Business / Technical Brief

Oracle Zero Downtime

Migration – Logical Migration
Performance Guidelines

Guidance in configuring ZDM GoldenGate settings

and choosing the correct GoldenGate Hub shape

March 2022, Version 1.0

Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates
Public

1 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
Purpose statement
This document provides guidance on Oracle ZDM Logical Migration performance expectations based on
Oracle GoldenGate Extract and Replicat.

Disclaimer
This document in any form, software, or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the
exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential material is subject to the terms and
conditions of your Oracle software license and service agreement, which has been executed and with which
you agree to comply. This document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied,
reproduced, or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without the prior written consent of Oracle. This
document is not part of your license agreement, nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement
with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates.

This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the
implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any
material, code, or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The
development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described in this document remain at the
sole discretion of Oracle. Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely
include all features described in this document without risking significant destabilization of the code.

2 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
Table of contents

Purpose statement 2
Disclaimer 2
Introduction 4
Architecture and overview 4
Oracle GoldenGate Hub 5
Planning logical migration performance using ZDM 6
ZDM GoldenGate configuration guidelines 6
ZDM source database guidelines 6
ZDM target database guidelines 6
Summary 10
Appendix 11
Test cases and examples 11
Test environment 11
Example resource utilization during ZDM logical migration testing 12

3 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
Introduction
Oracle Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) is Oracle's recommended solution to migrate Oracle Database to
Oracle cloud or Exadata platform.

Zero Downtime Migration follows Oracle's Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) best practices to minimize
database downtime. The physical migration option leverages Recovery Manager (RMAN) and Oracle Data
Guard, and the logical migration option uses Oracle Data Pump and Oracle GoldenGate.

This technical brief focuses on the Oracle ZDM logical migration option regarding performance using Oracle
GoldenGate. Depending on available source and target cloud system resources, this paper guides you to
recommended ZDM deployment settings that maximize Oracle GoldenGate performance with acceptable source
and target performance impact.

Architecture and overview

The ZDM logical migration option uses Data Pump to instantiate the database, a pre-fabricated Oracle
GoldenGate Microservices Hub to offload most of the replication overhead, and an Oracle GoldenGate solution
to minimize any downtime to potentially zero.
In most cases, the GoldenGate Hub is used as the ZDM Server. However, having separate servers for
GoldenGate and ZDM is possible.
It is recommended to have the GoldenGate Hub in close proximity to the target system. This will reduce latency
and improve GoldenGate replicate performance.

Figure 2: ZDM Logical Migration Architecture

4 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
For more information about Oracle Zero Downtime Migration solution, including complete documentation,
refer to https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/rac/zdm.html

Oracle GoldenGate Hub

ZDM logical online migration requires an Oracle GoldenGate Microservices Hub. The GoldenGate Hub is an
architecture that places the GoldenGate software on a different host than the databases being operated
against. The advantage of this architecture is the isolation of most GoldenGate resources from the database
source and target servers. More information about GoldenGate Microservices Architecture can be found in
GoldenGate documentation Components of Oracle GoldenGate Microservices Architecture

Oracle GoldenGate replication processes used by ZDM logical migration are:

• Extract - a process that captures data against the source database. The Oracle GoldenGate Extract
process interacts directly with a database logmining server to receive data changes in the form of
logical change records (LCR). The Extract writes the logical change records into trail files. More
information about GoldenGate Extract can be found in About Extract.
• Replicat - a process that delivers data to a target database. It reads the trail file, reconstructs the DML
or DDL operations, and applies them to the target database. The ZDM logical migration uses a non-
integrated parallel Replicat, which uses multiple apply processes to apply replicated data in parallel.
More information about GoldenGate parallel Replicat can be found in About Parallel Replicat
The components of parallel Replicat are:
o Mappers - operate in parallel to read the trail, map trail records, convert the mapped records to
the Replicat LCR format, and send the LCRs to the Merger for further processing. While one
Mapper maps one set of transactions, the next Mapper maps the next set of transactions. The
trail information is split, and the trail file is untouched because it keeps trail information in
order.
o Collater and Scheduler – the master Replicat process has two threads, Collater and Scheduler.
The Collater receives mapped transactions from the Mappers and puts them back into trail
order for dependency calculation. The Scheduler calculates dependencies between
transactions, groups the transactions into independent batches, and sends the batches to the
Appliers to be applied to the target database.
o Appliers - reorder records within a batch for array execution. The Applier applies the batch to
the target database and performs error handling. It also tracks applied transactions in
checkpoint tables.

