Quick Start for HVR - Sybase ASE

This quick start guide helps you to get started with HVR for replicating data between Sybase ASE databases.

To proceed with this replication you must have a basic understanding of the HVR's architecture and terminology like Hub, Location, Channel, Location Groups, and Actions.

The example here demonstrates how to replicate tables from a Sybase ASE database on a source location to a Sybase ASE database on a target location. The HVR hub database will be located on an Oracle server because HVR does not currently support Hub database on Sybase ASE. In real-life scenarios, a source location(s) and a target location(s) reside on different machines and the HVR hub can reside on source or target or a separate machine. In this demonstration, for simplicity, we have the source and target databases on the same machine and the HVR hub will be located on a remote Oracle machine. It is also assumed that the source and target Sybase databases already exist and configured. For more information on how to create database objects, grant permissions, etc, refer to Sybase ASE documentation.

For the HVR hub to connect to the remote source and target locations, an HVR remote agent should be installed on the Sybase ASE server.

Before proceeding with this demonstration, ensure that the requirements for using HVR with Sybase ASE and Oracle are met.

For information about access privileges and advanced configuration changes required for performing replication using Sybase ASE and Oracle, see:

• Requirements for Sybase ASE
• Requirements for Oracle

Create Demo Tables

The initial steps of this demonstration are to create tables in the source database and insert values into these tables.

Source Location

Skip this section if you already have a database with tables that you plan to use for this replication.

For this demonstration, in the source database (e.g. sourcedb), create two tables (e.g. dm51_product and dm51_order) and insert values into these tables.

CREATE TABLE dm51_product (
prod_id int NOT NULL,
prod_price decimal(10,2) NOT NULL,
prod_descrip univarchar NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (prod_id)
)

CREATE TABLE dm51_order (
prod_id int NOT NULL,
ord_id int NOT NULL,
cust_name univarchar NOT NULL,
cust_addr univarchar,
PRIMARY KEY (prod_id,ord_id)
)

insert into dm51_product
values (100, 90, 'Book');

insert into dm51_order
values (100, 123, 'Customer1', 'P.O. Box 122, Anytown, Anycountry');

Target Location

HVR automatically creates tables in the target database during HVR Refresh, and it is the recommended method for creating tables in the target database.

Create Hub Database

This section describes how to create a hub database (schema). The hub database is a repository database that HVR uses to control its replication activities. It contains HVR catalog tables that hold all specifications of replication such as the names of the replicated databases, the replication direction, and the list of tables to be replicated. For more information about the HVR hub server and database, see section Hub Server in Server Requirements.

HVR supports the creation of a hub database on certain databases (location classes) only. For the list of supported location classes, see section Hub Database in Capabilities.

For this demonstration, the hub database (e.g. hvrhub) is created in Oracle.

• Create the hub database (hvrhub) with a password (hvr).

  create user hvr_hub
  identified by hvr
  default tablespace users
  temporary tablespace temp
  quota unlimited on users;
  

Grants/Access Privileges

This section describes the grants/access privileges required for the hub, source, and target databases.

1. Configure the privileges for the Oracle hub database (hvr_hub). For more information, see section Grants for Hub Schema in Requirements for Oracle.

   grant create session to hvrhub;
   grant create table to hvrhub;
   grant create procedure to hvrhub;
   grant create trigger to hvrhub;
   grant execute on dbms_alert to hvrhub;
   

   A user with dba privileges should grant execute on dbms_alert to the hub database user (e.g. hvruser).

2. Configure the privileges for the Sybase ASE source database (sourcedb). For more information, see section Grants for Capture in Requirements for Sybase ASE.

3. Configure the privileges for the Sybase ASE target database (targetdb). For more information, see section Grants for Integrate and Refresh Target in Requirements for Sybase ASE.

Download, Install, and Configure HVR

This section describes how to download HVR, install it on either Windows, Linux, or Unix machines, as well as configure an HVR remote agent for the HVR hub to connect to the remote source and target locations.

1. Download and Install HVR
   HVR distribution is available for download at the Fivetran.com website. For more information, see Downloading HVR.
   For this demonstration, an HVR distribution should be installed:

   1. On the hub machine. For details on installing HVR, see the respective operating system sections:

      • Installing HVR on UNIX or Linux
      • Installing HVR on Windows
      • Installing HVR on macOS

      The HVR distribution requires a license key in order for the software to operate. Please see the HVR licensing page for more details on how to install the HVR license.

