . This will ensure that deleting an agent will successfully remove the control tables and schema from the database. This is not necessary for any new staging databases created by SQDR Plus 5.18 and later.
• As of SQDR Plus 5.21, Db2 LUW 11.5.5fp1 or later is now required for creating staging databases. If you are currently using SQDR Plus with an earlier version of Db2 (10.5, 11.1, or 11.5.0), you can continue to use existing agents, or create new agents using existing staging databases. However, we recommend updating to Db2 11.5.5fp1 or later at your earliest convenience.
• As of SQDR Plus 5.21, the SQDR Plus installer for Windows installs the "JRESQ" package, which is a Stelo packaging of the Amazon Corretto distribution of OpenJDK. Use the Programs & Features Control Panel to uninstall the Oracle JRE that might have been installed by previous versions of SQDR Plus. The JRE update should be done as follows:
  1. Install JRESQ by running ISSetupPrerequisites\{9867B3A8-4290-422A-B625-5672FA37FA79}\jresq.exe.
     
  2. Reboot the system.
     
  3. Update SQDR Plus.
     
  4. Uninstall the Oracle JRE using the Programs & Features Control Panel.

This procedure is not necessary if SQDR Plus is being installed for the first time. Note that SQDR Plus 6.x installs OpenJDK 17.

• On Linux, java-17-openjdk (supplied by the Linux distribution) is required.
• The minimum supported version of SQL Server is now 2012; users of SQL Server 2008r2 sources should contact Stelo Support for advice before updating to 5.22 & later.
• As of SQDR Plus 6.1x, , the SQDR Plus installer installs the "kafkasq" package, which is a Stelo packaging of the open source Kafka streaming platform. SQDR Plus uses the libraries in this package to communicate with Kafka and Kafka-compatible servers. Similarly, the derbyst and jettyst installers are Stelo packaging of Derby and Jetty.
• If you have created wrapper-local.conf in C:\ProgramData\StarQuest\sqdrplus\conf - i.e. you have made modifications to the default CLASSPATH and library paths used by the Capture Agent servce - examine the current version of C:\Program Files\StarQuest\sqdrplus\conf\wrapper\conf\wrapper.conf, and adjust your modifications - i.e. some of the numberings may have changed.

System Requirements

You can install and run the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus on computers running the following software:

• Windows Server 2012R2, 2016, 2019, 2022
• Windows 8.1, 10 and 11 (64-bit) - desktop operating systems not recommended except for test scenarios
• Linux x86-64 (AMD64 & Intel EM64T). Install jdk17 from the Linux distribution.
• AIX 7.2. Install jdk17 from IBM.

You can replicate data from the following source database systems:

• Db2 for i v5r4 or later
• Db2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows v9.7, 10.1, 10.5, 11.1, 11.5
• Microsoft SQL Server using Change Tracking - SQL Server 2012 or later (any edition)
• Microsoft SQL Server using Change Data Capture - SQL Server 2012 or later (Enterprise and Developer Editions) or SQL Server 2016sp1 or later (Standard, Enterprise, Developer Editions)
• Azure SQL Database using Change Tracking
• Azure SQL Managed Instance using Change Data Capture or Change Tracking
• Oracle 11.2 or later
• Informix 11.50 or later
• MySQL 5.6 or later
• MariaDB 10.x
• Amazon Web Services Aurora
• Google Cloud SQL for MySQL

IBM Db2 LUW 11.5.5fp1 or later (bundled with SQDR Plus) is installed on the computer running SQDR Plus for use as a control database and temporary store; it can also be used as the control database for SQDR.

SQDR Plus requires Visual C++ 2015-2022 runtimes on Windows. The SQDR Plus installer will install the Microsoft-supplied Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable package if it is not already present on the system. The Microsoft Redistributable package will remain on the system if SQDR Plus is upgraded or uninstalled.

SQDR Plus is managed using a browser and SQDR Control Center. The following browsers are supported:

• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox (recent versions)
• Google Chrome (recent versions) - recommended
• Apple Safari (recent versions)

FixPak and PTF Notes

This section describes specific IBM issues and the FixPak and PTFs that may be necessary for StarQuest Data Replicator Plus to function properly.

• If the source system is running IBM i 7.5 and you are using StarSQL to connect to the Db2 for i host from the SQDR client (typical configuration), install PTF 5770SS1-SI79457 for APAR SE77672.
• If the source system is running IBM i 7.4 and you are using StarSQL to connect to the Db2 for i host from the SQDR client (typical configuration), install PTF 5770SS1-SI71251 for APAR SE72273.
• If the source system is running IBM i 7.3 and you are using StarSQL to connect to the Db2 for i host from the SQDR client (typical configuration), you may need PTF 5770SS1-SI71252 for APAR SE72273.
• If the source system is running IBM i 7.3, install PTF 5770SS1-SI60775 for APAR SE64851.
• If the source system is running v10.1 or later of Db2 for LUW, db2diag.log on the source system may contain a large number of informational messages related to "shredder" . This issue is resolved in fixpak 3 for 10.1, fixpak 4 for 10.5; and fixpak 1 for Db2 11.1. This is not an issue for a source system running Db2 LUW 9.7 or 11.5.
• If the source system is running Informix, Install the fix for APAR IT29905 to avoid a rare race condition that could stop the Informix server. The fix is available in 12.10.xC14 and 14.10xC3 and in future fix releases or special builds for other versions of Informix.

Installing and Using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus Software

• The SQDR Plus Quick Start Guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing and using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus in the shortest time. Choose the Part 1 section appropriate for your environment.
• Refer to the SQDR Control Center (SQDR Manager) Online Help for detailed information about using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus software.
• Browse the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus technical documents at https://docs.starquest.com/Supportdocs/techSQDRPlus/browseSQDRPlus.shtml for specialized information, such as using the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus in a particular environment or to accomplish a special task.

Known Issues

• When using the Replay function of SQDR, do not replay transactions earlier than the time of the table's baseline.
• SQDR Plus does not support incremental replications with dynamic criteria - i.e. criteria with references to other tables on the source system.
• SQDR Control Center can view but not modify the Launch Agent configuration. Use an editor such as Notepad or vi to edit the configuration file (sqagent.properties). On Windows, there is a Program Group shortcut for editing the Launch Agent configuration; right click and select "Run as Administrator" when making changes.
• Oracle Compute (Virtual) columns are replicated as nulls; we recommend using SQDR derived columns instead, either by using a view on the destination, or by specifying SQL that is valid for both Oracle and Db2 for LUW for a derived column.
• Oracle: Due to LogMiner limitations, changes involving only an XML or a LOB column are not detected. It is necessary to also update a non-XML (or non-LOB) field, either in the update statement or by trigger.
• Db2 for i Minimized Entry Data journals: When using a journal defined as MINENTDTA(*FLDBDY), using RRN is required, and criteria should be avoided.
  
  

Release History

This section provides information about problems or enhancements that are made available as "point releases" and major releases of the StarQuest Data Replicator Plus software.

See SQDR Plus Release History.

Contacting Stelo

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.

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