Replication w/ multi dissimilar db's

I hope someone can help - this may be easy but I do not know Oracle's capabilities.

I need to set up a read only ( for query purposes ) database and I'm considering an Oracle 8i server. This database will simply be a datastore ( datawarehouse? ) of vasts amount of data to be displayed to internet/intranet users.

The data, however, needs to be obtained and regularly synchronized ( nightly ) from multiple dissimilar databases. We're talking probably 20 to 100 different db's all of which may be of any manufacturer/type (ie dBASE, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, text delimited, etc ) and residing on possibly different server platforms (NT, Win95, AS/400, Unix/AIX, etc).

Does Oracle supply connection tools that would make the replication with all these DB's? Or, any other manufacturer?

I would also like the web db to control the replication of data if possible. Naturally, I would rather setup the connection parameters at the one main server instead of setting the connection at all the underlaying db servers.

Also, if someone could lead me on how Oracle actually performs the replication. The initial implementation of the web db will be huge - but after that, the replication process should only pick up 0 - 10000 row changes per underlaying db server. For replication, does something? need to reside on both the web db and the to-be replicated db's??

My goal is to have the web db remain independent and perform all the necessary logic needed to get a current set of data from all the other db servers with as little as possible ( none actually ) impact on those db servers.

Thanks Received on Wed Jul 07 1999 - 09:22:08 CDT