Oracle Database 10g High Availability with RAC, Flashback & Data Guard

by Matthew Hart, Scott Jesse

Overview

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Attain real solutions for current availability challenges. Based on a “DBA-centric” approach to High Availability, Oracle Database 10g High Availability concentrates on explaining Oracle Database 10g technologies and practices to database administrators, covering general availability, real application clusters (RAC), disaster planning and recovery, and distributed database solutions. Hardware and application needs are also taken into account. While Oracle Database 10g is the main focus, many of the options discussed are available in earlier database releases. Organized to provide conceptual understanding of High Availability, included are “HA Workshops,” step-by-step instructions to get you through certain implementations, plus real-world inspired case studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780072254280
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	04/21/2004
Series:	Oracle Press
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Matthew Hart (Colorado Springs, CO) has worked exclusively with the Windows Operating System for more than 5 years, the last 3 of which have been with Oracle Corporation, assisting Oracle customer implement the RDBMS on Windows NT and 2000. From 1999 onward, his role has increasingly become focused on Oracle’s high availability solutions, specifically Oracle Recovery Manager and Oracle Advanced Replication. For the past 6 months he has been involved in the beta testing of Oracle9i, and he currently supports beta customers who are rolling out 9i into the enterprise. Matthew became an Oracle Certified Professional in May 1999.

Scott Jesse (Colorado Springs, CO) is an Oracle Certified Professional who has worked extensively with the Windows NT Operating System for more than 7 years. Scott began by deploying Windows NT on a corporate-wide rollout for more than 3000 users while working for MCI Worldcom. For the past 5 years, Scott has worked in the Oracle support organization, primarily assisting Oracle customers in implementing the Oracle RDBMS on Window NT. For the last 3 years, Scott has specialized in clustering and high availability technologies on the Windows NT platform, including Oracle Failsafe and Oracle Parallel Server.

Hometown:

London, England

Place of Birth:

