Dummies Notes – How to Setup Oracle Data Guard

This article represents instructions which could be used to set up oracle data guard on a primary and one or more physical standby database. The article presumes that you have a basic understanding of what is Oracle Data guard and why it needs to be set up.

Following are key aspects which are discussed later in this article:

• Primary Database Setup
• Physical Standby Database Setup

Following is details on primary and physical standby database setup:

• Primary Database Setup: Configure the primary database appropriately including doing some of the following:
  • Enable force logging
  • Alter the database parameters such as following. This is one time activity and does not needed to be done during the addition of new physical standby databases.
    • REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE
    • LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT
    • LOG_ARCHIVE_MAX_PROCESSES
    • FAL_CLIENT
    • FAL_SERVER
    • STANDBY_FILE_MANAGEMENT
  • Configure the destination parameters for each new physical standby added. Following parameters are configured each time a new physical database is added:
    • LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG
    • LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_<NUMBER>
    • LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_<NUMBER>
  • Create PFile
  • Configure the primary database to receive the redo logs
  • Modify the tnsnames.ora file by adding an entry for physical standby database. Add an entry into this file for each new addition of physical standby database.
  • Create the following files to be copied to physical standby database:
    • Standby control files
    • Orapassword file generated using orapwd utility
    • Custom init<SID>.ora file
    • Database & archivelog backup
• Physical Standby Database Setup: Configure the standby database appropriately including doing some of the following:
  • Copy following files to staging area such as /tmp
    • Standby control file
    • Orapassword file of the format orapw<ORACLE_SID>
    • Custom init<SID>.ora file
    • Database backup files
  • Place the standby control file to following two different places:
    • $ORACLE_BASE/oradata/<ORACLE_SID>
    • $ORACLE_BASE/fast_recovery_area/<ORACLE_SID>
  • Place the orapw<ORACLE_SID> file to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location
  • Move the backup the database to appropriate location, If it is FRA, move it to folder such as $ORACLE_BASE/fast_recovery_area/<ORACLE_SID>
  • Create SPFile from PFile
  • Start the listener
  • Restore the database
  • Prepare the standby database to receive the redo logs
  • Start the log apply process

Start the apply process