   2. On the Sybase ASE machine. This will be an HVR Remote agent for capture and integrate. This HVR remote agent will establish a connection to the Sybase ASE database and the hub can connect to it via a running HVR remote listener.

   If the source and target databases are on different machines, the HVR remote agent should be installed on both source and target location machines.

2. Configure HVR remote agent
   After installing the HVR remote agent on the Sybase ASE machine, it needs to be configured to connect from the HVR hub. HVR only supports Capture and Integrate for Sybase ASE running on Linux. For the detailed configuration steps, see the following sections:

   • Configuring Remote Installation of HVR on Unix or Linux

After the installation, you can control HVR using the HVR graphical user interface (HVR GUI).

• If the hub machine is Windows, then HVR GUI can be executed directly on the hub machine.
  • To control HVR remotely from your PC, connect to the hub machine using Windows Remote Desktop Connection and launch HVR GUI on the hub machine.
• If the hub machine is Linux, then HVR GUI can be executed directly on the hub machine. However, an application like X Server or VNC viewer must be installed to run HVR GUI directly on Linux.
  • To control HVR remotely from your PC, install HVR on the PC (with Windows or macOS) and configure the HVR Remote Listener on the hub machine.
• If the hub machine is Unix, then HVR GUI should typically be run remotely from a PC to control HVR installed on the hub machine. To do this, install HVR on the PC (with Windows or macOS) and configure the HVR Remote Listener on the hub machine.

The HVR Remote Listener allows you to connect HVR GUI available on your PC to the remote HVR hub machine.

Launch HVR GUI

This section describes how to launch HVR GUI on various operating systems.

• On Windows and macOS, double-click the HVR shortcut icon available on the desktop or execute command hvrgui in the CLI.

• On Linux, double-click the hvrgui file available in the HVR_extracted_path/bin directory or execute command hvrgui in the CLI.

  Linux requires applications like X server or VNC viewer to execute HVR GUI.

• On Unix, HVR GUI is not supported. So, HVR GUI should be run on a remote PC (with Windows, Linux, or macOS) to control HVR installed on the Unix machine.

Register Hub

This section describes how to connect HVR GUI to the hub database.

When you launch HVR GUI for the first time, the Register Hub dialog is displayed automatically. The Register Hub dialog can also be accessed from menu File by selecting Register Hub. Skip steps 1 to 4 if you want to run HVR GUI directly on the hub machine.

1. Click Connect to HVR on remote machine.

   To connect HVR GUI on a PC to a remote HVR hub machine, the HVR Remote Listener must be configured and running on the HVR hub machine.

2. Enter the name or IP address of the hub machine in the Node field (e.g. myserver).

3. Enter the port number (defined in the HVR Remote Listener of the hub machine) in the Port field (e.g. 4343).

4. Enter the Login (e.g. myserveradmin) and Password for the hub machine. By default, this is the operating system login credentials of the hub machine.

5. Select Oracle in the Class pane.

6. Specify Database Connection details.

   1. Enter the directory path in ORACLE_HOME. You can also click the browse button to select the directory path.
   2. Enter the Oracle System ID in ORACLE_SID or TNS credentials.
   3. Enter the user name of the hub database in User (e.g. hvrhub).
   4. Enter the password for the hub database in Password (e.g. hvr).

7. Click Connect.
   

8. Click Yes in the prompt dialog asking to create catalog tables in the hub database.

   HVR displays this prompt when connecting to a hub database for the first time.

   On connecting successfully to the hub database, the navigation tree pane displays the hub machine and the hub database. Location Configuration, Channel Definitions, and Scheduler are displayed under the hub database.

Create Locations

This section describes how to create locations in HVR GUI. A location is a storage place (for example, database or file storage) from where HVR captures (source location) or integrates (target location) changes.

• Create one source location connected to the source database (sourcedb).
  1. In the navigation tree pane, right-click Location Configuration, and select New Location.
  2. Enter a location name (e.g. src) in Location and optionally a description for the location in Description.
  3. Click Connect to HVR on remote machine, because HVR needs to connect to the HVR remote agent installed. Enter the details of the virtual machine running the HVR Remote Agent there (in our example, the HVR Remote Agent runs on the same machine as the Sybase ASE server).

     1. Enter the name or IP address of the HVR remote agent machine in the Node field (e.g. sybase).

     2. Enter the port number (defined in the HVR Remote Listener of the HVR remote agent machine) in the Port field (e.g. 4343).

     3. Enter the Login (e.g. sybaseadmin) and Password for the HVR remote agent machine. By default, this is the operating system login credentials of the HVR remote agent machine.

