Smart Database Technology

In the first of a regular series that shines a light on our partner resellers worldwide, we profile one of our German resellers, Aspicon from Chemnitz, Germany. In Germany ASPICON is known for their extensive knowledge in Oracle databases by Oracle itself, their customers as well as from other Oracle partners.

Headed by the energetic Managing Directors Steffen Fenger and Dirk Melzer, Aspicon have been a reseller of Dbvisit since 2008. Dirk comments, “We are very pleased to have such an agile and innovative partner as Avisit. With their product Dbvisit we are able to complete our full range of HA solutions, especially for those customers not running an Enterprise Edition environment, but having the same requirements in terms of system reliability. Our partnership with Avisit has been successful for us and also offers value to our clients.”

Steffen and Dirk have successfully grown their company to offer an extensive range of mainly Oracle-related services  including the conceptual design and implementation of complete Oracle system environments, remote DBA services as well as trouble shooting. They have built a strong reputation specializing in Oracle High Availability and Real Application Cluster (RAC) solutions, and are often called upon to resolve difficult Oracle issues. Passionate about Oracle database technology, they are also Oracle Beta Testers for Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM Virtualization.

Like us Aspicon is a company that strives to build strong relationships with their clients and partners. They are an Oracle Platinum partner and are the recipients of numerous awards for excelling in IT innovation, Oracle sales, support and implementation. They are an appreciated and valued member of the Dbvisit Reseller Network. If you wish to find out more about Aspicon, or a reseller in your area, you can do so here.

Arjen Visser, our CEO & Technical Director, has been invited back to Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco this year to talk “all about standby databases.”

His insightful presentation reveals what a standby database is and could be used for, how it should be managed and best practices. Topics include logical vs physical standby databases, the differences between replication and disaster recovery and why businesses should care about which strategy they implement. Although suitable for all DBAs it is aimed at those looking  to increase their knowledge of standby databases for Oracle(R) Database Standard Edition and Standard Edition One implementations.

A regular speaker at Oracle events in New Zealand and overseas, Arjen weaves into his presentations over 20 years of database experience as a developer, data warehouse consultant, technical project manager and Oracle DBA. His previous presentation at OOW received a presentation feedback score of 4.89 out of 5, so he’s not one to miss.

Arjen’s presentation is on Thursday 23^rd September from 1.30pm to 2:30pm, in Room 307 at the Moscone South venue and we look forward to seeing you in the audience.

Are you going to OOW? For more information on Oracle OpenWorld 2010 and to register go to http://www.oracle.com/us/openworld/036763.htm?src=6896290&Act=46

Dbvisit release 5.3 is big for us and we think it will be big for our customers as well. We have been working the last 6 months on this release and are very excited about its features. It will make the DBA’s job even easier in terms of creating and managing the standby database.
One of the issues with creating very large standby databases was that the whole database had to be copied over the network. Something that is not practical for large databases as it would take too long and use all the available network bandwidth.

With Dbvisit 5.3 we have added a feature called Transportable Media (TM) which allows for the creation of very large standby databases. Transportable Media is a removable storage device (such as a USB disk) which is first plugged into the primary server. Dbvisit will create a backup of the primary database onto the local Transportable Media device. The Transportable Media device is then manually taken to the standby or secondary site and plugged into the standby server. The Dbvisit Create Standby Database wizard will continue the operation of completing the creation the standby database on the standby server. This is a very efficient way of creating the standby database without utilizing the network. Once the standby database is created, Dbvisit can be activated to keep the standby database up to date.

We have also added Templates to the Dbvisit Create Standby Database wizard to make the disaster recovery process simpler, faster and more convenient for DBAs. Templates store all the settings to create the standby database which means that a new standby database can be easily recreated at any stage, even after a disaster.

For the complete list of new features:

• ASM support. The standby database can now be created in ASM as well, Oracle’s proprietary file system format. This completes the types of standby databases that can be created with Dbvisit.
• Templates. To make the disaster recovery process simpler, faster and more convenient for DBAs the Dbvisit standby database creation wizard now includes the option to create a template. This template stores all the information on how the standby database was created. When the standby database needs to be recreated, for example after a failover situation, this template can be used for fast and simple recreation.
• Transportable Media support. Some databases are too large to transfer across the network. Now the Dbvisit standby database creation process includes an option to interface with a local removable disk. This disk can then be manually transported to the remote site where the creation of the standby database can be restarted and completed.
• Ability to customize the standby pfile/spfile settings before creation of the standby database. These settings will be saved in the template for easy recreation of the standby database.
• Dbvisit installation, upgrades and creation of standby databases can now be scripted to run in batchmode for simple and efficient deployment.
• Rsync transfer method. DBAs now have the ability to use Rsync as the data transportation mechanism on Linux and Unix, facilitating efficient restarts when there are network issues or large file transfers.
• Oracle database parameters for the standby database can now be customized and saved in the template.

