Peter, For one client I have built and run a "poor mans Standby database" <SIDE NOTE> OK list, don't judge me. There is very good/real reason for this home grown standby. I have used and like Oracle Data Guard...it works well...I'm not against DG, so please no flame. <SIDE NOTE> Basically a shell script that does {RMAN restore database, then periodic synchronization}; - Get (more) arch logs from prod (scp) - Apply arch log to standby (RMAN recovery) - Alter the standby read only mode (RMAN/SQL*Plus) - Re-add tempfile [every time] (SQL*Plus). The hardest part about this whole task is *knowing* (in the script) what is the last log you have switched on prod (and scp'ed) and what is the last log you (the script) will apply...meaning my script applies *or* recovers to a log sequence number defined as a variable. If that log is not on the standby server the whole script / process fails...the database might not be recovered far enough, can not be put in read only mode and tempfile failes to be added (alert.log error seen). This "synchronization" and "point of recovery" issue is good reason to use tried and true Oracle Data Guard. However, with a solid script, network, disk space a good shell script is all you need for a "poor man's Standby database". hth Chris Marquez Oracle DBA -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter Dixon Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 11:14 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RAC standby Created a two node RAC instance (10g) , want to create a standby database but not via dataguard. Anybody got any good docs on how to create the standby manually, as I am abit concerned that it might be slightly different to a normal standby database. Regards -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l