To set up the Oracle GoldenGate Hub, follow the instructions in Provisioning Oracle GoldenGate Microservices
on Marketplace

Deploy Oracle GoldenGate Microservices with the image "Oracle GoldenGate for Oracle – Database Migrations"
using the default version and verify if the image contains the latest software version. For GoldenGate Hub OCI
VM shape, please check recommendation in "GoldenGate Hub VM Shape" below

5 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
Provide the required information and create the stack. The VM is active upon creation, and you can log in using
an SSH-key.

Planning logical migration performance using ZDM

This section complements Preparing for a Logical Database Migration which will lead to guidance in setting the
ZDM GOLDENGATESETTINGS_EXTRACT_PERFORMANCEPROFILE and ZDM
GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_* parameters and correct Oracle Cloud GoldenGate Hub shape.

Source database resources

• Estimated used and free CPU resources during the migration window (FREE CPU resources is what can
be leveraged for the ZDM migration service)

Target database resources

• Estimated used and free CPU resources during the migration window
• Keep Autonomous Databases autoscaling setting enabled - more resources could be used
automatically when needed

Prepare business requirements and maintenance window start time and duration for the migration

ZDM GoldenGate configuration guidelines

ZDM source database guidelines

ZDM source database resources are based on GoldenGate Extract performance profiles, which is configured
with the ZDM parameter GOLDENGATESETTINGS_EXTRACT_PERFORMANCEPROFILE

• Depending on the workload and database version, the source database system's CPU resources can
vary from a minimum LOW of less than four vCPUs (2 OCPU) to a HIGH of up to 6 vCPUs (3 OCPU)
during the migration window. To avoid application impact, choose appropriately LOW-RES or HIGH
settings based on free CPU resources on the source database server.
• If there are enough FREE CPU resources on the Source system, set ZDM configuration parameter
GOLDENGATESETTINGS_EXTRACT_PERFORMANCEPROFILE to HIGH
• If not or there are any resources limitation (examples in the table below), then set ZDM configuration
parameter GOLDENGATESETTINGS_EXTRACT_PERFORMANCEPROFILE to LOW-RES

ZDM target database guidelines

NOTE: In this document, Target ZDM configuration parameters are logically grouped to define profiles
LOW and HIGH. These profiles names referred to in the document below resolve to the set of ZDM
configuration parameters as explained below

ZDM Target resources should be based on Target system activities. Depending on the workload and database
version, the target database system's CPU resources can vary from a minimum LOW of less than three vCPUs
(2 OCPU) to a HIGH of up to all vCPUs available during the migration window. To expedite the apply
performance, choose appropriately REPLICATION APPLY profile LOW or HIGH settings based on free CPU
resources on the target. If there is no activity on the target database during migration, these settings lead to
best performance replication (represent profile HIGH) and shortest migration time, set ZDM configuration
parameters:
6 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
 For Oracle Autonomous Database (profile HIGH):

o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAPPARALLELISM=5,
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_APPLYPARALLELISM= 2 * target pluggable database
CPU_COUNT

For all non-Autonomous Databases (profile HIGH):

o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAPPARALLELISM=5
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MINAPPLYPARALLELISM= 4 (default)
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAXAPPLYPARALLELISM= 2 * target pluggable database
CPU_COUNT
• If there is concurrent or other activity on the target system during migration, this leads to minimal
impact on the Target system. A small set of Appliers processes lead to lower data apply rate and finally,
longer migration (represent profile LOW), set ZDM configuration parameters:

For Oracle Autonomous Databases (profile LOW):

o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAPPARALLELISM=4, (default)
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_APPLYPARALLELISM= target pluggable database
CPU_COUNT / 2 (default)

