Hello experts. It's being almost a month testing and digging on the VCS documentation regarding "Data Guard and Oracle agents supported by Veritas". The first I can say, documentation is incomplete, confusing and it assumes many things which is a REAL PAIN for a newbie. Anyhow, after weeks of issues and spending hours trying to understand who the whole thing works together, I still have many questions. Scenario: 2 Linux RH6 physical nodes Oracle 11.2.0.4 and Data Guard configured. This is all SINGLE INSTANCE. NO SHARED storage! I read the full documentation regarding Oracle Data Guard Agents for Veritas which was pretty much a real challenge. Questions I have: Why Netlsnr agent shuts down my listener? Switchover fails because of that. I had to remove the Netlsnr resource and monitor. How can I perform a smooth switchover from VCS using OraDG and OraDGBroker agents? It's pretty amazing why this information is not provided on the document. Is it there any other complete documentation regarding OraDG and OraDGBroker operation? It says "agent supports this or that" but it wont tells you the details "how" or "how to make sure this or that happens", or exactly "when". It's really vague. There is an example of what "vague" means. This is a portion of the document: Note: For activateStandby, deactivateStandby, flashbackRecover, SnapshotOn, and SnapshotOff action functions, you must increase the values of the ActionTimeout and MonitorInterval attributes for OraDG and OraDGSnap types before running. To "increase" them. Right. How much??? I found some values on another document but not sure why I have to do this or how to confirm the values are good. There are many other examples like this which makes VCS and Oracle implementation a pain. Thanks for any help you can give me. Ask me for any information and I'll provide it. Alex.

I configured the Oracle DG agent about 3 years ago and it worked fine, but I agree the documentation is not great. I don't know that much about Oracle, but my understanding from the "About the agent for Oracle Data Guard" is that: Data Guard agent is used for single instance Oracle for all versions and this uses SQL *Plus to control Oracle DG. Data Guard Broker agent is used for RAC but can also be used for single instance Oracle since 11gR2 So if this understanding is correct, as you are using single instance 11gR2, then you have choice of using EITHER Data Guard agent or Data Guard Broker agent, but you should not use both, as you have done. As to which agent you should use, I guess this is an Oracle question, but it would be useful if the agent guide gave some direction on this. When you had your listener resource configured, did you make Oracle resource depends on the Listener resource as in the agent guide. Have you tested Oracle DG outside of VCS control - it it doesn't work outside of VCS control, then VCS won't be able to get it to work either. If it works outside of VCS control, but not in VCS, then look at engine_A.log and OraDG_A.log and post any errors. As an aside, I would not set EnvFile = "/home/oracle/.profile" - this is bad HA practice as if someone changed the .profile this could break VCS (so for instance I have seen a DBA add a menu to .profile to choose what dabase they wanted to log into and this change would break VCS if they had used .profile in VCS). Mike

Can you copy and paste or attach your main.cf file. Mike

Here you have. Keep in mind that I have remove the listener resource from here because of the "issue" I had during switchover. include "OracleASMTypes.cf" include "types.cf" include "Db2udbTypes.cf" include "OracleTypes.cf" include "OraDGTypes.cf" include "SybaseTypes.cf" cluster FWT_CLUSTER ( UserNames = { admin = lkjfgoijtrhsDsfDffg, mov = asFAdsfjaseSADas } ClusterAddress = "10.1.1.10" Administrators = { admin, mov } HacliUserLevel = COMMANDROOT ) system node1 ( ) system node2 ( ) group ClusterService ( SystemList = { node1 = 0, node2 = 1 } AutoStartList = { node1, node2 } OnlineRetryLimit = 3 OnlineRetryInterval = 120 ) IP webip ( Device = a1b1 Address = "10.1.1.10" NetMask = "255.255.255.192" ) NIC csgnic ( Device = a1b1 ) webip requires csgnic // IP webip // { // NIC csgnic // } group mov_db_grp ( SystemList = { node1 = 0, node2 = 1 } Parallel = 2 SystemZones = { node1 = 0, node2 = 1 } ) Oracle mov_db ( Sid @node1 = movp Sid @node2 = movp Owner = oracle Home = "/u01/oracle/product/11.2.0.4" StartUpOpt = CUSTOM EnvFile = "/home/oracle/.profile" ) // resource dependency tree // // group mov_db_grp // { // Oracle mov_db // } group oradg_broker_grp ( SystemList = { node1 = 0, node2 = 1 } ) OraDGBroker oradg_broker ( Sid = movp Owner = oracle Home = "/u01/oracle/product/11.2.0.4" AgentDebug = 1 LinkRes = mov_db ) requires group mov_db_grp online local soft // resource dependency tree // // group oradg_broker_grp // { // OraDGBroker oradg_broker // } group oradg_grp ( SystemList = { node1 = 0, node2 = 1 } ) OraDG oradguard ( LinkRes = mov_db Flashback = 1 ) requires group mov_db_grp online local soft // resource dependency tree // // group oradg_grp // { // OraDG oradguard // }