Ottawa, Canada

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction	xvii
Part I	Logical Availability
1	Oracle and Availability: Illustrated Downtime Scenarios	3
	Horatio's Woodscrews	4
	User-Defined Availability	7
	Test and Development Availability	7
	Cyclical Database Resource Requirements	8
	What Reports Were Those, Exactly?	9
	Out of Space in the Woodscrew Tablespace	10
	Downtime for Hardware Fixes	11
	Restarting Long-Running Transactions	12
	Slow Crash Recovery	12
	Dealing with Block Corruption (ORA 1578)	13
	Waiting for the File to Restore from Tape	14
	RAC and the Single Point of Failure	15
	Rewinding the Database	15
	The Dropped Table	16
	The Truncated Table	17
	Connecting Online, Identical Databases	18
	Complete and Total Disaster	18
	Where to Go from Here	19
2	RDBMS Features for Availability	21
	Enterprise Manager	22
	Oracle Database Control	23
	Database Control Console: Navigation	23
	Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control	27
	Database Configuration on the Fly	28
	spfile or init.ora?	29
	Nondynamic Parameters	30
	Data Architecture and Availability	34
	Partitioned Tables and Indexes	35
	Index-Organized Tables	42
	Materialized Views	43
	Online Reorganization	46
	Resource Manager and Scheduler	49
	Managing Limited Resources	49
	Heir to the Job Throne: The Scheduler	50
	LogMiner: Transaction Extraction	52
	Transportable Tablespaces	54
3	Tuning Your Database for Availability	61
	Intelligent Infrastructure	62
	MMON Background Process	62
	AWR: Automatic Workload Repository	63
	What Is AWR?	63
	Viewing an AWR Report	64
	Interpreting the Workload Repository Report Output	64
	Creating Baselines for Comparing the Workload	66
	ADDM (Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor)	70
	Viewing the ADDM Reports	70
	What Drives ADDM?	73
	Advisor Central	76
	SQL Tuning Advisor	76
	SQL Access Advisor	77
	Memory Advisor and ASMM	78
	Additional Advisors	81
	Automatic Storage Management (ASM)	83
	ASM Concepts	83
	Implementing ASM	87
	Managing ASM Environments with EM	91
Part II	Real Application Clusters
4	RAC Setup and Configuration	99
	Cluster-Ready Services (CRS)	100
	CRS Architecture	101
	Virtual IP Addresses, or VIPs	102
	CRS Installation	102
	Operating System Configuration for CRS	103
	Storage Requirements for CRS/RAC	103
	Networking Requirements for CRS and RAC	105
	Kernel Parameters	105
	OCR and Voting Disk Requirements	106
	Preparing for the CRS Install	107
	Network Configuration	110
	Shared Storage Configuration	115
	The Actual CRS Install Itself	121
	Coexistence of CRS and Local Only Installs	121
	Installing CRS	122
	What Just Happened?	126
	Installing the RDBMS	127
	ORACLE_HOME on Local or Shared?	127
	Installing the Product	129
	Database Creation	130
5	Database Administration in a RAC Environment	137
	RAC Essentials	138
	Instance Naming	138
	spfile in the RAC World	138
	RAC-Specific Parameters	140
	Additional Background Processes in a RAC Instance	143
	Cache Coherency in a RAC Environment	146
	Managing REDO and UNDO in a RAC Environment	148
	Redo Logs and Instance Recovery	148
	Redo Logs and Media Recovery	149
	UNDO in RAC	157
	Adding and Removing Cluster Nodes	157
	Adding a Cluster Node	158
	Removing a Cluster Node	164
	Additional RAC Considerations	170
	Managing ASM Environments	170
	Patching in a RAC Environment	171
	Enterprise Manager Grid Control and RAC	171
6	Utility Computing: Applications as Services	177
	Services Concepts	178
	Services as a Workload	178
	Services as Applications	179
	Services from the Database Perspective	179
	Creating Services	181
	Viewing Services from Within the Database	185
	Using SRVCTL to Manage Services	189
	Node Applications	190
	Managing Databases and Instances via SRVCTL	191
	Managing Services via SRVCTL	195
	Additional Notes on Services	197
	The Oracle Cluster Registry	198
	Information in the OCR	198
Part III	Disaster Planning
7	Oracle Data Guard: Surviving the Disaster	205
	Making the Right Choice	206
	Physical Standby Databases	206
	Logical Standby Databases	207
	Creating a Physical Standby	208
	Creating a Logical Standby	214
	Is Logical Standby Right for Your Application?	214
	Log Transport Services	220
	Defining Log Transport Services Destinations	221
	Log Transport Services and Security	225
	Standby Redo Logs	225
	Protection Modes	226
	Maximum Protection	226
	Maximum Availability	227
	Maximum Performance	228
	How Data Guard Handles Network Disconnects	229
	Gap Detection and Resolution	230
	Methods of Gap Resolution	230
	Managing a Physical Standby	232
	Starting a Physical Standby	232
	Starting Managed Recovery	232
	Using the Standby in Read-Only Mode	235
	Accommodating Physical Changes Made on the Primary	236
	Managing a Logical Standby Database	238
	Stopping and Starting SQL Apply	239
	Monitoring SQL Apply Progress	239
	Protecting the Logical Standby from User Modifications	240
	Recovering from Errors	241
	Changing the Default Behavior of the SQL Apply Engine	243
	Additional DBMS_LOGSTDBY Procedures	244
	Performing a Role Transition Using Switchover	247
	Performing a Role Transition Using Failover	252
	Failover First Steps	252
	Using Flashback After a Failover	254
	Data Guard Broker and Clients	256
	The CLI Interface	257
	Using the Data Guard GUI	259
8	Backup and Recovery for High-Availability Environments	275
	The Importance of Media Backups	276
	RMAN: A Primer	277
	RMAN and the Controlfile	278
	RMAN and the Data Block	280
	RMAN Command-Line Usage	281
	RMAN from Enterprise Manager	282
	Preparing an RMAN Backup Strategy	286
	The Flashback Recovery Area	286
	Permanent Configuration Parameters	289
	Caring for Your Controlfile	291
	Backing Up the Available Database	293
	The High-Availability Backup Strategy	293
	Backing Up the Flashback Recovery Area	299
	Backup Housekeeping	300
	Performing Recovery	303
	Database Recovery: Restore and Recover	303
	Block Media Recovery	306
	Media Management Considerations	306
	The SBT Interface	307
	Backing Up Directly to Tape	308
	RMAN and Data Guard	309
	Using RMAN to Build the Standby Database	309
	RMAN and RAC	316
	RMAN Configuration for the Cluster	316
	Flashback Recovery Area for RAC	321
	Oracle and Split-Mirror Technologies	322
	The Split-Mirror Configuration	322
	RMAN Backups from the Split Mirror	323
	Use DG Instead	326
9	Oracle Flashback: Surviving User-Induced Trauma	327
	Prepared for the Inevitable: Flashback Technology	328
	Flashback Query	329
	Flashback and the Undo Segment: A Love Story	329
	Performing Flashback Query	330
	Flashback Versions Query with Enterprise Manager	331
	Flashback Transaction Query	336
	Flashback Table	339
	Performing the Flashback Table from SQL	340
	Flashback Table with Enterprise Manager	340
	Flashback Drop	342
	The Recycle Bin	343
	Flashback Database	347
	Flashback Logs	348
	Flashback Retention Target	348
	Flashback Database: Tuning and Tweaking	350
	Flashback Database: Opportunity for Different Uses	352
Part IV	Distributed Database Solutions
10	Oracle Streams for High Availability	357
	Streams at a Glance	358
	Streams Capture Process	360
	Streams Propagation	360
	Streams Apply Process	361
	Rules, Rules, Rules	361
	Streams for High Availability	362
	Streams Replication and Replica DBs	362
	Setting Up Streams Replication	363
	Planning for Streams Replication	363
	Configuring Streams Replication	365
	Conflict Resolution	372
	Downstream Capture of LCRs	385
	Administration of Stream Processes	388
	Completely Removing a Streams Configuration from the Database	389
	Streams Summary	389
11	Oracle Net Configuration for Failover	391
	Definitions	392
	Connect-Time Failover	392
	Transparent Application Failover	393
	Client-Side Load Balancing	394
	Server-Side Load Balancing	395
	Net Configuration	396
	Using GUI Tools to Generate Configuration Files	397
	Easy Connect	397
	Environments Suitable for TAF	398
	Listener Configuration	400
	Why a Virtal IP?	400
	Bibliography	403
	Index	415