For all non-Autonomous Databases (profile LOW):

o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAPPARALLELISM=4, (default)
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MINAPPLYPARALLELISM= 4 (default)
o GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAXAPPLYPARALLELISM= target pluggable database
CPU_COUNT / 2

.
GoldenGate Hub VM shape guidelines

GoldenGate Hub VM Shape recommendation is determined by OCI OCPUs, general formula is:

#OCPU on GG Hub = ((#replicat_appliers / 2) + #vCPU_extract + #vCPU_OS) / 2

o #replicat_appliers: number of GoldenGate Replicat Appliers configured with ZDM response file
using formula explained in 'ZDM Target' section above. Use value of
GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_APPLYPARALLELISM or
GOLDENGATESETTINGS_REPLICAT_MAXAPPLYPARALLELISM
o #vCPU_extract: based on ZDM performance profile on source using
GOLDENGATESETTINGS_EXTRACT_PERFORMANCEPROFILE map to GoldenGate Hub CPU
usage from less than one vCPU (1 OCPU) to a maximum of 2.5 vCPUs (2 OCPU)
o #vCPU_OS: used for Operating System resources management (set to 2 vCPUs)
• As an example (details in the Resources usage summary and recommendation table below): Extract at
2.5 vCPUs (2 OCPU) and Replicat at ten vCPUs (5 OCPU) with OS requirements at two vCPUs (1 OCPU) -
it's sum up to 14.5 vCPUs. (8 OCPU) The following even number is 16, so OCI shape with 8 OCPUs
would match the VM size - VM shape will be OCI VMStanderd2.8

7 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
 • If GoldenGate Hub will be deployed on Oracle OCI, supported OCI Shapes are: VMStandard2.1,
VMStandard2.4, VMStandard2.8, VMStandard2.16, and VMStandard2.24. Other than OCPU resources,
except block storage, are predicted by VM shape

Resources usage summary and recommendations

ZDM RESOURCES:
ZDM ZDM RESOURCES: ZDM RESOURCES:
GOLDENGATE
TARGET DB
SETTINGS SOURCE DB GG HUB

HIGH  2.5-6 vCPU  vCPU: 1-2.2 N/A

(Source)
 3GB of RAM (SGA steam pool)  Network (IN): 65-
73MB/sec
 185MB/sec additional I/O
 I/O: 25-95MB/sec writes
 70MB/s outbound network data
 Memory: 373MB

RECOMMENDATION: GoldenGate Extract with performance profile HIGH is recommended

for fastest Extract performance. The logmining server, running in the source database, will
potentially consume the highest CPU, I/O, and network resources on the database server,
along with increased CPU, I/O, and network resources on the GoldenGate Hub, when
compared to the other performance profile settings.
For example, during a period of catchup (the workload generated a volume of redo before
Extract was started) of a Swingbench OLTP style workload using Database 12c Release 2,
generating an average of 14-17MB/sec of redo, GoldenGate Extract consumed the
following resources:
 Database server: Logmining server consumed an average of 2.5-6 vCPU, 3GB of RAM
(SGA). 185MB/sec additional I/O and 70MB/s outbound network data.
 GoldenGate Hub: running on OCI Shape StandardVM_2.8 with 8.6 GB/s network
interface based on Oracle Marketplace image consumed up to 1-2.2 vCPU, 25-
95MB/sec I/O, 373MB RAM, and 70MB/sec inbound network data.

LOW_RES  vCPU: 1-4  vCPU: 0.5-2,2 N/A

(Source)  Network (OUT): 22-26MB/sec  Network (IN): 22-26MB/sec
 I/O: 73MB/sec reads  I/O: 24-40MB/sec writes
 Memory: 16.8MB (streams pool)  Memory: 18.6MB

RECOMMENDATION: GoldenGate Extract with the performance profile of LOW_RES uses

the least amount of resources on the database server and GoldenGate Hub and offers the
slowest Extract performance.
Using the same Swingbench OLTP style workload as above, generating 14-17MB/sec of
redo, GoldenGate Extract consumed the following resources:
 Database server: consumed an average of 1-4 vCPU, 17MB of RAM (SGA). 75MB/sec
additional I/O and 25MB/s outbound network data.

