Migrate Oracle RAC Databases Protected by Oracle Data Guard
Oracle Exadata Database Service delivers proven Oracle Database capabilities on purpose-built, optimized Oracle Exadata infrastructure. Built-in cloud automation, elastic resource scaling, security, and fast performance for all Oracle Database workloads help you simplify management and reduce costs.
The following architecture diagram shows an Oracle RAC database with Oracle Data Guard across data centers in an on-premises deployment:
Description of the illustration migrate-orclracdbs-dg-regions.png
You have the following options to ensure database high availability when migrating this deployment to OCI:
- Migrate to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure
- Migrate to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure
- Migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure
- Migrate to a two-node Oracle RAC database on Oracle Base Database Service
- Migrate to Oracle Cloud VMware Solution
Migrate to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure
Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure complies with the Oracle MAA Gold Level when deployed with Oracle Data Guard.
The following architecture diagram shows Oracle RAC database on Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure with Oracle Data Guard across regions:
Description of the illustration migrate-orclracdb-exadbsrvdi-dg-regions.png
This architecture consists of the following components:
- In each region, a VCN with three subnets and a Service Gateway to access OCI-managed services.
- A DRG in each VCN and a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) between the VCNs.
- Primary application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Primary region.
- Standby application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Standby region.
- Primary Exadata Infrastructure and Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnets in the Primary region.
- Standby Exadata Infrastructure and Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnets in the Standby region.
- Primary Oracle RAC database deployed in the Exadata VM Cluster with an Oracle RAC node on each VM of the VM Cluster in the primary region.
- Standby Oracle RAC database deployed in the Exadata VM Cluster with an Oracle RAC node on each VM of the VM Cluster in the standby region.
- Oracle Data Guard replicates data from the Primary to the Standby database.
- OCI Full Stack DR orchestrates the switchover and failover operations.
- Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Object Storage service as an alternative solution for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Vault for TDE key management.
This architecture benefits from:
- Built-in high availability and redundancy provided by Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC.
- Data protection and (near) zero data loss with Oracle Data Guard standby database.
- Orchestrated switchover and failover of application and database with OCI Full Stack DR.
- Application protection from interruptions during outages and maintenance operations with Application Continuity.
- Reduced backup workload on primary and standby with Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service.
- Online scalability of compute and storage resources.
- Automated database provisioning and lifecycle operations.
- Automated Oracle Data Guard setup.
- TDE is enabled by default with the option to use OCI Vault for key management.
- Automated migrations using ZDM.
- Oracle Cloud licensing models.
Recommendations
- Set up automatic backup to Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service even though the data is protected by Oracle Data Guard to minimize the backup workload on the database by implementing the incremental forever backup strategy that eliminates weekly full backups.
- Enable backups from standby to achieve backup replication across regions.
- Use Active Data Guard for comprehensive data corruption prevention with automatic block repair, online upgrades and migrations, offload workload to standby with read-mostly scale-out, and enable Application Continuity to mask database outages during planned and unplanned events from end-users and ensure uninterrupted applications.
Migrate to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure
Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure provides the same cloud service experience as Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure, but without requiring you to subscribe to dedicated infrastructure. You can start with a small virtual machine (VM) cluster, and easily scale as your needs grow. Oracle manages all the physical infrastructure in a shared multitenancy infrastructure service model. Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure is available for Oracle Database version 23ai only.
Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure runs on Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC and complies with the Oracle MAA Gold Level when deployed with Oracle Data Guard.
The following architecture shows an Oracle RAC database on Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure with Oracle Data Guard across regions:
Description of the illustration migrate-orclracdb-exadbxsi-dg-regions.png
This architecture consists of the following components:
- VCN with three subnets and a Service Gateway to access OCI-managed services.
- A DRG in each VCN and a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) between the VCNs.
- Primary application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Primary region.
- Standby application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Standby region.
- Primary Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnets in the Primary region.
- Standby Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnets in the Standby region.
- Primary Oracle RAC database deployed in the Exadata VM Cluster with an Oracle RAC node on each VM of the VM Cluster in the Primary region.
- Standby Oracle RAC database deployed in the Exadata VM Cluster with an Oracle RAC node on each VM of the VM Cluster in the Standby region.
- Oracle Data Guard replicates data from the Primary to the Standby database.
- OCI Full Stack DR orchestrates the switchover and failover operations.
- Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Object Storage service as an alternative solution for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Vault for Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) key management.
This architecture benefits from:
- Built-in high availability and redundancy provided by Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC.
- Data protection and (near) zero data loss with Oracle Data Guard standby database.
- Orchestrated switchover and failover of application and database with OCI Full Stack DR.
- Application protection from interruptions during outages and maintenance operations with Application Continuity.
- Reduced backup workload on primary and standby with Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service.
- Online scalability of compute and storage resources.
