Dbvisit – Standby Database Technology Blog

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

Dbvisit version Dbvisit 5.2.30 has been released. This is a minor release which includes an improved Dbvisit man or help page and fixes a small number of issues.

New features:

1. Allow the use of other external non sendmail clients on Linux/Unix. Use MAILCFG_SENDMAIL_CLIENT to set the full path of the client.
2. Update Dbvisit man pages.

Fixes:

1. Correct default Oracle password file for Windows.
2. In some cases, Oracle SID information was not obtained from registry in Windows 64bit.
3. Improve error message when Oracle Windows service cannot be stopped or started.
4. Improve locking mechnism on Windows. In some cases the pid lock file does not get removed after successfully running Dbvisit.
5. Activation of standby database may not update the Dbvisit repository correctly. Initiating a Graceful Switchover after failover may result in error: ORA-00001: unique constraint (DBVISIT.DBV_TRANSFER_LOG_PK) violated. This has been fixed.
6. Change creation of tempfile from bytes to Mb. If the file is too big then error “ORA-02237: invalid file size” may result. This has been fixed.
7. If SOURCE or DESTINATION host names are set to long names, then Dbvisit does not use the correct starting sequence after graceful switchover. This has been fixed.

Please download from http://www.dbvisit.com/dbvisit_download.php

Dbvisit version Dbvisit 5.2.28 has been released. This version fixes a compatibility issue with Oracle 8i and Oracle 9i which was introduced in a previous version.

This version allows Dbvisit to be installed alongside Data Guard to test a comparison between Dbvisit and Data Guard. Dbvisit now ignores the specific Data Guard settings which means Data Guard does not need to be removed and no init.ora parameters need to be changed.

This version ignores dynamic memory location parameters and parameters related to other instances in spfile/pfile when creating the standby database.

New features:

1. Allow for Data Guard configurations to co-exists with Dbvisit.
   - Allow for VALID_FOR parameter.
   - Ignore standby redo log files in controlfile creation.

Fixes:

1. Remove a prompt for pfile name if PFILE is not found on the server during creation of standby database.
2. Set SOURCE and DESTINATION variables to short server names.
3. Change variables _SEQUENCE_LANG_NAME and _ASM_EXCLUDE to quoted strings instead of lists.
4. Change the query to obtain archive log names to ignore log archive destinations pointing to standby locations (used by Data Guard).
5. Oracle 8i may contain incorrect location in v$archive_dest – Fixed.
6. Does not use the correct SQL statement to obtain the standby database sequence for Oracle 8 and 9 – Fixed.
7. Ignore dynamic memory location parameters and parameters related to other instances in spfile/pfile when creating standby database.
8. When LOGDIR_DR is not set correctly there was an error message about incorrect mail settings – Fixed.

Please download from http://www.dbvisit.com/dbvisit_download.php

We have released Dbvisit 5.2.26.

New features:

1. SOURCE and DESTINATION host name variables are now not case sensitive for Windows.
2. Display a message “please wait” to the user to indicate that Dbvisit may take some time to delete old archive files when running AMM (Archive Management Module) on the primary server.
3. Improve the ability to obtain the standby database sequence when the standby database sequence is 1.
4. Add message to SUCCESSMAIL emails on how to turn off success mails and only email on alerts.
5. Add option to use existing pfile/spfile on standby database during standby database creation.

Fixes:

1. Capture more information when another instance of Dbvisit is running on Windows to ensure it can be started or not.
2. During creation of standby database on Windows, Dbvisit may error when COMPRESS variable is set to ssh in a DDC file – Fixed
3. Dbvisit may error with the primary and the standby databases having redo logs with the same names under different logfile group numbers during Graceful Switchover – Fixed
4. In rare cases Dbvisit may error when trying to clean up trace files if a file has already been deleted by another dbvisit process running at the same time – Fixed.
5. When the user renames oracle init parameters while creating standby database, Dbvisit edits both standby pfile and spfile. If the standby database uses spfile, only spfile should be edited not pfile – Fixed.
6. Dbvisit does not capture ORA-12638 error message – Fixed.
7. Make the global variable PFILE non case sensitive for Windows while creating a standby database
8. While checking oracle database parameters pointing to ASM locations on primary when creating a standby database, dbvisit considers all parameters values that contain symbol + to be ASM locations which is not always the case – Fixed
9. In some cases fuser incorrectly reports file in use on HP-UX.
10. Remove REMOTE_LISTENER parameter from init.ora when creating standby database.

