In the previous three parts of this series a lot of preparation work, needed for the configuration of Data Guard, was performed. In this part of the mini-series they all come to fruition. Using the Data Guard broker a switchover operation will be performed. A couple of new features in 12c make this easier. According to the “Changes in This Release for Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration” chapter of the 12.1 Data Guard Concepts and Administration guide:

When [you, ed.] perform a switchover from an Oracle RAC primary database to a physical standby database, it is no longer necessary to shut down all but one primary database instance.

I have always wanted to test that in a quiet moment…

I have previously blogged about another useful change that should make my life easier: the static registration of the *_DGMGRL services in the listener.ora file is no longer needed. Have a look at my Data Guard Broker Setup Changes post for more details and reference to the documentation.

NOTE: As always, this is just a demonstration using VMs in my lab, based on my notes. Your system is most likely different, so in real-life you might take a different approach. The techniques I am using here were suitable for me, and my own small scale testing. I tried to make sure they are valid, but you may want to allocate more resources in your environment. Test, test, test on your own environment on test kit first!

Now let’s get to it.

Step 1: Check the status of the configuration

In the first step I always check the configuration and make sure I can switch over. Data Guard 12c has a nifty automatic check that helps, but I always have a list of tasks I perform prior to a switchover (not shown in this blog post).

The following commands are somewhat sensitive to availability of the network – you should protect your sessions against any type of network failure! I am using screen (1) for that purpose, there are other tools out there doing similar things. Network glitches are too common to ignore, and I have come to appreciate the ability to resume work without too many problems after having seen the dreaded “broken pipe” message in my terminal window…

[oracle@rac12sec1 ~]$ dgmgrl
DGMGRL for Linux: Version 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production

Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Welcome to DGMGRL, type "help" for information.
DGMGRL> connect sys@ncdbb
Password:
Connected as SYSDBA.
DGMGRL> show configuration

Configuration - ractest

  Protection Mode: MaxPerformance
  Members:
  NCDBA - Primary database
    NCDBB - Physical standby database

Fast-Start Failover: DISABLED

Configuration Status:
SUCCESS   (status updated 55 seconds ago)

DGMGRL> validate database 'NCDBB'
...

The command to check for switchover readiness is new to 12c as well and called “validate database”. I don’t have screen output from the situation at this point-just take my word that I was ready :) Don’t switch over if you have any concerns or doubts the operation might not succeed! “Validate database” does not relieve you from your duties to check for switchover readiness – follow your procedures.

Step 2: Switch Over

Finally, the big moment has come! It takes just one line to perform the switchover:

DGMGRL> switchover to 'NCDBB'
Performing switchover NOW, please wait...
New primary database "NCDBB" is opening...
Oracle Clusterware is restarting database "NCDBA" ...
Switchover succeeded, new primary is "NCDBB"
DGMGRL> 

DGMGRL> show database 'NCDBA';

Database - NCDBA

  Role:               PHYSICAL STANDBY
  Intended State:     APPLY-ON
  Transport Lag:      0 seconds (computed 1 second ago)
  Apply Lag:          0 seconds (computed 1 second ago)
  Average Apply Rate: 9.00 KByte/s
  Real Time Query:    ON
  Instance(s):
    NCDBA1
    NCDBA2 (apply instance)

Database Status:
SUCCESS

DGMGRL> show database 'NCDBB';

Database - NCDBB

  Role:               PRIMARY
  Intended State:     TRANSPORT-ON
  Instance(s):
    NCDBB1
    NCDBB2

Database Status:
SUCCESS

DGMGRL> 

Well that was easy! Did you notice Data Guard Broker telling us that ‘Oracle Clusterware is restarting database “NCDBA” …’ ? I like it.

If you get stuck at this point something has gone wrong with the database registration in the OCR. You shouldn’t run into problems though, because you tested every aspect of the RAC system before handing the system over to its intended users, didn’t you?

