Managing EBS 12 Physical Standby Databases with Oracle Data Guard Broker

[Aug. 8, 2012 Update: Added additional details about logical standby and Oracle Streams]

[Aug. 24, 2011 update: Clarified description of AutoConfig dependency when enabling EBS failover environments]

Oracle Data Guard allows you to create standby databases for disaster recovery.  Oracle Data Guard Broker provides an easy interface to configure standby databases and to perform role transitions with a single command for switchover and failover.  It logically groups the primary and standby databases into a broker configuration that allows the broker to manage and monitor them together as an integrated unit. Oracle Data Guard Broker can automate the following operations:

• Creation of Data Guard configurations incorporating a primary database, a new or existing (physical or logical) standby database, log transport services, and log apply services, where any of the databases could be Real Application Clusters (RAC) databases.
• Adding up to 8 additional new or existing (physical or logical, RAC, or non-RAC) standby databases to each existing Data Guard configuration, for a total of one primary database, and from 1 to 9 standby databases in the same configuration.
• Managing an entire Data Guard configuration, including all databases, log transport services, and log apply services, through a client connection to any database in the configuration.
• Invoking switchover or failover with a single command to initiate and control complex role changes across all databases in the configuration.
• Monitoring the status of the entire configuration, capturing diagnostic information, reporting statistics such as the log apply rate and the redo generation rate, and detecting problems quickly with centralized monitoring, testing, and performance tools.

There are two interfaces to manage broker configurations:

1. Oracle Enterprise Manager (Graphical User Interface)
2. Data Guard command-line interface (DGMGRL).

If you've implemented standby databases as part of your EBS disaster recovery or business continuity strategy, we'd recommend that you consider using Data Guard Broker, too.  We've provided step-by-step configuration instructions to use the Data Guard Broker [DGMGRL]  tool to manage Physical Standby databases for E-Business Suite Release 12. For detailed instructions, see:

• Business Continuity for Oracle E-Business Release 12 Using Oracle 11g Physical Standby Database  (Note 1070033.1)

Failover with E-Business Suite environments is not automatic.  E-Business Suite environments must be failed over manually due to the need to run AutoConfig to reconfigure services on the failover site.

What about logical standby or Oracle Streams?

Neither logical standby nor Oracle Streams can be used for replicating E-Business Suite databases.  As documented in Maximum Availability Architecture and Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (Note 403347.1):

The process that mines the redo to create SQL statements for a logical standby cannot handle all data types and actions provided by the Oracle database.  The E-Business Suite uses some of those “unsupported” data types.  Thus, the Applications development group does not support the use of logical standby for an E-Business Suite implementation.

References

• Business Continuity for Oracle E-Business Release 12 Using Oracle 11g Physical Standby Database (Doc ID 1070033.1)
• Oracle Database Adminstrator’s Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2)
• Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration 11g Release 2 (11.2)

Related Articles

• 11gR2 11.2.0.2 Database Certified with E-Business Suite
• Business Continuity for EBS Using Oracle 11g Physical Standby DB
• Comparing Oracle Data Guard vs. Active Data Guard for EBS Environments
• Offloading (Some) EBS 12 Reporting to Active Data Guard Instances