Dbvisit 5.2.26 can be downloaded from our website. Please see the README.txt file included in the download for upgrade instructions.

We have just released Dbvisit 5.2.24 for all platforms.

This version fixes an issue introduced in 5.2.22 when creating a standby database using a primary database that has a pfile only. Dbvisit does not pick up the correct pfile to transfer to the remote server. This has been fixed. Database using spfiles are not affected.

The full details of this release are:

New features:

1. If SUCCESS_MAILTO is set, then the Dbvisit daily heartbeat emails also go to this email address instead of ADMINS.

Fixes:

1. Dbvisit does not pick up the correct pfile to transfer to the remote server while creating standby database when the primary database does not use an spfile.

The latest version of Dbvisit can be downloaded from http://www.dbvisit.com/download.php

We have just released Dbvisit 5.2.22 for all platforms.

This version allows for a different Standby Database name (ORACLE_SID_DEST) and different admin directories during the creation of the standby database. It also has a number of fixes, a number of which are related to NLS settings of non English.

The full details of this release are:

New features:

1. Dbvisit now allows the Oracle admin directories on standby to be different from the primary database during creation of the Standby Database.

Fixes:

1. Dbvisit does not pick up the correct sequence for RAC on the standby when NLS is set to Spanish.
2. Fix issue with quotes around multiple email addresses: can’t extract address at ..
3. Improve obtaining asmcmd version for Windows.
4. Dbvisit does not pick up the archive log destination when NLS is set to Spanish during graceful switchover.
5. Create standby database may fail in Oracle 8i due to long tablespace names. This has been fixed.
6. Update check and add more tracing to determine if previous Dbvisit process is still running.
7. Update dbvisit help text.
8. If Dbvisit is unable to create Windows Oracle service during creation of standby database, Dbvisit will suggest to create the service manually.
9. Ignore the following SQLPLUS error message when creating Dbvisit repository using dbvisit_setup: Error accessing PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE
10. Dbvisit will detect if ORACLE_HOME_DR is set to a non-existing or not  valid directory on the standby server when creating a standby database and display a warning.
11. Dbvisit may not correctly detect the creation of Oracle Windows service in other languages during creation of standby database. This has been fixed.

The latest version of Dbvisit can be downloaded from http://www.dbvisit.com/download.php

We have just released Dbvisit 5.2.20 for all platforms.

This version allows for passwords to be stored in encrypted form in the Dbvisit Database Configuration (DDC) file.

The full details of this release are:

New features:

1. Add ENCRYPT_PASSWDS variable to specify if all passwords should be stored encrypted in the DDC file or not. To change the setting run dbvisit_setup and choose option 6.
2. Add SWITCHOVER_WAIT_IN_SEC to control how long Dbvisit waits between each checkpoint iteration for graceful switchover. Total time Dbvisit waits for each checkpoint is set by SWITCHOVER_TIMEOUT_IN_SEC.

Fixes:

1. When standby redo logs are using OMF, graceful switchover may fail. This has been fixed.
2. When log_archive_format on Windows contains %S, the sequence number can be truncated by Oracle. Ensure that Dbvisit also truncates the number the same way.
3. Running dbvisit_setup: Update Dbvisit Database configuration (DDC) file may error for older DDC files.
4. Improve error message for ORA-27048.
5. Improve error message for creation of standby when datafile contains spaces.
6. Improve message for error 5005 when standby controlfile does not contain the archive log sequence.

Dbvisit can be downloaded from our website http://www.dbvisit.com.

We have just released Dbvisit 5.2.18 for all platforms.

This release incorporates a number of suggestions from our customers, which will improve usability of the software. We would like to thank those of you who have made suggestions, and we greatly appreciate your feedback.

From this release forward, all Dbvisit production releases will be an even release number (18, 20, 22, etc) and the development or stage releases will be an uneven number (17, 19, 21 etc).
So 5.2.18 is the production release of 5.2.17.

Some of the highlights in this release are:

• Allow for multiple archive log destinations to be managed by Dbvisit.
• Archive logs can now be managed by specifying partial days. For example keep the archive log files for 3.5 days.
• Improve remote checksum processing. If remote checksum process fails, then only checksum process is repeated, not the whole transfer process.
• Allow for Database which has been recovered with point-in-time recovery with resetlogs where SCN may be lower than current SCN.

