The first time the Capture Agent is started both the sqdconfapply and sqdconfstart commands should be issued. After the initial creation, apply will only be used when you are ready to implement all changes made since the agent was last Stopped. As described above the purpose of apply is to make it possible to add/modify the configuration while preparing for an implementation of changes without affecting the current configuration.
With the agent mounted, the changes would be applied and then, the capture agent could now be started.
sqdconf apply | start <capture CAB file name>sqdconf ./oracdc1/oracdc1.cab apply
sqdconf ./oracdc1/oracdc1.cab startIt is important to realized that the return code, and message from sqdconf indicating that the start command was executed successfully, does not confirm that the capture agent successfully started. It only means that the start command was accepted by the capture agent. After that occurs the initial setup necessary to launch a capture thread are initiated including connecting to the Oracle database server and setting up the necessary environment to start a log mining session.
The capture agent runs as a daemon, so it does not have a terminal window to emit warnings or errors. Such messages are instead posted in the system log. The daemon name for the Oracle capture is sqdlogm NOT sqdconf. If there is a mechanism in place to monitor the system log, it is a good idea to include the monitoring of sqdlogm messages. This will allow you to detect when a capture agent is mounted, started, or stopped - normally or because of an error. It will also contain, for most usual production error conditions, some additional information to help diagnose the problem.