AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009

11g Active Data Guard

More than just DR.

Gavin Soorma
Senior Oracle DBA,
Bankwest
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
DR Sites of today
Lots of $$$ spent on disaster recovery (DR) systems that sit idle waiting for
a disaster to occur
Investment on hardware, state of the art data centres, software licenses,
maintenance costs
DR sites very often have identical capacity as the production site idle and
unused capacity in most cases
Traditionally resource intensive activities like reporting and backups were
not offloaded to the standby site
Standby databases using Data Guard are synchronized replicas of
production databases so why not use them?
Oracle 11g Active Data Guard changes that enabling us to optimize Return
On Investment from the DR or Standby sites

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Life before 11g Active Data Guard
Prior to Oracle 11g, read access to standby database required Redo Apply
to be stopped.
Queries on read only standby databases could potentially return stale
results as changes occurring on the primary database are not applied.
This backlog of unapplied redo data could potentially increase failover times
Traditional reporting sites based on MV's
MV's need administrative overhead for setup and maintenance.
MV refresh times can be lengthy for complex queries - while complete
refresh happens no rows returned for queries
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Data Guard Overview

MRP
RFS
Standby
Redo
Logs
ARCH
Archived
Redo Logs
Primary
Database
Transactions
LGWR
Online
Redo
Logs
ARCH
Oracle Net
Data Guard
Broker
Archived
Redo Logs
Standby
Database
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
What is Active Data Guard?
Introduced in 11g Release 1
Available in the database server Enterprise Edition as an additional
license option
Real time replica of a production database which is open in read only mode
while changes transmitted from the primary database are being
simultaneously applied to it.
Applies to physical and not logical standby database
Can offload reporting, queries and fast incremental backups from the
primary site to the standby site improving the performance and adding to
the scalability of the primary site
Performs its primary Data Guard objective of preventing data loss and
downtime due to data corruptions, database and site failures, human error,
or natural disaster.


AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Active Data Guard Usage
Redirect read only portions of application to Standby site - online order and
shipping application will have a read only component where the catalogue is
searched by customer before the shopping cart activity commences
Read mostly applications can use redirection to Active DG site
Redirect complex adhoc queries like year end or month end reports to DR
site
Redirect Business Intelligence tools like Discoverer to the standby site
Use optimized incremental backups with RMAN block change tracking in
11g now on standby sites to make backups up to 20 times faster
Extends basic Data guard functionality switchovers/failovers
Data Guard is free - Active Data Guard is a licensed option

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Active Data Guard Not just for protection

Offload fast incremental backups to an Active Data Guard Standby
Block change tracking eliminates full scans
Incremental backups complete 20x faster (8.3 min vs 2.8 hrs)
In 11g, block change tracking file can be created on physical standby
Minimal overhead on standby database less than 3%

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
11g Active Data Guard
Auto block Protection
Primary Database
Active Standby Database
Read/Write
Users
Read Only
Users/Reporting
Applications
Fast Incremental
Backups
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Increasing Read-Only Scalability
Active Data Guard
Reader Farm

Primary Database
(Two Node RAC Cluster)

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Active Data Guard Operations Permitted
What can we do?

Issue SELECT statements
Issue complex queries such as grouping SET queries and WITH clause
queries
Call stored procedures
Use database links to write to remote databases
Use stored procedures to call remote procedures via dblinks
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Active Data Guard Operations Disallowed
What we cannot do .

Any DML excluding SELECT
Any DDL
So no additional indexes allowed
AWR tool not supported for Active DG standby
Read note 454848.1 for installing and using Standby statspack
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
What operations can be performed?

SQL> select getsal('KING') from dual;

GETSAL('KING')
--------------
5000

SQL> select getsal_remote ('KING') from dual; -- getsal_remote is synonym for getsal@dblink

GETSAL_REMOTE('KING')
---------------------
5000

SQL> create table mytab
2 (col_a number);
create table mytab
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-16000: database open for read-only access

SQL> delete scott.emp;
delete scott.emp
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-16000: database open for read-only access


AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
What operations can be performed?
SQL> select database_role from v$database;

DATABASE_ROLE
----------------
PHYSICAL STANDBY

SQL> select open_mode from v$database;

OPEN_MODE
--------------------
READ ONLY WITH APPLY

SQL> INSERT INTO dept@mylink --remote database
2 VALUES
3 (50,'I.T','HOUSTON');

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> UPDATE dept@mylink -- remote database
2 SET LOC='DALLAS'
3 WHERE LOC='HOUSTON';

1 row updated.

