Before downloading the software bundle, it is worth checking whether the required GoldenGate version is certified against the OS and databases in your environment. The following URL provides the necessary information for version 12.1.2.0.1:

https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/CertifyResults?searchCtx=st%255EANY%257Cpa%255Epi%255E922_Oracle%2BGoldenGate%257Evi%255E92383%257Epln%255EAny%257E%257C&_afrLoop=82688624818343

There are a number of prerequisites we need to be aware of before installing Oracle GoldenGate 12c. Let's take a look at these.

At the time of writing, two software download options exist:

The OTN option provides the most popular downloads available per version, whereas the e-delivery option provides all the available software with an associated part number.

Oracle has placed GoldenGate in the Oracle Fusion Middleware family section on both sites. Here, you will find Oracle GoldenGate for Oracle and nonOracle environments on a number of supported platforms.

For illustration purposes, we will choose to download the Oracle GoldenGate v12.1.2 media pack for Linux x86-64 by following the given steps:

A dialog box will appear. This allows you to choose where to save the file on your local filesystem.

In order to install the software, we need to copy the V40146-01.zip media pack on the source and target database servers. You may have chosen to use a web browser on the host, in which case the installation file will already exist. Ideally, these files should be copied to a staging directory with sufficient space to hold the zip file plus extracted files.

Once copied, perhaps by the scp protocol or the ftp protocol from your desktop machine, ensure that the zip file is owned by an Oracle user. Here is an example:

[oracle@db12server01]# ls -l /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.2/stage/V40146-01.zip
-rw-r--r--. 1 oracle oinstall 341316447 Jan 31 12:43 V40146-01.zip

Before Oracle GoldenGate 12c can be installed on your database server, there are a number of prerequisites that need to be checked. The installer program: Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) will automatically verify that the minimum requirements are met. However, it is worth taking the time to ensure that the environment is ready to accept the software. The following values are the bare minimum required to allow the OUI to install the OGG binaries. They do not reflect all the operating requirements:

The OUI is invoked by the runInstaller program that runs as an X client.

Before starting the installer, a number of questions must be answered:

The installer will need to create a GoldenGate home for each type. It is feasible to have two OGG homes on the same server in a bidirectional environment. Once you have decided on the scope of your GoldenGate environment, create the OGG home directories on the server manually. Bear in mind that you need at least 600 MB of disk space for each home.

For example, create the source OGG Home as the oracle user, as shown in the following code:

[oracle@db12server01]# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.2/ogg_src

Create the target OGG Home as the oracle user with the following code:

[oracle@db12server01]# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.2/ogg_tgt

Ensure that you have your Oracle environment variables set correctly, including LD_LIBRARY_PATH defined.

For example, if you are using the bash shell or the korn shell, set the variable as follows:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib

To make the environment variable setting persistent, define them in the .bashrc (bash shell) or .profile (korn shell) files. Here is an example of the .bashrc file:

# .bashrc

# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc
fi

# User specific aliases and functions
ORACLE_SID=OLTP
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE /product/12.1.0/dbhome_1
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib

PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:.

export ORACLE_SID ORACLE_BASE ORACLE_HOME PATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH

If Oracle GoldenGate is running on the same server as the database, which is normally the case, all the following versions must also be 64 bit:

When you install GoldenGate on a clustered environment, such as Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), ensure that the GoldenGate home or at least its subdirectories are mounted on a shared filesystem. This allows all the GoldenGate processes to be started from any of the nodes and process checkpoints to be preserved across the cluster.

For Linux installations, there are no specific requirements for kernel parameter settings or RPMs. Typically, GoldenGate is installed on a database server that has the necessary kernel parameter settings and OS RPMs for Oracle. Having said that, you may wish to adjust the network-related kernel parameters in order to enhance performance. This topic is discussed in detail in the Tuning the Network section of Chapter 9, Performance Tuning.

The hardware requirements for GoldenGate include the size of the physical and virtual memory, the number of CPUs, and the available disk space.