Dbvisit 5.3 is free to all customers who have current Dbvisit support and maintenance. A new license key will be required for Dbvisit 5.3. Existing Dbvisit 5.1 and 5.2 license keys are not valid. Please contact Dbvisit to obtain a new license key.

Dbvisit 5.3 can be download from Dbvisit download

Rapidly growing New Zealand Software Company Receives TechNZ Funding
Avisit Solutions plans product expansion in response to worldwide market demand.
Press release
Date:10 August 2010
For immediate release

Avisit Solutions Ltd, creators of disaster recovery solutions for Oracle® Database Standard Edition & Standard Edition One sites worldwide, is one of the latest recipients of TechNZ funding. TechNZ is the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology’s business assistance programme.

Building on the success of their flagship product Dbvisit, Avisit Solutions is to develop database replication software that protects and distributes data enterprise-wide; extending the usefulness of standby infrastructure for business intelligence needs, integration and information sharing.

“We’re delighted to have received this R&D funding to expand our disaster recovery product portfolio,” says Arjen Visser, CTO and company founder, Avisit Solutions.

“There is strong demand for affordable, cross platform database replication solutions as organisations look for ways to protect their data and improve business profitability. This funding will allow us to extend our product offering over the coming year to meet this demand. We’re pleased that TechNZ have decided to invest in our growth.”

“Investment in businesses that raise New Zealand’s global reputation for innovation and creativity is at the core of what we do,” says Mark Gallagher, TechNZ spokesperson. “We look forward to seeing Avisit Solutions step up to the next level through research and development.”

Founded in 2000, Avisit Solutions grew out of Arjen Visser’s previous experience as a database specialist in New Zealand and Europe. Routinely called in to fix “home-grown” disaster recovery solutions that lacked robustness, or were very hard to configure and maintain, inspired him to develop and launch Dbvisit in 2006. Today Dbvisit is trusted by customers in over 50 countries worldwide.

About Avisit Solutions Limited
Avisit Solutions enables organizations with Oracle® Database Standard Edition and Standard Edition One software to inexpensively protect their critical data infrastructure. By eliminating the need to upgrade to Oracle® Enterprise Edition to access Data Guard our customers can save up to 85% on their disaster recovery solution.

Designed by Database Administrators (DBAs) for DBAs, our products are designed to be ‘set and forget’. They are simple to install and manage, functionally rich and come with comprehensive documentation and support. We provide peace of mind to DBAs and free up their valuable time to focus on other activities.

Avisit Solutions founded in 2000 and is based in Auckland New Zealand with customers in 50 countries around the world.

For further information please contact:
Libby Russell
Arjen Visser
Tel: +64 9 950 3301
www.dbvisit.com

Down here in New Zealand we love DIY. In fact, it’s part of our national identity to ‘do it yourself’ and us Kiwis are widely purported to be able to fashion almost anything out of a length of number 8 wire.  This is why at Dbvisit we are respectful of those companies (who are lucky enough to have such creative and resourceful staff) that decide to develop their own standby database solution (manual log shipping) as part of their Oracle disaster recovery strategy.

Unfortunately DIY projects don’t always stick to plan (or budget) and can be somewhat experimental, often costing more to manage and support than originally anticipated. When it comes to disaster recovery, if your data is critical to the business continuing to function it is essential to to have the best solution you can afford in place. If you’re weighing up DIY versus ‘off the shelf’, here are some important considerations to look at:

• Has the DBA covered all the bases? (bearing in mind it is very difficult to test and simulate all the issues that can go wrong).
• Is it going to be reliable, stable and easy to support in the long run?
• What happens when the DBA that developed the script leaves your organisation, is there someone else who knows how it works?
• Will a new DBA understand how the script works and be confident enough to use it (and fix it) when things go wrong?
• What will happen when you upgrade or patch Oracle? Will you be confident that it still works?
• What will happen if you migrate to another platform?
• What happens if there is a temporary glitch. Will it automatically recover and continue without intervention from the DBA?
• Does it support the Oracle features such as RAC, OMF, ASM?
• Does it create the standby database automatically?

Using a proven, reliable and stable solution like Dbvisit can really pay off in the long term. Dbvisit works on most platforms that are supported by Oracle including Windows, Linux and Unix and is backed by world class support. The team behind Dbvisit specialises in Oracle Disaster Recovery and as such are fully committed to ensuring you have full confidence in your Disaster Recovery solution.

Whichever path you decide to take, the most important things to think about are: Have I really done the right thing by my data? Does my solution tick all the boxes and protect my data the way it needs to be  protected? Have I thought about the long term effect of my decision on my departmental budget?

www.dbvisit.com