        The HVR agent on the Sybase ASE server needs to run an HVR Remote Listener on port 4343 for this connection to work.

  4. Select Sybase ASE in Class.
  5. Provide Database Connection details. For more information on Database Connection fields, see section Location Connection.

     1. Enter the directory path to the Sybase ASE installation in SYBASE.

     2. Enter the directory path where the CT library is installed in CT Library.

     3. Enter the hostname or IP address of the Sybase ASE server in Node.

     4. Enter the port number on which the Sybase ASE server is expecting connections in Port.

     5. Enter the database name (sourcedb) in Database.

     6. Enter the username for Database in User.

     7. Enter the password for User in Password.

  6. Click Test Connection to verify the connection to the location database.
  7. Click OK.
     
• Create one target location connected to the target database (targetdb). Repeat the above steps to create the target location.
  

Create Channel

This section describes how to create a channel (e.g. hvrdemo) in HVR. A channel groups together the locations and tables that are involved in the replication. It also contains actions that control the replication.

1. In the navigation tree pane, right-click Channel Definitions, and select New Channel.
2. In the New Channel dialog, enter the channel name in Channel and optionally a description for the channel in Description.
3. Click OK.
   

Create Location Groups

This section describes how to create location groups in a channel. The location groups are used for defining actions on the location. Typically, a channel contains two location groups - one for the source location and one for the target location. Each location group can contain multiple locations.

For this demonstration, create one source location group (e.g. SRCGRP) and one target location group (e.g. TGTGRP).

1. In the navigation tree pane, click + next to the channel (hvrdemo).
2. Create a source location group (SRCGRP):
   1. Right-click Location Groups, and select New Group.
   2. Enter Group Name and Description for the location group.
   3. Select the source location (src) in Group Membership. Click OK.
      
3. Create a target location group (TGTGRP):
   1. Right-click Location Groups, and select New Group.
   2. Enter Group Name and Description for the location group.
   3. Select the target location (tgt) in Group Membership. Click OK.
      

Define Actions

This section describes how to define actions on the location groups (SRCGRP and TGTGRP). Actions define the behavior of a replication activity.

1. Define action Capture with parameter /LogTruncate set to CAP_JOB_RETAIN to capture changes from all tables in the source location group. Parameter /LogTruncate=CAP_JOB_RETAIN manages the truncation point of the transaction log.
   1. Right-click source location group SRCGRP, select New Action, and then Capture. Click OK.
      
2. Define action Integrate to integrate changes into all tables in the target location group.
   1. Right-click target location group TGTGRP, select New Action, and then Integrate. Click OK.
      
3. Define action Environment to use the CT Library for connecting to Sybase ASE on both source and target groups.

   1. Right-click Location Groups, select New Action, and then Environment. Click OK.

   2. Select parameter /Name and specify the name of the environment variable HVR_CT_LIBRARY.

   3. Select parameter /Value. This parameter defines a directory where the library is installed. Select the directory using the browse button.

      

Select Table(s)

This section describes how to select the tables (dm51_product and dm51_order) from the source location for replication. The Table Explore dialog allows you to select schema(s) and/or table(s) for replication.

1. Right-click Tables, and select Table Explore.
2. Select source location (src) from the list.
3. Click Connect.
   
4. Select tables from the Table Explore dialog. Use the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple tables or Ctrl+A to select all tables.
5. Click Add to add the selected tables to the channel.
   
6. Click OK in HVR Table Name dialog.
7. Click Close in Table Explore dialog.

Initialize

This section describes how to initialize the replication. HVR Initialize first checks the channel and creates the replication jobs in the HVR Scheduler.

1. Right-click channel hvrdemo, and select HVR Initialize.

2. Select Create or Replace Objects in the HVR Initialize dialog.

3. Click Initialize.
   

4. Click OK.
   

5. Click Close in the HVR Initialize dialog.

   Click the Scheduler node in the navigation tree pane to view the capture and integrate jobs in the Jobs pane.

   For more information about initiating replication in HVR, see section Replication Overview.

Start Scheduler

This section describes how to start the HVR Scheduler. The HVR Scheduler is a process that runs jobs defined in the catalog table HVR_JOB. This catalog table can be found in the hub database. On Unix or Linux, the HVR Scheduler runs as a daemon. On Windows, the HVR Scheduler runs as a system service.

