HELP! Oracle8 NT & Multimaster Replication =(

Help, I'm evaluating Oracle 8.0 for NT on our workgroup, and I'm having some problems. I am trying to configure two machines in a multi-master replication. I have a database which I want synchronized between both machines. (Asynchronously) It seems as though I can get it to work once, but then afterwards it fails. In addition, the biggest problem is that the Oracle Replication Manager consistently freezes up when accessing the database. (It would give me a dialog box "Accessing Database", the disk would chug away for a bit.. but it would go on forever. The only way to stop it is to kill the process. This happens 100% of the time when I try to view the deferred transactions, and about 30% of the time otherwise.)

Here is how I set up the machines (both identical):

1. Install NT 4.0 (NTFS)
2. Install Service Pack 3
3. Install Hotfix "Getadmin"
4. Install Hotfix "ICMP-Fix"
5. Install Hotfix "lsa-Fix"
6. Install IIS4 Beta 3 w/ IE4
7. Install Oracle 8 Enterprise Edition (Typical Install)
   • Context and Image Cartridge Options
   • No database pre-install
8. Run Database Assistant to create DB
   • Advanced Replication Support
   • Context Support
   • Medium Sized Database
   • US7ASCII Character Set
   • Control Files on C: and D:
   • Increased Rollback, Index, and Temp tablespaces to 20MB
   • Log to C: and D:
9. Modified tnsnames.ora and listener.ora
   • Removed all entries except TCP/IP Protocol (Local and IP)
   • TEST1 and TEST2 (TEST2 = same thing, but on another machine) 10)Changed system & other passwords w/ Security Manager 11)Created Tablespace "TEST" with Storage Manager
   • Size 1000MB
   • Auto-Extend by 10MB/Unlimited 12)Create User TESTDBA
   • Default to TEST Tablespace
   • Roles = DBA & CTXADMIN 13)Login w/ SQL Plus and run _at_pupbld.sql 14)Ran SQL to create test schema (as TESTDBA) 15)Configure ODBC (Using Microsoft's ODBC driver, not Oracle 8's - due to incompatibility with IIS4.0 + Oracle 8 ODBC) 16)Ran Advanced Replication Manager:
   • Added system_at_TEST1 and system_at_TEST2 as master sites (TEST1 = master def)
   • Admin = REPADMIN (same for propagation)
   • Didn't add any new schemas
   • Link Interval Expression = 5 Min (to test.. temporary)
   • Purge Interval Expression = 1 Day (Default)
   • Create Master Group named TESTGROUP
   • Added all tables and views to TESTGROUP (from TESTDBA Schema)
   • Add TEST2 to Destination

At this point, everything seems to be fine. After a few minutes, it seems the database had replicated properly to the other machine. However, later, I notice that one of the jobs (deferred_push or something) is broken after failing 16 times (different jobs fail later). I found that if I force it to be NORMAL, and manually run it, it sometimes recovers. But somewhere along the line, I must have done something wrong (probably in the installation, as the same problem is on both machines) as the Replication Manager consistently would freeze when accessing the database. (Similarly, jobs when run manually sometimes would freeze as they are being run. The database seems be doing something, as the disk is chugging, and the CPU utilization by the Oracle8 process is around 30-40%. But I've tried leaving it running overnight, and in the morning, it is STILL running) I frequently have to kill the Rep Manager process so I can regain control of the computer.

It seems as if this multi-master replication scheme should be relatively easy. But I'm running into all sorts of road-blocks, and am getting frustrated. If it weren't for the context search capabilities of Oracle 8, I would have long switched back to SQL Server. :(

Please help! Any advice/ideas/comments would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Lyle Fong

p.s. Also, does anyone know how to have Win NT start Context servers

     automatically upon boot?

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Lyle Fong                 Gamers Extreme                Pager: (510) 810-1210