Validating the new standby database shows no issues. I haven’t noticed it before but “validate database” allows you to get more verbose output:

DGMGRL> validate database verbose 'NCDBA';

  Database Role:     Physical standby database
  Primary Database:  NCDBB

  Ready for Switchover:  Yes
  Ready for Failover:    Yes (Primary Running)

  Capacity Information:
    Database  Instances        Threads
    NCDBB     2                2
    NCDBA     2                2

  Temporary Tablespace File Information:
    NCDBB TEMP Files:  1
    NCDBA TEMP Files:  1

  Flashback Database Status:
    NCDBB:  On
    NCDBA:  Off

  Data file Online Move in Progress:
    NCDBB:  No
    NCDBA:  No

  Standby Apply-Related Information:
    Apply State:      Running
    Apply Lag:        0 seconds (computed 1 second ago)
    Apply Delay:      0 minutes

  Transport-Related Information:
    Transport On:      Yes
    Gap Status:        No Gap
    Transport Lag:     0 seconds (computed 1 second ago)
    Transport Status:  Success

  Log Files Cleared:
    NCDBB Standby Redo Log Files:  Cleared
    NCDBA Online Redo Log Files:   Cleared
    NCDBA Standby Redo Log Files:  Available

  Current Log File Groups Configuration:
    Thread #  Online Redo Log Groups  Standby Redo Log Groups Status
              (NCDBB)                 (NCDBA)
    1         2                       3                       Sufficient SRLs
    2         2                       3                       Sufficient SRLs

  Future Log File Groups Configuration:
    Thread #  Online Redo Log Groups  Standby Redo Log Groups Status
              (NCDBA)                 (NCDBB)
    1         2                       3                       Sufficient SRLs
    2         2                       3                       Sufficient SRLs

  Current Configuration Log File Sizes:
    Thread #   Smallest Online Redo      Smallest Standby Redo
               Log File Size             Log File Size
               (NCDBB)                   (NCDBA)
    1          50 MBytes                 50 MBytes
    2          50 MBytes                 50 MBytes

  Future Configuration Log File Sizes:
    Thread #   Smallest Online Redo      Smallest Standby Redo
               Log File Size             Log File Size
               (NCDBA)                   (NCDBB)
    1          50 MBytes                 50 MBytes
    2          50 MBytes                 50 MBytes

  Apply-Related Property Settings:
    Property                        NCDBB Value              NCDBA Value
    DelayMins                       0                        0
    ApplyParallel                   AUTO                     AUTO

  Transport-Related Property Settings:
    Property                        NCDBB Value              NCDBA Value
    LogXptMode                      ASYNC                    ASYNC
    RedoRoutes                      <empty>                  <empty>
    Dependency                      <empty>                  <empty>
    DelayMins                       0                        0
    Binding                         optional                 optional
    MaxFailure                      0                        0
    MaxConnections                  1                        1
    ReopenSecs                      300                      300
    NetTimeout                      30                       30
    RedoCompression                 DISABLE                  DISABLE
    LogShipping                     ON                       ON

  Automatic Diagnostic Repository Errors:
    Error                       NCDBB    NCDBA
    No logging operation        NO       NO
    Control file corruptions    NO       NO
    SRL Group Unavailable       NO       NO
    System data file missing    NO       NO
    System data file corrupted  NO       NO
    System data file offline    NO       NO
    User data file missing      NO       NO
    User data file corrupted    NO       NO
    User data file offline      NO       NO
    Block Corruptions found     NO       NO

DGMGRL> 

Isn’t that cool? That’s more information at my fingertips than I can shake a stick at! It’s also a lot more than I could think of (eg online datafile move!).

Interestingly the Broker reports that I have “Sufficient SRLs”. I have seen it complain about the number of Standby Redo Logs in the past and blogged about this Interesting observation about standby redo logs in Data Guard

Summary

After 4 (!) posts about the matter I have finally been able to perform a switchover operation. Role reversals are a much neglected operation a DBA should be comfortable with. In a crisis situation everyone needs to be clear about what needs to be done to restore service to the users. The database is usually the easier part … Success of Data Guard switchover operations also depends on the quality of change management: it is easy to “forget” applying configuration changes on the DR site.

In today’s busy times only few of us are lucky enough to intimately know each and every database we look after. What’s more common (sadly!) is that a DBA looks after 42 or more databases. This really only works without too many issues if procedures and standards are rock solid, and enforced.