Synching two table in SQL Server - sql-server

Hi I have two database servers (2 different machine, but on same network).
I have one table in Database_1 and same table in Database_2.
Only Table in DB_1 will be updated by user, table in DB_2 will be used by other user for read only.
I want to program something which can copy the updated record from table in DB_1 to DB_2. I want to make it event based, something like whenever someone insert a record in Table#DB_1, I will get the same the record in Table#DB_2.
Can someone suggest me something?

Depending on the size, frequency of updates, and complexity of your systems, Replication may be the answer you need. Transactional replication sounds the most suitable, from the little detail provided.

How time sensitive is the data? There are two possibilities with this for me.
Suggestion 1: Have triggers to keep the data synced to the table on a linked server.
Suggestion 2: Have a DTS/SSIS package that keeps DB_2 in sync. Schedule the package to run every minute or five minutes depending on what is necessary.

Check out Oracle GoldenGate.
"Oracle GoldenGate provides real-time, log-based change data capture, and delivery between heterogeneous systems. Using this technology, it enables cost-effective and low-impact real-time data integration and continuous availability solutions."

Related

Detect Table Changes In A Database Without Modifications

I have a database ("DatabaseA") that I cannot modify in any way, but I need to detect the addition of rows to a table in it and then add a log record to a table in a separate database ("DatabaseB") along with some info about the user who added the row to DatabaseA. (So it needs to be event-driven, not merely a periodic scan of the DatabaseA table.)
I know that normally, I could add a trigger to DatabaseA and run, say, a stored procedure to add log records to the DatabaseB table. But how can I do this without modifying DatabaseA?
I have free-reign to do whatever I like in DatabaseB.
EDIT in response to questions/comments ...
Databases A and B are MS SQL 2008/R2 databases (as tagged), users are interacting with the DB via a proprietary Windows desktop application (not my own) and each user has a SQL login associated with their application session.
Any ideas?
Ok, so I have not put together a proof of concept, but this might work.
You can configure an extended events session on databaseB that watches for all the procedures on databaseA that can insert into the table or any sql statements that run against the table on databaseA (using a LIKE '%your table name here%').
This is a custom solution that writes the XE session to a table:
https://github.com/spaghettidba/XESmartTarget
You could probably mimic functionality by writing the XE events table to a custom user table every 1 minute or so using the SQL job agent.
Your session would monitor databaseA, write the XE output to databaseB, you write a trigger that upon each XE output write, it would compare the two tables and if there are differences, write the differences to your log table. This would be a nonstop running process, but it is still kind of a period scan in a way. The XE only writes when the event happens, but it is still running a check every couple of seconds.
I recommend you look at a data integration tool that can mine the transaction log for Change Data Capture events. We are recently using StreamSets Data Collector for Oracle CDC but it also has SQL Server CDC. There are many other competing technologies including Oracle GoldenGate and Informatica PowerExchange (not PowerCenter). We like StreamSets because it is open source and is designed to build realtime data pipelines between DB at the schema level. Till now we have used batch ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter and Pentaho Data Integration. I can near real-time copy all the tables in a schema in one StreamSets pipeline provided I already deployed DDL in the target. I use this approach between Oracle and Vertica. You can add additional columns to the target and populate them as part of the pipeline.
The only catch might be identifying which user made the change. I don't know whether that is in the SQL Server transaction log. Seems probable but I am not a SQL Server DBA.
I looked at both solutions provided by the time of writing this answer (refer Dan Flippo and dfundaka) but found that the first - using Change Data Capture - required modification to the database and the second - using Extended Events - wasn't really a complete answer, though it got me thinking of other options.
And the option that seems cleanest, and doesn't require any database modification - is to use SQL Server Dynamic Management Views. Within this library residing, in the System database, are various procedures to view server process history - in this case INSERTs and UPDATEs - such as sys.dm_exec_sql_text and sys.dm_exec_query_stats which contain records of database transactions (and are, in fact, what Extended Events seems to be based on).
Though it's quite an involved process initially to extract the required information, the queries can be tuned and generalized to a degree.
There are restrictions on transaction history retention, etc but for the purposes of this particular exercise, this wasn't an issue.
I'm not going to select this answer as the correct one yet partly because it's a matter of preference as to how you approach the problem and also because I'm yet to provide a complete solution. Hopefully, I'll post back with that later. But if anyone cares to comment on this approach - good or bad - I'd be interested in your views.

