What is Oracle Streams and what does one do with it?

Oracle Streams enables the propagation and management of data, transactions and events in a data stream either within a database, or from one database to another.

Oracle Streams can be used for:

• Replication
• Message Queuing
• Loading data into a Data Warehouse
• Event Notification
• Data Protection

Oracle Streams consists of the following components:

Capture:

Data is captured from the redo logs and packaged into Logical Change Records or LCRs. The LCRs are then moved into the Staging environment. Data and events may be changed or formatted by a predefined set of rules before they are packaged into an LCR.

Stage:

LCRs are stored in the Staging environment until a subscriber picks them up to be used or consumed. The subscriber may be another staging environment or a user application.

Apply:

During the apply/consumption phase, LCRs are picked up and applied to a database. Consumption allows the LCR to be modified before it is applied to the database.

For more information, view the below website:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/dataint/htdocs/streams_fo.html