- Automated database provisioning and lifecycle operations.
- Automated Oracle Data Guard setup.
- TDE is enabled by default with the option to use OCI Vault for key management.
- Automated migrations using ZDM.
- Oracle Cloud licensing models.
- Lower entry size and cost than Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure.
- Advanced space-efficient snapshot and cloning capabilities that are tightly integrated with Oracle Database and eliminate the need for a test master database to support snapshots and clones on Exadata.
Recommendations
- Set up automatic backup to Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service even though the data is protected by Oracle Data Guard to minimize the backup workload on the database by implementing the incremental forever backup strategy that eliminates weekly full backups.
- Enable backups from standby to achieve backup replication across regions.
- Use Active Data Guard for comprehensive data corruption prevention with automatic block repair, online upgrades and migrations, offload workload to standby with read-mostly scale-out, and enable Application Continuity to mask database outages during planned and unplanned events from end-users and ensure uninterrupted applications.
Migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure
Oracle Autonomous Database provides an easy-to-use, fully autonomous database that scales elastically, delivers fast query performance, and requires no database administration. Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure is a highly automated, fully managed database environment running on OCI with committed hardware and software resources. These isolated resources enable your organization to meet stringent security, availability, and performance requirements while reducing cost and complexity.
Oracle Autonomous Database runs on Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC and complies with the Oracle MAA Gold Level when deployed with Oracle Data Guard.
The following architecture diagram shows Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure with Oracle Autonomous Data Guard across regions:
Description of the illustration migrate-autonmdbdi-exadata-dg-regions.png
This architecture consists of the following components:
- In each region, a VCN with two subnets.
- A DRG in each VCN and a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) between the VCNs.
- Primary application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Primary region.
- Standby application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Standby region.
- Primary Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure and Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnet in the primary region.
- Standby Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure and Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster deployed in the client and backup subnet in the standby region.
- Primary Oracle Autonomous Database deployed in the Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster in the primary region.
- Standby Oracle Autonomous Database deployed in the Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster in the standby region.
- Oracle Autonomous Data Guard to replicate data from the primary to the standby database.
- OCI Full Stack DR orchestrates the switchover and failover operations.
- Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Object Storage service as an alternative solution for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Vault for TDE key management.
This architecture benefits from:
- Built-in high availability and redundancy provided by Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC.
- Data protection and (near) zero data loss with Oracle Data Guard standby database.
- Orchestrated switchover and failover of application and database with OCI Full Stack DR.
- Application protection from interruptions during outages and maintenance operations with Application Continuity.
- Reduced backup workload on primary and standby with Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service.
- Online and automatic scalability of compute and storage resources.
- Automated database provisioning and lifecycle operations.
- Automated Oracle Autonomous Data Guard setup.
- TDE is enabled by default with the option to use OCI Vault for key management.
- Automated migrations using ZDM.
- OCI licensing models and Enterprise Edition options are included at no additional cost.
Recommendations
- Set up automatic backup to Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service even though the data is protected by Oracle Autonomous Data Guard to minimize the backup workload on the database by implementing the incremental forever backup strategy that eliminates weekly full backups.
- Enable backups from standby to achieve backup replication across regions.
- Use Active Data Guard for comprehensive data corruption prevention with automatic block repair, online upgrades and migrations, offload workload to standby with read-mostly scale-out, and enable Application Continuity to mask database outages during planned and unplanned events from end-users and ensure uninterrupted applications.
- Optionally, you can migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database Serverless with Oracle Autonomous Data Guard.
Migrate to a Two-Node Oracle RAC Database on Oracle Base Database Service
Two-node Oracle RAC database on Oracle Base Database Service provides Oracle RAC high availability and complies with the Oracle MAA Gold Level when deployed with Oracle Data Guard.
The following architecture diagram shows a two-node Oracle RAC database on Oracle Base Database Service with Oracle Data Guard across regions:
Description of the illustration migrate-two-node-racdb-basedb-dg-regions.png
This architecture consists of the following components:
- In each region, a VCN with two subnets and a Service Gateway to access OCI-managed services.
- A DRG in each VCN and a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) between the VCNs.
- Primary application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Primary region.
- Standby application on OCI Compute VM running in the application subnet in the Standby region.
- Primary two-node Oracle RAC database deployed on Oracle Base Database Service in the database subnet in the primary region, each node deployed on a different Fault Domain.
- Standby two-node Oracle RAC database deployed on Oracle Base Database Service in the database subnet in the standby region, each node deployed on a different Fault Domain.
- Oracle Data Guard replicates data from the Primary to the Standby database.
- OCI Full Stack DR orchestrates the switchover and failover operations.
- Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Object Storage service as an alternative solution for database automatic backups.
- (Optional) OCI Vault for TDE key management.