1. In the navigation tree pane, right-click Scheduler, and select Start.
   
2. On Windows, the following steps are required to create the HVR Scheduler system service.
   1. Click Create... in the prompt asking to create the service hvrscheduler_hvrhub.
   2. In the Create Windows Service dialog, select Local System Account ('SYSTEM') and click Create.

Start Capture Job

This section describes how to start the job for capturing changes from the source location (src). By starting the Capture job in HVR Scheduler, HVR begins capturing all changes since the moment HVR Initialize was executed. This 'capture begin moment' can be modified using option Capture Rewind available in the Advanced Options tab of the HVR Initialize dialog.

1. In the navigation tree pane, click Scheduler.

2. Start the capture job. In the Jobs pane, right-click capture job hvrdemo-cap-src, and select Start.
   

3. Click Yes in the Start dialog.

   On starting the capture job (hvrdemo-cap-src) successfully, the status of the job changes from SUSPEND to RUNNING.

Refresh

This section describes how to perform the initial load into the target database. HVR Refresh copies all existing data from the source location (src) to the target location (tgt) and optionally creates new tables and keys in the target location.

1. In the navigation tree pane, right-click channel hvrdemo, and select HVR Refresh.
2. Select the table(s) that needs to be copied from the source location to the target location.
3. Select Create Absent Tables in HVR Refresh dialog.
4. Click Refresh.
   
5. Click Yes to begin HVR Refresh. When the refresh is completed, the Refresh Result dialog displays the total number of rows replicated from the selected tables.
   
6. Click Close in the Refresh Result dialog and then in the HVR Refresh dialog.

Start Integrate Job

This section describes how to start the job to integrate changes into the target location (tgt).

1. In the navigation tree pane, click Scheduler.

2. Start the integrate job. In the Jobs pane, right-click integrate job hvrdemo-integ-tgt, and select Start.
   

3. Click Yes in the Start dialog.

   On starting the integrate job (hvr_demo-integ-tgt) successfully, the status of the job changes from SUSPEND to RUNNING.

Verify Replication

This section describes two methods for verifying the HVR's replication activity.

• Viewing Log File
• Using HVR Compare

Viewing Log File

HVR creates separate log files for the hub, channel (hvrdemo), and for each replication jobs (hvrdemo-cap-src and hvrdemo-integ-tgt). These log files contain the details of the changes captured and integrated.

Replication can be verified by inspecting the channel log file.

To view the replication activity log:

1. In the navigation tree pane, click + next to the Scheduler.

2. Right-click hvrdemo, and select View Log to view the log of both Capture and Integrate jobs.
   

3. The logs for both Capture and Integrate jobs are displayed in the logs pane (Log of channel hvrdemo) at the bottom of the screen.
   

   Right-clicking a particular job and selecting View Log displays logs related to that job alone.

4. Insert, update, or delete value(s) in the source location database. For example:

   insert into dm51_product
   values (101, 91, 'Pencil')
   
   insert into dm51_order
   values (101, 124, 'Customer2', 'P.O. Box 333, Town, Country');
   

5. The output log is updated and indicates that the change is captured from the source location and integrated into the target location:
   

   The directory path for the HVR log files is displayed in the log tab.

Using HVR Compare

HVR Compare allows you to verify the replication activity by comparing the data in source and target locations.

To compare the source and target locations:

1. Suspend the integrate job (hvrdemo-integ-tgt):

   1. In the navigation tree pane, click Scheduler.
   2. In the Jobs pane, right-click integrate job hvrdemo-integ-tgt, and select Suspend.
      
   3. Click Yes in the Suspend dialog.

2. Insert, update, or delete value(s) in the source location database. For example:

   insert into dm51_product
   values (102, 92, 'Notebook')
   
   insert into dm51_order
   values (102, 125, 'Customer3', 'P.O. Box 444, SomeTown, SomeCountry');
   

3. Execute HVR Compare:

   1. In the navigation tree pane, right-click channel hvrdemo, and select HVR Compare.
   2. Select the source location (src) on the left side and the target location (tgt) on the right side.
   3. Select Generate Compare Event in the Scheduling tab.
      
   4. Click Compare.
   5. On completion, the compare result is displayed in the web browser. If the State column displays DONE/DIFFERENT, it indicates the data in the source and target locations are not identical.
      
   6. Start Integrate Job (hvrdemo-integ-tgt), the changes made in source location (in step 2) will be integrated to the target location now.
   7. Execute HVR Compare again (step 3). In the compare result screen, if the State column displays DONE/IDENTICAL, it indicates the changes are replicated successfully.