8 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
  GoldenGate Hub: running on OCI Shape StandardVM_2.8 with 8.6 GB/s network
interface based on Oracle Marketplace image consumed up to 0.5-2 vCPU, 25-
50MB/sec I/O, 17MB RAM, and 25MB/sec inbound network data.
NOTE: The performance profile LOW_RES was approximately 2.5 times slower than a
performance profile of HIGH.

profile: HIGH N/A  vCPU: 8-10  vCPU(s): 9.1

(Target)
 Network: in/out: 2.9/14  I/O log: 159
MB/s MB/s
 I/O: trail read from Mem
/cached/
 Memory: 2143MB

RECOMMENDATION: GoldenGate Replicat with ZDM performance profile HIGH uses

maximum resources on the Target DB system and significantly increases resource usage on
the GoldenGate Hub. Running against Target DB Replicat number of Appliers configuration
should follow provided formula (#Appliers = 2x vCPU) with the option to tune down if
needed.

For example, a 2-hour Swingbench (6 users) OLTP workload generated on Source DB and
processed by Extract has been used by Replicat to apply on Oracle ADB-D v.19.11; Replicat
consumed the following resources:

 Target Database server with ten vCPU used 9.1 CPU(s) based on AWR report and
generated I/O: 159MB/s
 GoldenGate Hub running on OCI Shape StandardVM_2.8 used 8-10 vCPU and network
outbound; 14MB/s and 2GB of memory
This configuration is recommended for migration with no parallel workload running on
Target System. Provide high performance with the fastest apply rate—finally, shortest
migration time.

profile: LOW N/A vCPU: 2,5-2.7 vCPU: 3.3

(Target)
Network in/out 0.9/5.1 I/O log write: 65
MB/s MB/s
I/O: Trail read from MEM
/cached/
Memory: 1072MB

RECOMMENDATION: GoldenGate Replicat running ZDM performance profile LOW uses

minimal resources on Target DB system and GG Hub. This profile uses a formula where
#Appliers equals half of Target DB vCPUs.
For example, the same workload used for testing above consume resources as follow:
 Target Database server used 3.3 vCPU(s), and I/O write 65MB/s

9 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
  GoldenGate Hub used during test used 2-3 vCPU thread, network 09/5.1 MB/s in/out,
and 1 GB of memory.
This configuration is recommended for users already running production workload on the
Target DB system where minimal impact is required. This config provides a slower apply
rate compared to HIGH and finally slower site sync between Source and Target

Summary
The goal of this paper was to provide simple guidelines to set ZDM GoldenGate tuning settings and pick the
correct GoldenGate Hub resource shape depending on available FREE CPU resources on the source and target.

Guidelines were described under ZDM GoldenGate Configuration Guidelines and summarized in the table above.

10 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
Appendix

Test cases and examples

To measure Oracle GoldenGate Extract and Replicat performance and their impact on the source and target
database systems, tests were conducted to measure system resources required for GoldenGate processes
(Extract for the source and Replicat for the target) with and without concurrent workload. The following test
cases have been run:

• Baseline - a Swingbench OLTP workload is run, and the system resource profile is captured. The same
workload needs to be processed by GoldenGate, which is part of the "Catchup" phase.
• Extract Catchup without a workload- GoldenGate Extract on the source system processes previous
Swingbench workload. Performance and resource profile is captured. No additional concurrent
workload is happening.
• Extract catchup with the active workload - GoldenGate Extract catchup and concurrent OLTP workload
occur on the source system. During the first part of the test, Extract will initially run in Catchup mode
(archivelog reads) and then switch to real-time mining (redo log buffer/online redo). Performance and
resource profile is once again captured.
• Replicat Catchup without active workload - for each run, GoldenGate Replicat will read and apply the
changes from the Swingbench OLTP workload on the target system. There is no concurrent workload
while Replicat is running on Target, which is the most common migration case.
• End to end migration:

