Oracle Advanced Replication

pre-11.2 · replication · deprecated 12.1 · desupported 12.2

Survived, partially.

✓ certified by the mortician

In life

Advanced Replication was the trigger and queue based replication family that predated Streams: multimaster replication between peer databases, updatable materialized views for disconnected sites, hierarchical materialized views and deployment templates, all administered through the DBMS_REPCAT packages.

Migrations care because updatable snapshot sites, typically at branch offices or on laptops, embody a synchronization design that must be replaced, and because replication groups and conflict-resolution methods are configuration rather than schema and are easy to miss. Read-only materialized views are unaffected and keep working.

Oracle's 12.1 Upgrade Guide deprecates Advanced Replication and the 12.2 guide desupports it in its entirety, listing multimaster replication, updatable materialized views, hierarchical materialized views and deployment templates. Read-only materialized views with basic replication remain supported, and GoldenGate is the named replacement.

Cause of departure

Desupported in Oracle Database 12.2 after deprecation in 12.1. Oracle names Oracle GoldenGate as the successor.

Obituary

Oracle Advanced Replication, introduced before 11.2, spent its life supporting read-only and updatable snapshot sites and multimaster replication with conflict resolution. It served distributed databases until newer arrangements took over.

Deprecated in 12.1 and desupported in 12.2, it departed with Oracle GoldenGate named as its replacement. Azure alternatives preserve useful portions, but DDL handling and unsupported replication topologies make the inheritance less than seamless.

It is survived by Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server, where it lives on partly through logical replication and pglogical. Azure SQL Managed Instance also carries it on partly through transactional, snapshot and bidirectional replication, while multimaster conflict resolution has no equivalent.

Survived by

Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server partial effort L

Applies to Oracle 11.2, 12.1

Native PostgreSQL logical replication and the pglogical extension provide table-level publish/subscribe between Flexible Servers, including bidirectional setups with pglogical, which replaces Advanced Replication's read-only and updatable snapshot sites. Neither replicates DDL automatically, neither offers Oracle-style conflict resolution methods for multimaster, and sequences and large objects are outside logical replication.

Set wal_level to logical and, for pglogical, add it to shared_preload_libraries and azure.extensions.
Create publications and subscriptions (or pglogical nodes and replication sets) per site.
Copy schema separately with pg_dump --schema-only and apply DDL on all nodes.
Avoid true multimaster writes or handle conflicts in the application.

Complications

major pglogical on Flexible Server does not replicate DDL automatically; the initial schema must be copied with pg_dump --schema-only and later DDL applied on both sides (or through pglogical.replicate_ddl_command), and the replication user must belong to azure_pg_admin with the REPLICATION attribute.

· microsoft Logical replication and logical decoding in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server

Azure SQL Managed Instance partial effort L

Applies to Oracle 11.2, 12.1

Managed Instance supports SQL Server transactional and snapshot replication as publisher, distributor and subscriber, plus bidirectional transactional replication, which covers the read-only and two-site cases Advanced Replication served. Multimaster replication with conflict resolution has no equivalent, because merge, peer-to-peer and updatable subscriptions are not supported on Managed Instance; those topologies must be redesigned around a single writable primary with failover groups or application-level conflict handling.

Classify each master site and materialized view group as read-only distribution, two-site, or multimaster.
Implement read-only and two-site cases with transactional or bidirectional replication using SQL authentication and an Azure file share for snapshots.
Collapse multimaster groups onto one primary; use failover groups for regional presence.
Keep the number of continuously running distribution agents at or below 30.

Complications

major Managed Instance supports transactional, snapshot and bidirectional replication but not merge replication, peer-to-peer replication or updatable subscriptions; replication requires SQL authentication and an Azure Storage file share for the working directory, and at most 30 distribution agents may run continuously.

· General Purpose, Next-gen General Purpose, Business Critical · microsoft Transactional replication with Azure SQL Managed Instance

Notices of correction

oracle Deprecated and Desupported Features for Oracle Database 12c (12.1) · Upgrade Guide 12.1, E41397 · read 2026-09-26
oracle Desupported Features in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) · Upgrade Guide 12.2, E86577 · read 2026-09-26
microsoft Logical replication and logical decoding in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server · page updated 2026-07-20 · read 2026-09-26
microsoft Extensions and modules by name in Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server · page updated 2026-07-13 · read 2026-09-26
microsoft Transactional replication with Azure SQL Managed Instance · page updated 2026-08-27 · read 2026-09-26
microsoft T-SQL differences between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance · page updated 2026-09-09 · read 2026-09-26

← All notices