T-SQL: advise on copying data across to another database

I need advise on copying daily data to another server.
Just to give you an image of the situation, I will explain a little. there are workstations posting transactions to 2 database servers (DB1 and DB2). These db servers hosted on 2 separate physical servers and are linked. Daily transactions are 50.000 for now but will increase soon. There might be days some workstations down (operational but cannot post data) and transactions posted after a few days.
So, what I do is I run a query on those 2 linked servers. The daily query output contains ~50.000 records with minimum 15 minutes fetching time as linked servers have performance problems.I will create a SP and schedule it to run 2AM in the morning.
My concern starts from here, the output will be copied across to another data warehouse (DW). This is our client's special land, I do not know much about. This DW will be linked onto these db servers to make it possible to send the data (produced by my stored procedure) across.
Now, what would you do to copy the data across:
Create a dummy table on DB1 to copy stored procedure output on the same server so make sure it is available and we do not need to rerun stored procedure again. Then client retrieves it later.
Use "select into" statement to copy the content to remote DW table. I do not know what happens with this one during fetching and sending data across to DW. Remember it takes ~15 mins to fetch the data by my stored procedure.
post the data (retrieved by stored procedure) with xml file through ftp.
Please tell me if there is a way of setting an alert or notification on jobs.
I just want to take precautions so it will be easier to track when something goes wrong.
Any advice is appreciated very much. Thank you. Oz.
When it comes to coping data in SQL Server you need to look at High Availability Solutions, depending on the version and edition of your SQL Server you will have different options.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190202(v=sql.105).aspx
If you need just to move data for specific tables you can have options like SSIS job or SQL Server Replication.
If you are looking to have all tables in a given databases copied to another server you should use Log Shipping. Which allows you to copy entire content of source database to another location. Because this is done of smaller interval the your load will be distributed over larger period of time instead of having large transaction running at once.
Another great alternative is SQL Server Replication. This option will capture transaction on the source and push them to the target. This model requires publisher (source), distributor (can be source or another db) and subscriber (target).
Also you can create SSIS job that runs on frequent basis and just moves specified amount of data.

Log inserted/updated/deleted rows in all tables for a given database in SQL Server 2008

Whats the best way to track/Log inserted/updated/deleted rows in all tables for a given database in SQL Server 2008?
Or is there a better "Audit" feature in SQL Server 2008?
Short answer is that there is no one single solution fits all. It depends on the system but and requirements but here are couple different approaches.
DML Triggers
Relatively easy to implement, because you have to write one that works well for one table and then apply it to other tables.
Downside is that it can get messy when you have a lot of tables and even more triggers. Managing 600 triggers for 200 tables (insert, update and delete trigger per table) is not an easy task.
Also, it might cause a performance impact.
Creating audit triggers in SQL Server
Log changes to database table with trigger
Change Data Capture
Very easy to implement, natively supported but only in enterprise edition which can cost a lot of $ ;). Another disadvantage is that CDC is still not as evolved as it should be. For example, if you change your schema, history data is lost.
Transaction log analysis
Biggest advantage of this is that all you need to do is to put the database in full recovery mode and all info will be stored in transaction log
However, if you want to do this correctly you’ll need a third party log reader because this is not natively supported.
Read the log file (*.LDF) in SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Transaction Log Explorer/Analyzer
If you want to implement this I’d recommend you try out some of the third party tools that exist out there. I worked with couple tools from ApexSQL but there are also good tools from Idera and Netwrix
ApexSQL Log – auditing by reading transaction log
ApexSQL Comply – uses traces in the background and then parses those traces and stores results in central database.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above.
Change Data Capture is designed to do what you want, but it requires each table be set up individually, so depending on the number of tables you have, there may be some logistics to it. It will also only store the data in capture tables for a couple of days by default, so you may need an SSIS package to pull it out and store for longer periods.
I don't remember whether there is already some tool for this, but you could always use triggers (then you will have access for temporal tables with changed rows- INSERTED and DELETED). Unfortunately, it could be quite a work to do if you would like to track all tables. I believe that there should be some simpler solution, but do not remember as I said.
EDIT.
Maybe this could be helpful:
--Change tracking
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280462.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280386.aspx
This allows you to do audits at the database level; it may or may not be enough to meet the business requirements, as database records usually don't make all that much sense without the logic to glue them together. For instance, knowing that user x inserted a record into the "time_booked" table with a foreign key to the "projects", "users", "time_status" tables may not make all that much sense without the SQL query to glue those 4 tables together.
You may also need to have each database user connect with their own user ID - this is fine with integrated security and a client app, but probably won't work with a website using a connection pool.
The sql server logs are not possible to analyze just like that. There are some 3rd party tools available to read the logs but as far as I know you can't query them for statistics and such. If you need this kind of info you'll have to create some sort of auditing to capture all these events in separate tables. You can use "DDL triggers".

what kind of replication should I use?

