Distribution Service Path

A path is used to send trail data between two data endpoints of a deployment. You can add, monitor, reposition, and manage these paths using the Distribution Service.

About Distribution Service Path

A distribution path defines the route for the trail to send and receive data for different topologies. Oracle GoldenGate uses the target authentication method to define the method for connecting source and target deployments.

The options for setting up the target authentication method are as follows:

• USERIDALIAS target authentication: On the target deployment, a user with Operator role is created and then the credentials of this user are added as credentials in the source Oracle GoldenGate deployment. When using the USERIDALIAS method, while creating the Distribution Path, the value of target authentication method is set to Password. The WSS (secure web socket) protocol is used for this type of distribution path.

• Certificate target authentication: In this case, the distribution path uses trusted CA certificates to access the target deployment. The target authentication method that is set up while creating the Distribution Path is Certificate. The WSS (secure web socket) protocol is used for this type of distribution path.

Note: Distribution Path created using Certificates requires target deployment to have an x-Cert user configured that has the same username as Subject DN of Distribution Path Certificate. See Add External Trusted RootCA and Distribution Client Certificates. Also see, Connecting Two Deployments Using External RootCA Certificate.

• OAuth target authentication: In this case, the Oracle GoldenGate user authentication is outsourced to an OAuth service such as MS Azure EntraID, IDCS, OAM, and IAM. While IAM is a cloud-based identity provider, OAM is an on-premise identity provider.

Choosing the Target Authentication Type

Depending on the target deployment mode (secure or non-secure), you can choose the target authentication as follows:

• Secure: Using certificates, USERIDALIAS, or external Identity Provider using OAuth2.0

• Non-Secure: Using USERIDALIAS method.

If you use the USERIDALIAS, then consider the following guidelines:

• The target Oracle GoldenGate instance contains a user identified with a password.

• The source Oracle GoldenGate instance includes a USERIDALIAS (example: ggnet_alias) that matches the target’s user credentials (example: user ggnet with password ***).

• When a Distribution Path is initiated, the USERIDALIAS information will be passed to the target. After the target verifies that the USERIDALIAS information matches the target user credentials, the authorization succeeds, and a network connection can be established.