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

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Matthew Hart

Scott Jesse

McGraw-Hill/Osborne

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

Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (Publisher). All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Publisher.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

Screen displays of copyrighted Oracle software programs have been reproduced herein with the permission of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

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ISBN 0-07-225428-9

Publisher
Brandon A. Nordin

Vice President & Associate Publisher
Scott Rogers

Acquisitions Editor
Lisa McClain

Project Editor
Jennifer Malnick

Acquisitions Coordinator
Athena Honore

Technical Editors
Soumendra Paik
Bill Burton
Ed Magoffin

Copy Editor
Dennis Weaver

Proofreader
Linda Medoff

Indexer
Claire Splan

Composition
Lucie Ericksen

Illustrators
Kathleen Edwards
Melinda Lytle

Series Design
Jani Beckwith
Peter F. Hancik

Cover Designer
Damore Johann Design, Inc.

This book was composed with Corel VENTURA^™ Publisher.

Information has been obtained by Publisher from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Publisher, or others, Publisher does not guarantee to the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information included in this work and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from the use of such information.

Oracle Corporation does not make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information contained in this Work, and is not responsible for any errors or omissions.

This book is dedicated to Beth's strength, Lily's curiosity, and Thomas's beginning.

-Matt

This book is dedicated to my wife, Tricia, and my children, Erica (9), Amanda (7), and Mitchell (5).

-Scott

About the Authors

Matthew Hart was last spotted in a dungeon of his own making, coaxing life out of five-year-old Linux conversion boxes with too many Oracle instances running simultaneously. It is rumored that he lives in the middle of the country now, and leads a normal life with a wife and two children. There is some evidence that indicates he has been employed by Oracle Corporation for the past six years. Mr. Hart can be reached for questions or comments on this book by yelling loudly into a tin can, or by e-mailing [e-mail].

Scott Jesse is a full-time father of three, and a part-time husband (aspiring for a full-time position). Scott is also a brother, a son, a grandson, a cousin, an uncle and friend-these are the defining jobs and roles that stick with you for life, and make one's life incredibly full and rich. Scott has also been an avid Denver Broncos fan his entire life, and an avid Colorado Rockies and Colorado Avalanche fan their entire lives. He has also been known to occasionally hit a golf ball past the Ladies tees (at least once per 18 holes). Aside from these endeavors, Scott has moonlighted as an Oracle Support Professional for the past 7+ years, where he currently holds the title of Principal Support Engineer.

About the Contributor

Michael T. Smith has worked with Oracle for over five years and is the Global Technical Lead for Data Guard. Michael currently lives in Florida with his wife, two kids, two guinea pigs, and a four-pound dog.

Acknowledgments

Matt:

I love big words. Big words and long, overly complicated sentences with plenty of punctuation marks. I dig dangling modifiers. Seriously. I am also a fan of petty asides, pointless indications of emotion, and the phonetic spelling of slang words.

And so it is with the deepest gratitude that I thank the team at Osborne for allowing me to write technical books, putting up with my wildly unappealing prose, and, in the end, fixing it all so that people can read it. Lisa McClain, our fearless acquisitions editor, met with us at OracleWorld and agreed to a contract, and since then she has seen us through every step of the process, including last-minute chapter revisions, rewrites, and hand-wringing overstyle. It has been a real pleasure having her as a sounding board as well as a shaper of amorphous ideas. I must also thank Athena Honore for her ability to gently but firmly hold us all to the deadlines we ourselves set. This is a more difficult task than it sounds. I must thank our technical editor, Soumendra Paik, who kept us honest throughout the book and pointed out when we had cut corners or completely messed up a technical example. And, of course, thanks must go out to the project editor, Jenny Malnick, and her team of copyeditors; to them goes the most difficult work. That whole dangling modifier thing.

I've known Scott Jesse since I began working at Oracle six years ago, and he has been a mentor to me both professionally and personally. And I must come clean: Scott Jesse is the real High Availability guru on this project, people. My name comes first on the book only because I suckered him into this book, not the other way round. And I cannot thank him enough for agreeing to write this with me. It would be tiresome to list all the reasons for my gratitude to Scott, but here's the Cliff's Notes: his willingness to dig into each new challenge, regardless of the complexity; the patience to test workshops with questionable beta code, and then rebuild and test again; a complete and total dedication to technical accuracy; and the desire to have a little fun. It is on this last point that I failed Scott-my deepest apologies for wussing out on the first write of Chapter 1. Maybe we'll do an extended director's cut version down the road.

