Heartbeat tables are used to monitor lag throughout the data replication cycle. Automatic heartbeats are sent from each source database into the replication streams, by updating the records in a heartbeat seed table and a heartbeat table, and constructing a heartbeat history record.

Each process in the replication stream updates the heartbeat record with tracking information which is then updated in the heartbeat table of the target database. These heartbeat records are inserted or updated into the heartbeat table at the target databases.

To add a heartbeat table, connect to each source and target database from the DB Connections page, select the Heartbeat menu, then perform the following steps:

1. Click the plus (+) sign next to add a heartbeat table.

2. Accept the default settings or modify the available values as needed.

   Note:

   For databases that have an option for Target Only, select this option if that database is only going to be used as a target database in the replication stream, to avoid creating unnecessary jobs that would be associated with a source database.

3. Click Submit.

To perform this task from the command line and review important database specific limitations,, see ADD HEARTBEATTABLE in Command Line Interface Reference for Oracle GoldenGate.

The following steps describe the commands to set up the heartbeat table.

1. Launch the Admin Client from the command line.

2. Connect to the deployment from the Admin Client.

   CONNECT https://remotehost:srvmgrport DEPLOYMENT deployment_name AS deployment_user PASSWORD deployment_password

   Here's an example:

   CONNECT https://remotehost:16000 DEPLOYMENT ggdep_postgres AS ggadmin PASSWORD P@ssWord

3. Connect to the source and target databases using the DBLOGIN USERIDALIAS command. The following example shows the connection to the source database with credential alias ggeast:

   (https://remotehost:16000 ggdep_postgres)> DBLOGIN USERIDALIAS ggeast

4. Add the heartbeat table:

   (https://remotehost:16000 ggdep_postgres)> ADD HEARTBEATTABLE 

Optionally, for a target only database, one that is used for unidirectional replication only, you can include the TARGETONLY option which will not create a heartbeat record update function.

See ADD HEARTBEATTABLE for details about command options.