Manual Standby Database (8i and 9i)

Recently we have undertaken a disaster recovery project based around one of our older systems. There are two databases, one runs on Oracle9i (9.2.0.4.0 to be exact) and the other on 8i (8.1.7). The standby implementation was to be a manual archive log ship/apply to the DR site.

So, first off we took a hot backup of each database and restored that to the disaster recovery site (restored, not yet recovered - important distinction). Then we created a standby control file for each database:

SQL> ALTER DATABASE CREATE STANDBY CONTROLFILE AS '/home/oracle/stbyctl01.ctl';

These were also copied over to disaster recovery site, along with the SPFiles and password files.

Once all files were restored to the same on-disk locations (and the standby control file renamed to match the CONTROL_FILES parameter in the SPFILE) we bring the databases up in NOMOUNT:

SQL> STARTUP NOMOUNT;

Then bring them up in standby mode:

SQL> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT STANDBY DATABASE;

Now the databases are mounted in standby mode, they are ready for archive logs to be applied as and when they are created. We have a cron job on the primary servers to ship the "most recent" archive logs to the DR site. There are companion cron jobs at the DR site to apply the archive logs and delete them once they've applied. To do this manually you would issue:

SQL> RECOVER STANDBY DATABASE;

Once you've reached the end of the available archive redo stream, simply CANCEL the recovery and let it continue. If you need to bring the database out of standby, issue:

SQL> ALTER DATABASE ACTIVATE PHYSICAL STANDBY DATABASE;

Then shutdown (IMMEDIATE) and restart normally.

Cheers,

Ian