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Enabling Active Data Guard
Via SQL*PLUS ..
If the standby database is not running
(note in 11g, STARTUP command will start standby in read-only mode)

SQL> STARTUP

SQL> RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE USING CURRENT LOGFILE DISCONNECT;


If standby database is running and managed recovery in operation

SQL> RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE CANCEL;

SQL> ALTER DATABASE OPEN READ ONLY;

SQL> RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE USING CURRENT LOGFILE DISCONNECT;


AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Enabling Active Data Guard
Via the Data Guard Broker

DGMGRL> startup
DGMGRL> edit database STDBY set state=APPLY_ON

In case standby database is already in managed recovery mode

Stop redo apply

DGMGRL> edit database STDBY set state=APPLY-OFF

Using SQL*PLUS open the database in read only

SQL> ALTER DATABASE OPEN READ ONLY;

Restart redo apply

DGMGRL> edit database STDBY set state=APPLY-ON


AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Dont do this at home (or in the office)

SQL> select dbms_rowid.ROWID_BLOCK_NUMBER(rowid) from emp;

DBMS_ROWID.ROWID_BLOCK_NUMBER(ROWID)
------------------------------------
188

dd if=/dev/null of=/u02/oradata/apex/monitor_data01.dbf bs=8192 conv=notrunc seek=188 << EOF
CORRUPT corrupt CORRUPT corrupt CORRUPT corrupt CORRUPT corrupt CORRUPT corrupt
EOF


apex:/u01/oracle/scripts> ./corrupt.sh
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

SQL> alter system flush buffer_cache;

System altered.

SQL> select * from monitor.emp;
select * from monitor.emp
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 5, block # 188)
ORA-01110: data file 5: '/u02/oradata/apex/monitor_data01.dbf'

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Active Data Guard Block Recovery
Automatically repair block corruptions online

Primary repaired from standby and vice-versa

Corrupt block relative dba: 0x018005da (file 5, block 188)
Fractured block found during user buffer read
Data in bad block:
type: 6 format: 2 rdba: 0x018005da
last change scn: 0x0000.001b3ebf seq: 0x2 flg: 0x04
spare1: 0x0 spare2: 0x0 spare3: 0x0
consistency value in tail: 0x00000000
check value in block header: 0x1b14
computed block checksum: 0xb2a8
Reading datafile '/u01/oracle/testdr01.dbf' for corruption at rdba: 0x018005da (file 5,
block 188)
Reread (file 5, block 188) found same corrupt data
Requesting Auto BMR for (file# 5, block# 188)
Waiting Auto BMR response for (file# 5, block# 188)
Auto BMR successful

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Guaranteed SLAs for read-only users
Active Data Guard service level agreements (SLA) can be implemented
using the session parameter, STANDBY_MAX_DATA_DELAY
New with Data Guard 11g Release 2
Specifies a limit for the amount of time (in seconds) allowed to elapse
between when changes are committed on the primary and when they can
be queried on an active standby database
The active standby will return an ORA-3172 error code if the limit is
exceeded.
Applications can handle this error and redirect queries to the primary
database

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Guaranteed SLAs for read-only users
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET STANDBY_MAX_DATA_DELAY=0;
ERROR:
ORA-03174: STANDBY_MAX_DATA_DELAY does not apply to SYS users

SQL> conn sh/sh
Connected.

SQL> ALTER SESSION SET STANDBY_MAX_DATA_DELAY=0;

Session altered.

ON PRIMARY

SQL> update mysales set prod_id=2;

ON STANDBY

SQL> select distinct prod_id from mysales;

ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03172: STANDBY_MAX_DATA_DELAY of 0 seconds exceeded

SQL> /

PROD_ID
----------
1 >>>> QUERY REDIRECTED TO PRIMARY


AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Testing Active Data Guard
SQL> select database_role from v$database;

DATABASE_ROLE
----------------
PRIMARY

SQL> update mysales set prod_id=1;

918843 rows updated.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL> select to_char(sysdate,'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') from dual;

TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DD-
--------------------
04-NOV-2009 10:26:12

SQL> select distinct prod_id from mysales;

PROD_ID
----------
1

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Testing Active Data Guard
SQL> select database_role from v$database;

DATABASE_ROLE
----------------
PHYSICAL STANDBY

SQL> conn sh/sh
Connected.

