Standby Server Settings

ARCHDEST

This directory is extremely important to Dbvisit Standby and should not be mistaken for the Oracle Database archive destination or recovery area. This location is used only by Dbvisit Standby and should never be the same location as any of the Oracle database archive destinations or the recovery area (FRA). This location (directory) should exist on both the primary and standby database servers and should have sufficient space to hold at least 1 days worth of archive logs with 3 or more days recommended.

This is where Dbvisit Standby will place archive log files on the standby server from where they will be applied.

If using ASM storage for the primary database, this will also be the directory on the primary server where Dbvisit Standby will extract the ASM archive log files to, before shipping them to the standby server.

Also the ARCHTMP location must have full read/write permission for the user and group when ASM is used.

Please ensure this directory is not used for any other files other than (archive) log files for this specific database. 

Example:

ARCHDEST = /u01/app/oracle/dbvisit/archive/PROD

    Where PROD is the name of the database

Please note that the Archive Logs from the primary server will be copied to the ARCHDEST location on the standby server. During this process the archive logs will be renamed to the following format:

<thread>_<sequence>_<resetlogs_id><STANDBY_ARCHIVELOG_NAME_EXTENSION>

example: 1_45628_ 812975118.arc

DBVISIT_BASE_DR

Dbvisit software installation directory. This is also known as the DBVISIT_BASE directory.

Default location is the same as the on the primary server.

Example (Linux Default):

    DBVISIT_BASE = /usr/dbvisit

Example (Windows Default):

    DBVISIT_BASE = c:\Program Files\dbvisit

DESTINATION

Name of the standby server

Example: 

    DESTINATION = dbvlin102

LEAVE_COMPRESS_DEST

Specifies whether the archive log files should be left compressed or not on the standby server AFTER being applied on the standby database.

Possible Values:

• Yes 
  Leave compressed AFTER being applied
  
  
• No
  Uncompress log file AFTER being applied

If you are not sure, set to Yes.

Example:

    LEAVE_COMPRESS_DEST = Yes

This parameter is used to specify a new location for your Dbvisit Standby log files such as the history log. (This is not the default trace file location, see TRCDIR) - this parameter applies to the Standby Database Server (Destination)

This Parameter is not set in the DDC file, but will have the default value of DBVISIT_BASE/standby/log

To overwrite the default value, set this parameter in the DDC file:

Example:

LOGDIR_DR=/u01/dbvisit/standby/log

MAX_TIMES_TRIED

Specifies the number of times that Dbvisit Standby should attempt to apply the missing log file before raising an error. 

Note this number is also used to raise an error if Dbvisit Standby cannot be started in case a previous scheduled Dbvisit Standby is still running.

Ensure that this number is not too low and not too high.

If you are unsure, set the value to 4

Example (default) value:

    MAX_TIMES_TRIED = 4

ORACLE_HOME_DR

Optional Oracle software location for standby database.

Can be used if: Dbvisit Standby is unable to locate ORACLE_HOME for standby server and ORACLE_HOME on standby server is different to ORACLE_HOME on primary server.

ORACLE_SID_ASM_DEST

Specifies the name of the ASM instance on the standby server, if the standby database uses ASM and the name of the ASM instance is different than primary. Default value is the name of the ASM instance on the primary server ORACLE_SID_ASM.

If standby database does not use ASM, leave as default.

Example 1 :

If both the primary and standby servers are making use of ASM, and Oracle RAC is not used, then both primary and standby ASM instances will be +ASM. The value for this parameter is then:  

ORACLE_SID_ASM_DEST= +ASM

Example 2:   

If the primary environment is using Oracle RAC, then the ASM instances on the primary nodes will be example +ASM1 and +ASM2 if using a 2 node RAC environment. If the standby database is running on a Single instance standby server with ASM configured, it's ASM instance will most likely be called just +ASM. It is important to make sure this variable is then set to the STANDBY ASM value and not +ASM1 or +ASM2 but to:

ORACLE_SID_ASM_DEST= +ASM

ORACLE_SID_DEST

Specify the Oracle standby database SID. This may be different to the Oracle primary database name or the instance names.

Example if your primary database SID is PROD, you can specify the standby database SID as PRODDR by setting ORACLE_SID_DEST=PRODDR

The default is to make the ORACLE_SID_DEST the same as the primary database, in this example it would be ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD

These settings are specified using the dbvisit_setup option when a new Dbvisit Standby Database configuration file is created.

This value should not be changed if you already have a running standby database configuration.

Example (if using single instance environments):

ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD

Example (if using RAC Environments):

If the primary RAC database is called PROD, and the instances are PROD1 (node1) and PROD2 (node2) you can specify the Standby Database ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD

It is not recommended to set the ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD1 or ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD2 in this case, but rather just ORACLE_SID_DEST=PROD

Optional Parameter - This parameter is not set by default in the DDC file and the default value will be used for the naming of the archive logs inside the Dbvisit ARCHDEST location on the standby database server.

Note: This is the format Dbvisit Standby will be using on the standby server inside the ARCHDEST location and is not related to the database archive log format.

The default archive log format in the Dbvisit Standby ARCHDEST is %t_%s_%r.arc ( "<thread>_<sequence>_<resetlogs_id>.arc"). If required the new parameter STANDBY_ARCHIVELOG_NAME can be set in the DDC to specify a new format.

Example if you want to set the format so that the database name PROD is in the archive log format name, you can set the following in the DDC file where you append the database name as part of the format:

STANDBY_ARCHIVELOG_NAME=PROD_%t_%s_%r.arc

Important - For Oracle 10g and above %t, %s and %r must be set, and if Oracle 9i is used %t and %s must be set.

Dbvisit Standby will be looking for logs with this format on the standby server during recovery. If your logs were in a different format, make sure they are renamed to the new format you specify - if you modify it.

The default value will be used if this parameter is not set in the DDC file (this is the recommended option)

This parameter is used to specify a new location for your Dbvisit Standby temporary files created during normal Dbvisit Standby operations (example sending and applying logs, but also during graceful switchover) - this parameter applies to the Standby Database Server (Destination)

This Parameter is not in the DDC file by default, but will have the default value of DBVISIT_BASE/standby/tmp

To overwrite the default value, set this parameter in the DDC file:

Example:

LOGDIR_DR=/u01/dbvisit/standby/tmp

This parameter is used to specify a new location for your Dbvisit Standby trace files created during Dbvisit Standby operations - this parameter applies to the Standby Database Server (Destination)

This Parameter is not in the DDC file by default, but will have the default value of DBVISIT_BASE/standby/trace

To overwrite the default value, set this parameter in the DDC file:

Example:

LOGDIR_DR=/u01/dbvisit/standby/trace