RE: Disaster Recovery options

I should mention that we are on 9i now.  I was just thinking about 10g because 
RAC is included in their standard edition (up to 4 processors) and we use RAC 
right now.  I asked Oracle about doing a 'named user' license for the standby 
database instead of licensing it like I do the primary.  I'm waiting for their 
response.
 
For at least one of the databases I'll need EE since we use the partitioning 
option.  But for a number of our smaller databases that we also want in DR I 
think we'd be good with SE - it's just whether I can convince mgmt that SE will 
meet our needs if it comes down to this.
 
We don't have 'reporting' issues so I'm not interested in using the standby for 
anything other than for Disaster Recovery.  And I don't need the 'Guaranteed 
Maximum Protection' mode offerred from Data Guard to guarantee zero data loss.
 
Thanks
 
- Brian

"Ellis R. Miller" <outlawdba@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Brian, 

If you use Oracle Data Guard to set up a logical standby database (10G)
where SQL from primary node is applied to secondary and the primary is an
OLTP application then the secondary can/should be used for reporting. 

Thus, where the pricing becomes more reasonable is in using the Data Guard
architecture to ensure HA (failover) AND for a reporting architecture in
which the primary node isn't getting pounded by long-running reports whilst
high-concurrency transactional processing is occurring. 

Generally, this pricing would be justifiable as from the standpoint of HA it
is 24x7 high-concurrency, business critical OLTP applications that can
afford the least amount of downtime, of course, and also require a separate
reporting server. (I realize that many real-life environments like bringing
the hardware to its knees by running resource-intensive reports or even
batch processing even as millions of banking transactions are being
processed and jeopardized but...)

Data Guard is infinitely improved over the former standby database
architecture especially with regard to administration via OEM, instantiation
without downtime, and, again, reporting. 

A couple good references: 

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/DataGuardRedoShi
pping.htm

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/DataGuardOvervie
w.html

Hope that helps, some, and I am not sure Data Guard would be justified in
your case or not but the reporting architecture, when considered with the HA
advantages, does make the cost justification reasonable. 

Ellis


-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Brian Wisniewski
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 9:11 AM
To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Disaster Recovery options

I'm currently evaluating Data Guard for our DR setup and initial tests seem
to work fine. However, I made the mistake of asking Oracle about the
licensing of the failover machines and was shocked by their response.

Here it is.

Failover - In this type of recovery, nodes are configured in "cluster;" the
first installed node acts as a primary node. If the primary node fails, one
of the nodes in the cluster acts as the primary node. In this type of
environment, Oracle permits licensed Oracle Database customers to run the
Database on an unlicensed spare computer for up to a total of ten separate
days in any given calendar year. Any other use requires the environment to
be fully licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used when licensing
the databases in a failover environment.
Standby - In this type of recovery, a copy of the primary database is
maintained on a separate server at all times. These systems are configured
for disaster recovery purposes. If the primary database fails, the standby
database is activated to act as the new primary database. In this
environment, both the primary and the standby databases must be fully
licensed. Additionally, the same metric must be used when licensing the
databases in a standby environment. 

So I'm supposed to fully-license Enterprise Edition w/ RAC of course on a 2
or 3 node cluster sitting in a remote datacenter that isn't going to ever do
anything unless there's a disaster? Oracle is pricing themselves right out
of our shop if their licensing model continues. Anyone have know where I
can find the Sqlserver-L mailing list?

How is Data Guard used in Oracle's defintions of a 'Failover'? Seems like
you're using the same disks out of the cluster and Data Guard wouldn't even
be used there?

I'm wondering if I should go with Oracle 10G standard Edition where possible
w/ RAC since it's included in the license and then manually ship the logs up
to a standby database instead of using Data Guard. Data Guard just seems to
take care of the log shipment and applying for me. I haven't had a standby
database since V7 but from what I've read it seems like I could manually
ship and apply the logs using SE vs EE since 'Data Guard' isn't part of SE.

We have an SLA where a 4 hour data loss would be 'acceptable' so I don't
think it would be too hard to write something to ship the logs and apply
them if I have a 4-hour window to do it in.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks - Brian



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