SQL> select to_char(sysdate,'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') from dual;

TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DD-
--------------------
04-NOV-2009 10:26:31

SQL> select distinct prod_id from mysales;

PROD_ID
----------
1

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Monitoring Active Data Guard
Goal - How far behind does data lag on Standby relative to the primary
database?
Focus areas
Determine Transport lag
Determine Apply lag
Determine Query SCN or time compare CURRENT_SCN on
Primary and Standby databases

Guarantees a transactionally consistent view of data
Query SCN on Standby is equivalent to CURRENT SCN on primary
Redo Transport considerations synchronous vs. asynchronous
View V$DATAGUARD_STATS to monitor apply lag as well as transport
lag

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Monitoring Active Data Guard
SQL> select value from v$dataguard_stats where name='apply lag';

VALUE
----------------------------------------------------------------
+00 00:00:01

SQL> select value from v$dataguard_stats where name='transport lag';

VALUE
----------------------------------------------------------------
+00 00:00:00

Query V$DATAGUARD_STATS view to determine both transport lag as
well as apply lag

Query V$DATABASE on both primary as well as standby database to obtain
CURRENT_SCN
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
11g Snapshot Standby
Active Dataguard

Read Only - redo from primary received and applied

Snapshot Standby

Read Write - redo from primary received but not applied

Redo applied when snapshot standby database is converted back to
physical standby

Note:
Both Active Data Guard and Snapshot standby require a physical standby
database in place as opposed to a logical standby database
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Snapshot Standby for Test environments
Two steps vs. 15 in 10g Release 2
Convert Physical Standby to Snapshot
Standby and open for read/writes by testing
applications
ALTER DATABASE CONVERT TO
SNAPSHOT STANDBY;
Discard testing writes and resync with primary
by applying logs
ALTER DATABASE CONVERT TO
PHYSICAL STANDBY;
Preserves zero data loss as well
But no real time query (Active Data
Guard) or fast failover


Physical Standby
Apply Logs
Snapshot Standby
Perform Testing
Open
Database
Back out
Changes
Continuous Redo Shipping
while operating in Snapshot Standby mode
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Snapshot Standby and Change Control

Combined with Real Application Testing to provide a simple way to test and
maintain protection at the same time
Eliminate guesswork as performance test results are realistic and reliable
since using a replica of production data
Understand the impact as well as extent of system resource consumption
on production data during performance testing
Change assurance - Introduce changes with confidence
Snapshot standby provides simultaneous disaster recovery capabilities as
well as QUALITY ASSURANCE capabilities

AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Combining with Real Application Testing
Workload
Capture

Workload
Pre-process

Analysis
& Reporting
Workload
Replay

Primary Database Snapshot Standby
Physical
Standby
Archive Logs
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Snapshot Standby some considerations
Can only be used with a physical standby database and not logical standby
database
Needs flashback logging to be enabled - creates a implicit guaranteed
restore point internally to which the snapshot standby is flashed back to
convert back to physical standby
The name of this guaranteed restore points begins with
SNAPSHOT_STANDBY_REQUIRED_*
Need to consider how long the standby database operates in snapshot
standby mode
First have to rewind the database to the guaranteed restore point using
flashback logs - then changes generated on the primary when standby was
in snapshot standby mode have to be applied by rolling forward and
applying archive logs
Note switchover or failover cannot be performed to a snapshot standby
database
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Final Thoughts .
Organisations are not fully utilising the investment in hardware and
resources on disaster recovery sites
Now in Oracle 11g, it is possible to increase the return on such investment
by employing new features like Active Data Guard and Snapshot Standby
database
Standby databases are not just for disaster recovery
Offload resource intensive operations like reporting and backups to standby
sites
Use the standby database to perform testing and QA via the Snapshot
Database technology
Need to weigh benefits vs. perceived additional licensing costs
AUSOUG National Conference Series 2009
Thanks for attending!!


Q U E S T I O N S
A N S W E R S
http://gavinsoorma.wordpress.com

Tel: 0417713124

gavin.soorma@bankwest.com.au