This chapter provides the best practice recommendations for migrating your current configuration to an Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) environment to create a redundant, reliable system and database, without sacrificing simplicity and performance.
This chapter contains these topics:
MAA combines the scalability and availability advantages of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) with the site protection capabilities of Oracle Data Guard.
An MAA environment consists of a site containing a RAC production database and a second site containing a cluster that minimally hosts at least one physical or logical standby database, but ideally hosts a combination of logical and physical standby databases. This environment provides the most comprehensive solution for both unplanned and planned outages because it inherits the capabilities and advantages of both Oracle Database 10g with RAC and Oracle Database 10g with Data Guard.
However, while the ideal MAA configuration includes a RAC primary database with a RAC standby database, business requirements or other considerations might indicate that you choose a different ending configuration or that you perform a phased migration. That is, some of the ending configurations could actually be intermediate steps in a phased implementation to a RAC primary with RAC standby configuration.
The setup of your current configuration will determine which sections in this chapter you should complete. For example, Table 5-1 describes migration instructions for some possible starting configurations.
Table 5-1 Starting configurations Before Migrating to an MAA Environment
IF your starting configuration includes ... | THEN ... |
---|---|
A single-instance primary database |
Migrate the primary database to RAC using the instructions in"Migrating to RAC from a Single Instance" |
A single-instance standby database |
Migrate the standby database to RAC using the instructions in "Migrating to RAC from a Single Instance" |
A single-instance Data Guard configurations |
Migrate the primary and/or standby databases to RAC using the instructions in "Migrating to RAC from a Single Instance" |
A RAC primary database, but no Data Guard configuration |
See "Adding a Data Guard Configuration to a RAC Primary" to add a single-instance standby or a RAC standby database to the configuration. |
The process of adding nodes to form a RAC database involves first cloning Oracle Clusterware and RAC software to new nodes and then adding new RAC instances. Basically, the steps include the following tasks:
Connect new nodes to the cluster
Extend clusterware and Oracle software to new nodes
Prepare storage for RAC on new nodes
Add nodes at the Oracle RAC database layer
Add database instances to new nodes
See Also:
Oracle Database Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide for complete step-by-step informationThe process of adding a Data Guard configuration to a RAC primary database includes the following basic tasks:
Configure Oracle Net Services on the standby database
Create the standby instances and database
Configure the primary database for Data Guard
Verify the Data Guard configuration
A series of MAA white papers have been published that provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform these tasks. The following white papers describe how to create either a single-instance Data Guard standby database, or RAC standby database:
"MAA / Data Guard 10g Setup Guide—Creating a RAC Standby for a RAC Primary"
http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/pdf/MAA_WP_10g_RACPrimaryRACStandby.pdf
"MAA / Data Guard 10g Setup Guide—Creating a Single Instance Standby for a RAC Primary"
"MAA/ Data Guard 10g Setup Guide—Creating a RAC Logical Standby for a RAC Primary Database"
This white paper describes how to create a RAC logical standby database from an existing RAC physical standby database and includes the following basic steps:
Prepare the physical standby database environment
Convert the physical standby database to a logical standby database
Verify the Data Guard configuration
See Also:
Chapters 3 and 4 in Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for detailed information about converting a single-instance physical standby database into a logical standby database, refer to: