Oracle Replication (Multi master or Snapshot)

We are looking at setting up Oracle replication to replicate our financial system database to another server (connected via switched 100 MB ethernet) at the same location so that we can perform ad-hoc reporting against the replicated database and not affect performance of the OLTP financial system.

We have a requirement that the data be replicated near real time. Because the replicated database will only be used for reporting then it only need to be read-only.

My question is, based on the requirement of near real time replicated data and the read only use of the replicated database, should we go with the multi-master setup (for near real time data replication) or with the read-only snapshot? My preference is to go with a read-only snapshot but not sure if that setup will support near real time replication. What is a reasonable short timeframe for snapshot refresh (every 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc)?

Thanks in advance for your comments/suggestions. Received on Fri Jan 17 2003 - 09:43:13 CST