Dataguard and Virtualisation

[philthee]

Hi There,
I was wondering if it is possible, or indeed if anyone has done this.
We are looking at the possibility of setting up Dataguard for our Live Oracle databases (mixture of 9i and 10g)
My understanding is that we need identical server/software for Physical standby databases.
We have a limited budget so getting a standby server for each live server is unlikely.
Is it possible to have many Virtualised servers set up (reducing server cost) that will work fine as the servers for Physical standby databases?
Our Live systems are on Solaris 10.
I read somewhere that with 11g you can have your standby on a different type of server if you want.

To be clear our live systems are on physical servers but wondering if we can set up Dataguard to use Virtualised servers for Physical Standby.

Thanks
Phil

[hrishy]

Hi

a)Phil if the reason you are trying to do this is to justify to management the cost then you can also think of running multiple databases on the server that is hosting physical datagard enviornment.(we do this at my shop)

2 scenarios i can think of with virtualisation

b)Virtual environment is hosted on the same box where the primary and secondary is setup then perhaphs you dont get the benefits of dataguard for DR purposes.

Virtual enviornment is hosted on some other box where you have many virtual servers then you probably roughly fall into case a i described above

[philthee]

Hi

a)Phil if the reason you are trying to do this is to justify to management the cost then you can also think of running multiple databases on the server that is hosting physical datagard enviornment.(we do this at my shop)

2 scenarios i can think of with virtualisation

b)Virtual environment is hosted on the same box where the primary and secondary is setup then perhaphs you dont get the benefits of dataguard for DR purposes.

Virtual enviornment is hosted on some other box where you have many virtual servers then you probably roughly fall into case a i described above

Hi Hrishy, thanks for your reply.

Option a is what i was trying to get at (although perhaps not being particularly clear).
What operating system are you working with?
Thanks
Phil

[hrishy]

Hi

Currently AIX and Linux mostly 10.2.0.4 as this release has fixed most of the datguard bugs.

We run mostly Pyhsical Dataguard and host mutiple dataguard environments at the DR center.

Lets assume the DR center has a server called DR1 and in our case DR1 runs Stdb1,stdb2,stdb3 etc..


regards
Hrishy

[philthee]

yeah, that sounds exactly the scenario i am thinking about (except with Solaris)

many thanks Hrishy,

[vnktummala]

Hi Hrishy,

Does it really necessarily primary site and physical standby on the same hardware? Next week, i am building the physical standby in SUN M3000 SUN server where is the primary server is SUN Netra 240.

Thanks,

[hrishy]

Hi

Its is preferrable but not necessary in your case i dont see an issue as you are SPAC RISC architecture on both sides and hopefully you would be running same operating systems like solaris 10 same word size and Oracle software on both the primary and standby with same patch levels etc

regards
Hrishy

[vnktummala]

Thanks Hrishy.

Yes, SUN Sol 10 & Oracle 10.2.0.4 on both servers.

This practice is to upgrade the hardware with minimum downtime. After adding M3000 as physical standby, we will get rid of Netra 240 which SUN is no more supporting.

Thanks,