# Oracle GoldenGate

> Enterprise real-time replication across heterogeneous databases

Oracle GoldenGate is a real-time data replication and change data capture platform spanning Oracle and non-Oracle databases, NoSQL stores, warehouses, and messaging systems, available self-managed or as a managed OCI service.

Website: https://www.oracle.com/integration/goldengate/

## Use it when

- The estate is large and heterogeneous: Oracle, SQL Server, Db2 to z/OS, Sybase, MongoDB, and more on one side; Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Fabric, and Kafka on the other.
- Zero-downtime migration or cross-datacenter replication is the job; this has been the enterprise default for decades.
- Exactly-once apply and DDL replication are hard requirements; checkpoint tables and SCHEMATRANDATA handle both.
- Mainframe sources are in scope; almost nothing else here reaches them.

## Think twice when

- The team is small or the source list is short; Extract, Distribution, and Replicat under a Service Manager is High-complexity operations, and lighter tools cover Postgres or MySQL alone.
- Licensing must be simple; per-processor licenses self-managed or OCPU-hours on OCI are enterprise procurement, not self-serve.
- The center of gravity is another cloud; OCI GoldenGate is the managed path, elsewhere it is self-managed.

## How it runs

Extract processes read source logs (ARCHIVELOG, force logging, and supplemental logging on Oracle), Distribution moves trails, Replicat applies them, all under a Service Manager, self-managed anywhere or fully managed on OCI. GoldenGate Free covers databases up to 20 GB with the full feature set.

## Details

### General

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| License | Commercial |
| Deployment | Self-hosted, Managed |
| Workload | Streaming, Batch |
| Operational complexity | High |
| Pricing | Free, Subscription |
| Documentation | https://docs.oracle.com/en/middleware/goldengate/ |

### Change Data Capture

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Sources | Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Db2, Sybase, MongoDB and more |
| Source requirements | ARCHIVELOG, force logging, supplemental logging per schema on Oracle |
| What you run | Extract, Distribution and Replicat processes under a Service Manager |
| Initial snapshot | Initial load runs alongside capture |
| End-to-end lag | Near real-time; lag reported per Extract and Replicat process |
| Delivery guarantee | Exactly-once: checkpoint table applies each transaction once |
| Schema drift | DDL replication including ALTER TABLE; SCHEMATRANDATA keeps it logged |
| Transformations | COLMAP column mapping, FILTER and WHERE, SQLEXEC procedures |
| Destinations | Databases, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Fabric, Kafka |
| Billing unit | Per-processor licence self-managed; OCPU-hours on OCI GoldenGate |

## Capabilities

- [Change Data Capture](https://matca.io/capabilities/change-data-capture)

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Source: https://matca.io/oracle-goldengate
Last updated: 2026-08-31T11:40:48.194Z