Prerequisites: Extract runs in real-time, parallel to OLTP workload generated by Swingbench OLTP on
Source database. This is done once to simulate the Oracle DataPump migration period and generate
trails stored on GoldenGate Hub
Testing:

o Extract runs on Source DB in parallel to OLTP Swingbench workload during each test case,
when Replicat needs to catch up (prerequisites trails) and keep in Sync Source and Target
databases.
o Extract runs with different performance profiles
o Replicat runs with a different number of Replicat Mappers and Replicat Appliers responsible for
parallelism operation

Test environment

• Source database is version 12.2.0.1.200114, multitenant with a single PDB

• Source database running in OCI ExaCS (Frankfurt) with 16x OCPU
• All tests are run in isolation with no other databases open on the source cluster
• Database workload is generated by Swingbench (modified to include no key or think time and has only
newOrder process)
• GoldenGate Hub-hosted on OCI compute shape in the same region and AD as source database: OCI
VMStandard2.8 (8 OCPU, 8.2 Gbit/s)
• GoldenGate Microservices 19.1.0.0.210228, installed from OCI Marketplace
• ZDM server version 21.2 is running on the GoldenGate Hub

11 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
 • The target database is Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated infrastructure version 19c. with 5
OCPU
• Autonomous Database autoscaling is disabled
• Replicat uses the TP service name and a COLOCATION_TAG for connection to the target ADBD
database.

Example resource utilization during ZDM logical migration testing

During logical migration with ZDM, there are four distinct phases:

1. Planning and prerequisites: For details, see the ZDM documentation at Preparing for a Logical Database
Migration
2. Data Pump instantiation: For details, see the ZDM documentation at Data Pump Parameter Settings for
Zero Downtime Migration
3. Catchup: During this phase, GoldenGate Extract and Replicat replicate changes from the source to the
target. This is a period of additional workload and overhead on the source and target because of the
heavy GoldenGate tasks processing transactions behind the current workload. Working as fast as
possible minimizes the gap.
4. Real-time with replication: There is minimum replication lag in this period, but there is still active source
workload plus GoldenGate Extract and Replicat processing for the existing workload.

Example of workload generated on the source database

WORKLOAD TYPE SOURCE DB WORKLOAD

Two hours of OLTP Swingbench  Redo logs generated: 14-17MB/s
workload with six parallel users  Available CPU(s): 16 vCPU (8 OCPU)
 Used CPU(s): 6 vCPU (3 OCPU)
 TPS ~ 1700
 DB version: 12.2

Example of source and target databases and GoldenGate Hub additional resources usage

ZDM ADDITIONAL RESOURCES USAGE

vCPU#

12 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
 I/O
MB/sec

NETWO
RK
MB/sec

Timelin
e

Example of Swingbench OLTP migration throughput based on HIGH and LOW ZDM performance profiles

The charts below show the differences in replication performance between available replication profiles HIGH
and LOW for GoldentGate Extract and Replicat. To properly tune replication and limit resource usage on the

13 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
source or target system, you can mix performance profiles.

MIGRATION THROUGHPUT
EXTRACT
db redo logs
processing
MB/sec

REPLICAT
db redo logs
processing
MB/sec

EXTRACT
LPS
records/sec

14 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public
 REPLICAT
LPS
records/sec

Connect with us

Call +1.800.ORACLE1 or visit oracle.com. Outside North America, find your local office at: oracle.com/contact.
blogs.oracle.com facebook.com/oracle twitter.com/oracle

Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be
provided for information purposes only, and the contents hereof are subject to change trademarks of their respective owners.
without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free nor subject to any other
Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC
warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied
trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC
warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We
International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or
specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual
registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open
obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document
Group. 0120
may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Disclaimer: If you are unsure whether your datasheet needs a disclaimer, read the revenue
recognition policy. If you have further questions about your content and the disclaimer
This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal
requirements, e-mail [email protected].
Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or
lease, or sold or leased until authorization is obtained.

15 Technical Brief / Oracle Zero Downtime Migration – Logical Migration Performance Guidelines / Version 1.0
Copyright © 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates / Public