I can't understand the difference between transactional replication and merge replication.
This is my scenario:
In an organization I have a SQL server which need to collect information from different sql servers which are located in different parts of organization or around the city and some report will create according to gathered information.
Data in different SQL servers update every 5 or 6 minutes.
I don't know should I use transactional or merge replication?
Transactional replication delivers incremental changes from a single publisher to one or more subscribers.
Merge replication brings changes from multiple subcribers together into a central publisher.
It sounds like you'll want merge replication in your scenario.
Merge. Each site is a master of it's own data.
Transactional is one way usually.
You need to share information so merge it is...
Edit, after comment
In which case, yes. Your question implies reporting at each location
However, for performance, I'd consider pushing all updates into a queue using a trigger and Service broker. This way, the write to the remote server is decoupled from the local transaction.

Does Oracle have something like Change Data Capture in SQL Server 2008?

Change Data Capture is a new feature in SQL Server 2008. From MSDN:
Change data capture provides
historical change information for a
user table by capturing both the fact
that DML changes were made and the
actual data that was changed. Changes
are captured by using an asynchronous
process that reads the transaction log
and has a low impact on the system
This is highly sweet - no more adding CreatedDate and LastModifiedBy columns manually.
Does Oracle have anything like this?
Sure. Oracle actually has a number of technologies for this sort of thing depending on the business requirements.
Oracle has had something called Workspace Manager for a long time (8i days) that allows you to version-enable a table and track changes over time. This can be a bit heavyweight, though, because it is based on views with instead-of triggers.
Starting in 11.1 (as an extra cost option to the enterprise edition), Oracle has a Total Recall that asynchronously mines the redo logs for data changes that get logged to a separate table which can then be queried using flashback query syntax on the main table. Total Recall is automatically going to partition and compress the historical data and automatically takes care of purging the data after a specified data retention period.
Oracle has a LogMiner technology that mines the redo logs and presents transactions to consumers. There are a number of technologies that are then built on top of LogMiner including Change Data Capture and Streams.
You can also use materialized views and materialized view logs if the goal is to replicate changes.
Oracle has Change Data Notification where you register a query with the system and the resources accessed in that query are tagged to be watched. Changes to those resources are queued by the system allowing you to run procs against the data.
This is managed using the DBMS_CHANGE_NOTIFICATION package.
Here's an infodoc about it:
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/dbms_change_notification_10gR2.php
If you are connecting to Oracle from a C# app, ODP.Net (Oracles .Net client library) can interact with Change Data Notification to alert your c# app when Oracle changes are made - pretty kewl. Goodbye to polling repeatedly for data changes if you ask me - just register the table, set up change data notifcation through ODP.Net and wala, c# methods get called only when necessary. woot!
"no more adding CreatedDate and LastModifiedBy columns manually" ... as long as you can afford to keep complete history of your database online in the redo logs and never want to move the data to a different database.
I would keep adding them and avoid relying on built-in database techniques like that. If you have a need to keep historical status of records then use an audit table or ship everything off to a data warehouse that handles slowly changing dimensions properly.
Having said that, I'll add that Oracle 10g+ can mine the log files simply by using flashback query syntax. Examples here: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/statements_10002.htm#i2112847
This technology is also used in Oracle's Datapump export utility to provide consistent data for multiple tables.
I believe Oracle has provided auditing features since 8i, however the tables used to capture the data are rather complex and there is a significant performance impact when this is turned on.
In Oracle 8i you could only enable this for an entire database and not a table at a time, however 9i introduced Fine Grained Auditing which provides far more flexibility. This has been expanded upon in 10/11g.
For more information see http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/database-security/fine-grained-auditing/index.html.
Also in 11g Oracle introduced the Audit Vault, which provides secure storage for audit information, even DBA's cannot change this data (according to Oracle's documentation, I haven't used this feature yet). More info can be found at http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/database-security/fine-grained-auditing/index.html.
Oracle has mechanism called Flashback Data Archive. From A Fresh Look at Auditing Row Changes:
Oracle Flashback Query retrieves data as it existed at some time in the past.
Flashback Data Archive provides the ability to track and store all transactional changes to a table over its lifetime. It is no longer necessary to build this intelligence into your application. A Flashback Data Archive is useful for compliance with record stage policies and audit reports.
CREATE TABLESPACE SPACE_FOR_ARCHIVE
datafile 'C:\ORACLE DB12\ARCH_SPACE.DBF'size 50G;
CREATE FLASHBACK ARCHIVE longterm
TABLESPACE space_for_archive
RETENTION 1 YEAR;
ALTER TABLE EMPLOYEES FLASHBACK ARCHIVE LONGTERM;
select EMPLOYEE_ID, FIRST_NAME, JOB_ID, VACATION_BALANCE,
VERSIONS_STARTTIME TS,
nvl(VERSIONS_OPERATION,'I') OP
from EMPLOYEES
versions between timestamp timestamp '2016-01-11 08:20:00' and systimestamp
where EMPLOYEE_ID = 100
order by EMPLOYEE_ID, ts;

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