Comparison Between Oracle Streams and GoldenGate (Doc ID 1437736.1)

Last updated on JUNE 13, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle GoldenGate
Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 11.2.0.3 to 11.2.0.3 [Release 11.2]
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer (Oracle Exadata Database Cloud Machine) - Version N/A and later
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Database Service - Version N/A and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Purpose

The purpose of this note is to present a high level comparison of the operation of Oracle Streams version 11.2.0.3 and Oracle GoldenGate commencing version 11.1.1.

The note is only applicable to operations against an Oracle database. No new Streams features will be added after 11.2.0.3. This is outlined in Oracle's statement of direction for GoldenGate - which can be found here. Oracle Streams will continue to be supported and maintained in future releases. The strategic direction for logical replication within Oracle is now Oracle GoldenGate. The intention is to integrate the 'best' features of Streams into Oracle GoldenGate.

Streams will continue to support exactly what it supports today in 11.2 in future releases. New replication features in relation to the capture of additional data types, etc. will not be supported by Streams as Streams will not be enhanced. Customers who wish to take advantage of new replication related features will need to license GoldenGate.

Oracle GoldenGate is a separate product from Oracle Streams. Oracle GoldenGate Extract runs externally to the Oracle Database and is licensed seprately from the Oracle Database. Oracle Streams Capture runs as a process within the Oracle instance. Both products effectively offer the same level of functionality by different means. Hereafter, Streams will refer to Oracle Streams and GoldenGate will refer to Oracle GoldenGate (OGG).

Each product deals with activity which appears in the Oracle redo logs. There are certain objects which neither product are able to Capture. Large and long running transactions (LRTs) need special consideration in both products. DDL operations will also introduce new tables, change existing tables and may result in others being dropped - this also presents a challenge to determine exactly what the details in the Oracle redo logs relate to.

This is not an exhaustive reference on the subject. Always consult the Oracle product documentation for more details to any questions which may arise. Most of this information has been in the public domain for a long time. Considering the details, both products are working at achieving the same goal albeit in slightly different ways.