I was discussing the possibility of writing this book with Scott Jesse over pints at Vesuvio's in San Francisco. We were both working the floors at OracleWorld 2003, and had recused ourselves to the little bar to cool our heels and flesh out the details. At the table happened to be a colleague of ours from the Orlando office, Mike Smith. As we discussed the book, I bought Mike a beer and asked him if he would do the tech edit of the Data Guard chapter, as he is the primary Data Guard resource in Oracle Support. He amiably agreed. After about three or four more pints, I asked him if he'd write the Data Guard chapter. He amiably agreed. The surprising part, really, is that when I asked him after he sobered up, he still said yes. Mike went on to not only write the Data Guard chapter in this book, but put in long hours doing the 10g testing that it required, and reading other chapters for me, and in general acting like the best damn guy a person could have the opportunity to work with. My deepest gratitude must go out to Mike for his fortitude on this project.

A book of this scope isn't written by two or even three people. They are just compilers of information that comes from a hundred different sources. Awards for excellence in technical assistance go to John Sobecki for getting me out of Linux jams; Kerry O'Brien and Mark Richwine for Linux and Solaris bail-outs; Ed Magoffin for teching my Streams chapter; Bill Burton for teching Mike's Data Guard chapter; Matt Arrocha, for being my second pair of RMAN eyes; Tammy Bednar for reviewing both the RMAN and Flashback bits; Martin Ingram and Terri Beckleheimer for Enterprise Manager help; and, of course, Mike Smith, not just for writing a better Data Guard chapter than I ever could have, but also for providing all kinds of installation and configuration help with 10g.

Outside of the technical arena, support came in many forms. I must thank my good friend and mentor Martin Ingram for his continual support and encouragement. Since I have known him, Martin has been nothing short of the best kind of friend to me and my family.

I need to thank my Kansas City support network: for last-minute babysitting and other care of my wife and daughter, thanks goes to Clare and Anne. Without them, this book would still be half done. I want to thank Alex for Sunday brunch and dinners out. And thanks to the entire Flemington clan for making this place feel like home to an imported Westerner.

I must extend my gratitude to my Colorado support network: Martin, Tonja, and Tucker in Colorado Springs, along with Molly Gross, Ed Magoffin, Bill Davis, and John and Rhonda Sobecki; in Denver, Brennan and Courtney Dodson; in Fort Collins, Eric, Airica, and the new little Aiden. Good friends are hard to find, and geography is the least of my concerns.

Finally, I must thank my unbelievable wife, Beth. This is the second time I have undertaken one of these books while she was pregnant, which is telling if you consider I only have two children. She never hesitated when I approached her about it, and she has been my greatest fan and most ardent supporter through the entire process. I must defer all praise to her for providing me an opportunity to write yet another book she'll never read. Such a leap of faith is startling to me at times.

Scott:

This book would not have been possible without the never-ending support of my wife, Tricia. She has faithfully kept our family on course, through the long hours, days, weeks, and months it has taken to complete this book, and put many other things on hold as well while awaiting its completion. Tricia is the rock in my life, and nothing would be possible without her support. I also want to thank my wonderful children, Erica, Amanda, and Mitchell, for putting up with me as I was ignoring them, and yet still always being there for me, unquestioning. I love you guys. Each passing day reminds me of how important family is in so many ways-and so I also want to thank my own parents and Tricia's parents and our extended families for always being so supportive of us.

Aside from my family, I want to also thank Matt Hart, who took the lead on this project and made it happen, dragging me kicking and screaming behind him. Matt is a tireless individual with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, which I greatly admire. Congratulations to Matt, his wife, Beth, and their daughter, Lily, on the new addition to their family, Thomas, who was born on March 13, 2004, before the ink on this project was barely dry. In addition, thanks to Michael Smith for his outstanding contributions in the Data Guard arena. Mike is the quintessential authority on Data Guard, as well as having expertise in so many other areas, and we could not have found a better choice for filling that role. Also, thanks to Soumendra Paik, Ed Magoffin, and Bill Burton for their roles in doing the technical reviews for the chapters in this book. Their timely and crucial input has been invaluable in the making of this book. Over the years, many other people at Oracle have contributed to my growth and knowledge, as well as contributing to my keeping my sanity. Those folks include friends and colleagues Joe Donnelly, Peter Trent, Steve Correia, Dan Braddock, George Angster, and many others. In addition, members of my own management staff, including Chip Brown, Martin Ingram, Lauren Verno, Cathy Scully, and Andy Taylor have provided invaluable support to this project and others. Thank you for that support.

Along the lines of making this book happen, we are also forever indebted to Lisa McClain for again having faith in us to do this. Thank you, Lisa, for helping us to put this all together. In addition, thanks to Athena Honore, Jenny Malnick, Dennis Weaver, and all the folks at Osborne. Thank you for your patience, your gentle prodding and timely work, and advice.

Finally, a closing word for Horatio, the inspiration behind it all. Late nights working on this tome were made more bearable by thoughts of Horatio, slaving away at his own job, all the while giving us respite from our own daily grind. Horatio gave us the chance to laugh at ourselves, and at the same time put things in perspective in our own lives. He was the quintessential HA DBA in training, yet Horatio moved on before he ever earned his stripes. Hats off to all the Horatios out there, and know that we are with you in your struggles. Alas, poor Horatio-a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. We barely knew him.

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