Performing a Standby Activation (Failover)

In the event that disaster strikes and the primary database is no longer available for some reason, you might want to look at activating your standby database. By doing this you are changing the standby database status from being a standby database to an active primary database with a current control file. When this process is executed, there is the potential for data loss as the latest transactions (logs) might not have been transferred from the primary to the standby. To activate the standby database as a primary database you execute the following command:

./dbv_oraStartStop activate <DDC>

Example activation below:

oracle@dbvlin502[/usr/dbvisit/standby]: ./dbv_oraStartStop activate proddb
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Dbvisit Standby Database Technology (7.0.01.11141) (pid 7772)
dbv_oraStartStop started on dbvlin502: Fri Aug 23 11:59:12 2013 ()
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Activating means this database will become a Primary Database.
It will no longer be a Standby Database for proddb on dbvlin501.
Activation cannot be reversed.
=>Activate Standby Database on dbvlin502? <Yes/No> [No]: Yes
Are you sure? <Yes/No> [No]: Yes
Activating now...
Activate Standby Database proddb...
Standby Database proddb activated.
Shutting down standby Database proddb...
Standby Database proddb shutdown successfully.
Starting Activated Standby Database proddb...
Activated Standby Database proddb started .
File /usr/dbvisit/standby/conf/dbv_proddb.env copied to /usr/dbvisit/standby/conf/dbv_proddb.env.201308231159.
Dbvisit Database configuration (DDC) file /usr/dbvisit/standby/conf/dbv_proddb.env has been updated and variables have been reversed between
primary and standby server.

SOURCE=dbvlin502 DESTINATION=dbvlin501.

Activation complete. Please ensure a backup of this Database is made.
Old archives from before the activation should be removed to avoid mix-up between new and old archive logs.

If the Dbvisit Standby process is to be reversed, then
Database on dbvlin501 will need to be rebuilt as a Standby Database.

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dbv_oraStartStop ended on dbvlin502: Fri Aug 23 11:59:34 2013
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The next section will show you how to perform these tasks from the web-based frontend (GUI)