I also found dg easy to setup. My problems come from configuring dgmgrl.
Getting the network configuration syntactically correct is difficult.
Which is why the documentation on the subject is sparse or non existent
You have:
DB_NAME DB_UNIQUE_NAME INSTANCE_NAME SERVICE_NAMES GLOBAL_DBNAME SID SID_NAME
Getting the init.ora, listener.ora and tnsnames to line up is tricky at best
links Ive used
dgmgrl cli http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/TWP_DataGuard_10gR2.pdf
dg http://webkemper1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:8080/interna/oracle10g/doc/server.101/b10822/cli.htm
When dgmgrl works it looks like this ############################################### DGMGRL> switchover to 'ORCL_p4p'; Performing switchover NOW, please wait... Operation requires shutdown of instance "orcl" on database "STBY_dell" Shutting down instance "orcl"... ORA-01109: database not open
Database dismounted. ORACLE instance shut down. Operation requires shutdown of instance "orcl" on database "ORCL_p4p" Shutting down instance "orcl"... ORA-01109: database not open
Database dismounted. ORACLE instance shut down. Operation requires startup of instance "orcl" on database "STBY_dell" Starting instance "orcl"... Switchover succeeded, new primary is "ORCL_p4p" DGMGRL> exit
-- "Oracle error messages being what they are, do not highlight the correct cause of fault, but will identify some other error located close to where the real fault lies."
-- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