The full details of this release are:
New features:

1. Allow for multiple archive log destinations in AMM (Archive Management Module) processing (AMM_PROCESS_MULTIPLE_ARCH_DEST).
2. Improve restartability of standby database creation. Standby Database is now shutdown after all the standby database parameters are obtained.
3. Graceful switchover synchronisation process now includes retries if there are network issues.
4. Improve remote checksum processing. If remote checksum process fails, then only checksum process is repeated, not the whole transfer process.
5. Allow for decimal numbers for DAYS_TO_KEEP_ARCHSOURCE and DAYS_TO_KEEP_ARCHDEST. For example 3.5 days.
6. Detect Oracle XE admin location for Linux.
7. Check for Standby archive log destination during graceful switchover. If location does not exist, then exit as switchover will not be successful.
8. Reduce number of trace file that Dbvisit keeps on server:
   NUM_TRACE_TO_KEEP = 100, DAYS_TO_KEEP_TRACE = 10

9. Check that Database is in archivelog mode.
10. Allow for Database which has been recovered with point-in-time recovery with resetlogs where SCN may be lower than current SCN.
11. Allow for “-” in the DDC file. Example: dbv_prod-vm2.env

Fixes:

1. Improve duplicate archive log handling for OMF files. Include a unique identifier to ensure the same file does not get renamed more than once.
2. Add check for ORA-00342: archived log does not have expected resetlogs SCN.
3. If same archive log is needed more than once by standby database for non RAC, ensure archive log can be compressed.
4. Allow for multiple NLS_LANGUAGE setting during RAC processing.
5. Add 24hour time clock to trace file.
6. Fixed calling AMM from dbv_functions -A
7. Improve error message in Windows if during standby database creation the standby database fails to start.
8. Fixed issue if first_change# is displayed as float, then graceful switchover was not successful.
9. Allow for different instance_name to database_name for graceful switchover.
10. Notify if create standby database process is not able to remove file on standby database.
11. Allow for %d log_archive_format.
12. Check and report if “ORA-00332: archived log is too small” is found.

Dbvisit can be downloaded from our website http://www.dbvisit.com.

Dbvisit 5.2.16 has been released for all platforms.

This is an exciting release as we now have the ability for graceful switchover for RAC and ASM databases. Many companies have been requesting this feature and we are pleased that it is now available.

The roles between a primary RAC node and the standby database can be switched and be switched back with no dataloss. The RAC database will become a single instance database and the other RAC nodes will be shutdown during switchover. However after the switchover the database can be converted back to the original RAC database again very simply.

The standby database creation has also been improved with now a lot more checking on the standby database to see if the correct directories exist.

When Dbvisit detects an error, the Dbvisit trace files is now automatically attached to the email, making the process to send the trace file to support very easy.

The full details of the features are:
New features:

1. Graceful Switchover for ASM and RAC. RAC database will become a single
   instance database during switchover. After switchover database can be
   converted to a RAC database again.
   Note: The Oracle ASM instance needs to be version 11gR1 or higher. The Oracle
   database itself can be Oracle 10g or higher.

2. Upgrade Bitvise WinSSHD to 4.28 and Tunnelier to 4.29 for Windows only.
3. Improve error message when standby fails to start during standby database creation.
4. Add message to remove old archives when activating standby database.
5. Add smtp authentication and other advanced Mail settings.
   See MAILCFG_AUTH_USER and MAILCFG_AUTH_PASSWD settings.

6. Attach trace files to email when Dbvisit errors to forward to Dbvisit support. Set filesize limit of 768000 bytes for attachments.
7. Database files are tested for correct location during creation of standby database. If not correct then user is asked to rename them.
8. Standby redo log names are tested for correct location during graceful switchover.
9. Add variable SEND_MAIL_FLAG_DR to turn off mailing from standby server.
10. Add ability to manually email trace files as attachments with option:
    dbv_functions -m tracefilename

Fixes:

1. Check if Oracle database admin directories exists before creating the standby database.
2. Fixed Dbvisit repository create error in Oracle 8i.
3. Add check for ORA-00344: unable to re-create online log when activating standby database.

Dbvisit can be downloaded from our website http://www.dbvisit.com.

Dbvisit 5.2.15 has been released for all platforms.

Fixes:

1. Create standby database fix. If the size of the tablespace is displayed as a float instead of number, then the insert into the Dbvisit repository fails. This has been fixed.
2. Improve error message when controlfile is a backup controlfile.
3. If the word export is used too many times in the DDC file, then assumes the DDC file is from Dbvisit version 4. This has been fixed.
4. Improve message when standby database has insufficient SGA size.

Dbvisit can be downloaded from http://www.dbvisit.com/download.php.