Note:
When migrating to Virtual Machines instead of Exadata, you will miss the Exadata redundancy and performance benefits.- High availability with Oracle RAC deployed across two Fault Domains.
- Data protection and (near) zero data loss with Oracle Data Guard standby database.
- Orchestrated switchover and failover of application and database with OCI Full Stack DR.
- Application protection from interruptions during outages and maintenance operations with Application Continuity.
- Reduced backup workload on primary and standby with Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service.
- Automated database provisioning and lifecycle operations.
- Automated Oracle Data Guard setup.
- TDE is enabled by default with the option to use OCI Vault for key management.
- Automated migrations using ZDM.
- Oracle Cloud licensing models.
Recommendations
- Set up automatic backup to Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service even though the data is protected by Oracle Data Guard to minimize the backup workload on the database by implementing the incremental forever backup strategy that eliminates weekly full backups.
- Enable backups from standby to achieve backup replication across regions.
- Consider configuring automatic backup to the OCI Object Storage service as an alternative, which provides three-way mirroring across Availability Domains or Fault Domains.
- Use Active Data Guard for comprehensive data corruption prevention with automatic block repair, online upgrades and migrations, offload workload to standby with read-mostly scale-out, and enable Application Continuity to mask database outages during planned and unplanned events from end-users and ensure uninterrupted applications.
Migrate to Oracle Cloud VMware Solution
The following architecture diagram shows a single-instance Oracle Database on OCVS with Oracle Data Guard across regions:
Description of the illustration migrate-single-oci-odb-ovcs-dg-regions.png
This architecture consists of the following components in each region:
- VCN with a Service Gateway to access OCI-managed services.
- A Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) in each VCN and a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) between the VCNs.
- OCVS Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC).
- Primary application on OCI Compute VM provided by OCVS in the Primary region.
- Standby application on OCI Compute VM provided by OCVS in the Standby region.
- Primary single-instance Oracle Database on OCI Compute VM provided by OCVS in the Primary region.
- Standby single-instance Oracle Database on OCI Compute VM provided by OCVS in the Standby region.
- Oracle Data Guard to replicate data from the Primary to the Standby database.
- OCI Object Storage for database backups.
Recommendations
- Set up Oracle Data Guard between two Availability Domains to protect from site failures. Alternatively, Oracle Data Guard can be set up across two Fault Domains in OCI regions with a single Availability Domain.
-
Use the Oracle Database Cloud Backup Module to configure database backups to OCI Object Storage and benefit from three-way mirroring across Availability Domains or Fault Domains.
-
Use Active Data Guard for comprehensive data corruption prevention with automatic block repair, online upgrades and migrations, to offload workload to standby with read-mostly scale-out.
-
Enable Application Continuity to mask database outages during planned and unplanned events from end-users and ensure uninterrupted applications.
Options Comparison
OCI provides various options for your VMware-based workloads with different features for high availability, disaster recovery, migration, automation, and more.
The following table compares the Oracle RAC Database with Oracle Data Guard migration options using Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure/Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure, Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure, two-node Oracle RAC on Oracle Base Database Service, and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution:
| Feature | Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure/Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure | Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure | Two-node Oracle RAC on Oracle Base Database Service | Oracle Cloud VMware Solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database deployment | Comanaged | Autonomous | Comanaged | Manual |
| Lifecycle operations | Automated | Autonomous | Automated | Manual |
| Data Guard setup | Automated | Automated | Automated | Manual |
| Automatic Failover | Fast-Start Failover | Fast-Start Failover | Fast-Start Failover | Fast-Start Failover |
| Licensing | BYOL and license included | BYOL and license included | BYOL and license included | BYOL |
| TDE encryption | Default and included | Default and included | Default and included | Manual, paid option |
| TDE Key Store | Local wallet and OCI Vault | Local wallet and OCI Vault | Local wallet and OCI Vault | Local wallet |
| Database migration | Automated using Oracle ZDM | Automated using Oracle ZDM | Automated using Oracle ZDM | Manual |
| Oracle MAA Level | Gold | Gold | Gold | Bronze + Oracle Data Guard (customer responsibility) |
| High availability | Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC | Oracle Exadata and Oracle RAC | Oracle RAC | Oracle Data Guard |
| Disaster Recovery (DR) | Oracle Data Guard | Oracle Autonomous Data Guard | Oracle Data Guard | Oracle Data Guard |
| DR Operations | OCI Full Stack DR | OCI Full Stack DR | OCI Full Stack DR | Manual |
| Backup operations | Automated | Autonomous | Automated | Manual |
| Restore operations | Automated | Automated | Automated | Manual |
| RPO (regional outage) | (Near) zero | (Near) zero | (Near) zero | (Near) zero |
| RTO (regional outage) | Time to failover to standby | Time to failover to standby | Time to failover to standby | Time to failover to standby |
| Application Continuity | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |