Question regarding replication

Hello,

I have a customer, who is using Oracle Version 7.3 Parallel Server on a Cluster System. I would like to replicate the database to an additional cluster. Users are allowed to query data on that additional cluster. Their access is read only. The data doesn't have to be real time for now. This might change in the future. The size of the database is 500 Gigabyte. The amount of data that is added/changed is about 15-20 Gigabyte per day. Since my experience with Oracle is limited, I would like to know:

1. Is setting up a single master with one read-only snapshot site that is updated once per day a good solution in the above scenario? Are there any known problems? (The network is fast enough: A dedicated link with 100 Mb)
2. Are there better alternatives?
3. Should I upgrade to Version 8.0?
4. Would the above scenario still work, if the data has to be updated on an hourly basis on the additional cluster?

Thanks,

Hannah Received on Sun Jan 31 1999 - 18:46:00 CST