HiT Bolsters Data Synchronization Tool

March 23, 2010 Alex Woodie

HiT Software next quarter will begin delivery of DBMoto version 7, a new release of its database synchronization tool that supports DB2/400, Oracle, SQL Server, and other major RDBMSs. With version 7, HiT added a number of new management and auditing capabilities that should make it easier to replicate data among multiple databases, while support for DB2/400’s minimized journal data capability should boost data replication performance in System i environments.

DBMoto is a Windows-based data replication tool that enables organizations to share data among more than 20 different relational database management systems (RDBMS), including IBM‘s DB2/400, DB2 for LUW, Informix, Cloudscape, and SolidDB; Microsoft‘s SQL Server and Access; Oracle‘s MySQL and Oracle 11i; Sybase‘s ASE and SQL Anywhere; CA‘s Ingres; PostgreSQL Global Development Group‘s PostgreSQL; Gupta‘s SQLBase; and FirebirdSQL.

HiT designed DBMoto’s wizard-based setup to mostly eliminate the need for programming (users can customize replications and do some basic transformations using scripts), while multiple replication modes—refresh, full mirroring, and synchronization–enable users to tailor the replication workload for different data integration tasks and performance requirements.

Some of the enhancements delivered with version 7, such as support for Oracle‘s Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Microsoft Windows Server clustering environments, are tailored to larger shops with more sophisticated IT investments. Similarly, this release gains the capability to synchronize data among multiple databases. Previously, the data synchronization mode could only operate between two databases.

DBMoto 7 also brings enhancements to the GUI management console, called the DBMoto Management Center. With this release, users also gain the capability to administer the DBMoto server from any location or even multiple locations, which should make it easier to manage data integration in far-flung enterprises. The console is also more customizable with this release, the company says.

Version 7 provides something unique to System i shops, which make up a good percentage of HiT’s DBMoto installed base. Specifically, the product now supports replicating data in minimized journal entries.

Minimized journaled data is a feature that IBM introduced with OS/400 V5R1 to enhance performance of database replication in DB2/400. The minimize data (MINENTDTA) command instructs DB2/400 to only replicate the records within a file that have changed. Since regular journaling replicates all records in a file, whether they changed or not, the capability to replicate only records that have changed can reduce the amount of data that is replicated, thereby boosting replication performance (at the cost of rendering replicated files unreadable by humans).

DBMoto users on all platforms will appreciate some of the new data management and security capabilities in version 7. Administrators gain new options for managing and filtering access to database tables on source and target systems. New metadata management options should make it easier to use DBMoto for disaster recovery (DR) preparedness, while users gain the option of using the product’s native security options or Windows security tools for managing access to product operations.

Version 7 introduces two new data auditing capabilities. Administrators should be able to get a better handle on the details and design of their data replication jobs thanks to the new DBMoto Verifier feature, which compares data before and after replication. HiT also added the capability to convert changed data into a log table and then into another file format, which should provide auditors with more visibility into DBMoto activities.

DBMoto version 7 also gains support for performing change data capture (CDC) synchronization using log data from DB2 for Linux, Unix, and Windows (DB2 LUW, formerly called UDB DB2). Support for XML and Large Object Binary (LOB) data types were also added.

Version 7 also marks the beginning of support for Netezza‘s data warehousing and analytic appliances. HiT and Netezza worked to validate DBMoto’s capability to efficiently perform initial bulk data loads and ongoing CDC updates into the Netezza TwinFin appliance from Oracle, DB2, or SQL Server sources. Netezza’s director of technology alliances, Matthew Rollender, said he was “impressed by the technology and the expertise of HiT’s team.”

Meanwhile, HiT CEO Giacomo Lorenzin says DBMoto version 7 should play well with large organizations that demand advanced data replication capabilities, such as support for automated conflict resolution. “DBMoto 7 is a significant step forward in data integration for large organizations where heterogeneous databases share operational workloads,” Lorenzin says in a press release.