Oracle Active Data Guard Licensing Questions Answered

What is Oracle Active Dataguard ?

Oracle Active Data Guard licensing and product is a database feature that provides a high availability and disaster recovery solution for Oracle databases. It allows you to create a secondary database (also known as a standby database) that continuously receives updates from the primary database (also known as the production database). This standby database can be used for various purposes, such as offloading read-only workloads, performing database upgrades, or providing a failover solution in case the primary database becomes unavailable due to a failure or disaster.

Oracle Active Dataguard Benefits

One of the main benefits of Oracle Active Data Guard is that it allows you to keep the standby database in a consistent state with the primary database, ensuring that you have a current and accurate copy of your data at all times. It also provides a number of performance enhancements, such as the ability to apply redo data to the standby database in real-time, as well as the ability to perform rolling upgrades of the primary database without any downtime.

Oracle Active Dataguard Licensing

In terms of licensing, Oracle Active Data Guard is not included as a part of the Oracle Enterprise Edition license. This means that if you want to use Active Dataguard you need to purchase an additional license on top of your Enterprise Edition database license.. However, there are a few restrictions and considerations to keep in mind when using Oracle Active Data Guard:

  • You must have a valid Oracle Enterprise Edition license for both the primary and standby databases. You must also license Active Dataguard the same and you need to have the same license metrics. If you are licensed with processor, you must license the standby with processor.
  • You must have the same edition of Oracle Enterprise Edition installed on both the primary and standby databases.

Oracle Active Dataguard vs DataGuard?

Oracle Data Guard and Oracle Active Data Guard are two different database features that are provided by Oracle. Both features are designed to provide high availability and disaster recovery solutions for Oracle databases, but they work in slightly different ways.

Oracle Data Guard is a database feature that allows you to create one or more standby databases that are copies of the primary database. These standby databases can be used to provide a failover solution in case the primary database becomes unavailable due to a failure or disaster. Oracle Data Guard provides a number of options for synchronizing the standby database with the primary database, including synchronous redo transport and asynchronous redo transport.

Oracle Active Data Guard is a database feature that is built on top of Oracle Data Guard. It provides many of the same capabilities as Oracle Data Guard, such as the ability to create standby databases and provide a failover solution in case of a disaster. However, Oracle Active Data Guard also adds a number of additional features and capabilities, such as the ability to apply redo data to the standby database in real-time, the ability to perform rolling upgrades of the primary database without any downtime, and the ability to offload read-only workloads to the standby database.

In summary, Oracle Data Guard is a basic disaster recovery solution that allows you to create standby databases and provide a failover solution in case of a disaster. Oracle Active Data Guard is a more advanced disaster recovery solution that provides many of the same capabilities as Oracle Data Guard, but also adds additional features and capabilities that can be used to improve the performance and availability of your databases.

Frequently asked about Oracle Active Dataguard

  1. Is Oracle Active Data Guard included in the Oracle Enterprise Edition license?
    No, it is not, it’s a separate product and licensed separately.
  2. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard with the Oracle Standard Edition license? No, Oracle Active Data Guard is only available with the Oracle Enterprise Edition license. It is not available with the Oracle Standard Edition license.
  3. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard to offload read-only workloads to the standby database? Yes, one of the main benefits of Oracle Active Data Guard is the ability to offload read-only workloads to the standby database. This can help to improve the performance and scalability of your primary database by allowing you to distribute the workload across multiple databases.
  4. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard to perform rolling upgrades of the primary database? Yes, Oracle Active Data Guard provides the ability to perform rolling upgrades of the primary database without any downtime. This means that you can upgrade the primary database to a new version of Oracle while still allowing users to access the database.
  5. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard to create a standby database in a different geographic location? Yes, you can use Oracle Active Data Guard to create a standby database in a different geographic location. This can be useful for providing a disaster recovery solution in case of a disaster or other event that affects the primary database location.
  6. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard to replicate data to multiple standby databases? Yes, you can use Oracle Active Data Guard to replicate data to multiple standby databases. This can be useful for providing additional redundancy and failover capabilities.
  7. Is there a limit to the number of standby databases I can create with Oracle Active Data Guard? There is no hard limit to the number of standby databases you can create with Oracle Active Data Guard. However, the number of standby databases you can create will depend on the hardware and software resources available on your system.
  8. Can I use Oracle Active Data Guard to replicate data to a standby database that is running a different version of Oracle? No, the primary and standby databases must have the same version.