Hello Mike. First of all, thanks a lot for your time on this. Believe me, I spent nights on all these issues and I'm not newbie on Oracle's technologies. Anyhow, if what you say is correct, then it makes perfect sense and it would be another disappointed surprise on the documentation as it does't mention the option of one OR another agent. So, it's a FACT that I can not use them both? Just checking. Yes, Data Guard Agent uses Sqlplus to perform the data guard operations (such as failovers, switchovers, etc) DG Broker uses the database broker to do the same I'll remove DataGuard and see if by using hagrp -switch on the Broker, I can make it work. YES. When I had it on the main, I have configured the database resource to depend on the listener, and that's the main reason on why I can't understand why the Netlsnr shut it down when the database comes down :(. Maybe, If I only have the broker and the listener, everything will start to work magically. There is nothing like Oracle DG outside VCS. What VCS does (with its agent) is to perform the same tasks you would perform from SqlPlus to do a switchover for example. Broker (dgmgrl) works fine from outside VCS. What I'm doing right now is to freeze the agents and then run the switchover but it's clearly a dumb practice just for testing. I'll check the profile (which I don't believe is causing any issues). Again, thanks for your inputs. I'll test it and let you know the results. BTW, the good side on all this is I've faced MANY (if not all) the possible issues so I've learned a lot. Thanks, Alex.

Note, if you use BDG roker agent then you the need theStartUpOpt = STARTUP for Oracle resource , not CUSTOM as it needs to be for DG agent. Mike

Ok. That makes all this more understandable as one of the agents uses "StartUpOpt = CUSTOM" and the other one "StartUpOpt = STARTUP" Now, how can I perform the switchover from SVC using the OraDGBroker instead of the dgmgrl? Should I perform the switchover manually from dgmgrl?

actitud

Level 3

11 years ago

Oracle Data Guard over VCS 6.0

Hello experts.

It's being almost a month testing and digging on the VCS documentation regarding "Data Guard and Oracle agents supported by Veritas".

The first I can say, documentation is incomplete, confusing and it assumes many things which is a REAL PAIN for a newbie.

Anyhow, after weeks of issues and spending hours trying to understand who the whole thing works together, I still have many questions.

Scenario:

2 Linux RH6 physical nodes
Oracle 11.2.0.4 and Data Guard configured. This is all SINGLE INSTANCE.
NO SHARED storage!

I read the full documentation regarding Oracle Data Guard Agents for Veritas which was pretty much a real challenge.

Questions I have:

Why Netlsnr agent shuts down my listener? Switchover fails because of that. I had to remove the Netlsnr resource and monitor.
How can I perform a smooth switchover from VCS using OraDG and OraDGBroker agents? It's pretty amazing why this information is not provided on the document.
Is it there any other complete documentation regarding OraDG and OraDGBroker operation? It says "agent supports this or that" but it wont tells you the details "how" or "how to make sure this or that happens", or exactly "when". It's really vague.

There is an example of what "vague" means. This is a portion of the document:

Note: For activateStandby, deactivateStandby, flashbackRecover, SnapshotOn, and SnapshotOff action functions, you must increase the values of the ActionTimeout and MonitorInterval attributes for OraDG and OraDGSnap types before running.

To "increase" them. Right. How much??? I found some values on another document but not sure why I have to do this or how to confirm the values are good. There are many other examples like this which makes VCS and Oracle implementation a pain.

Thanks for any help you can give me. Ask me for any information and I'll provide it.

Alex.

mikebounds
11 years ago
I configured the Oracle DG agent about 3 years ago and it worked fine, but I agree the documentation is not great. I don't know that much about Oracle, but my understanding from the "About the agent for Oracle Data Guard" is that:

Data Guard agent is used for single instance Oracle for all versions and this uses SQL *Plus to control Oracle DG.

Data Guard Broker agent is used for RAC but can also be used for single instance Oracle since 11gR2

So if this understanding is correct, as you are using single instance 11gR2, then you have choice of using EITHER Data Guard agent or Data Guard Broker agent, but you should not use both, as you have done.

As to which agent you should use, I guess this is an Oracle question, but it would be useful if the agent guide gave some direction on this.

When you had your listener resource configured, did you make Oracle resource depends on the Listener resource as in the agent guide.

Have you tested Oracle DG outside of VCS control - it it doesn't work outside of VCS control, then VCS won't be able to get it to work either. If it works outside of VCS control, but not in VCS, then look at engine_A.log and OraDG_A.log and post any errors.

As an aside, I would not set EnvFile = "/home/oracle/.profile" - this is bad HA practice as if someone changed the .profile this could break VCS (so for instance I have seen a DBA add a menu to .profile to choose what dabase they wanted to log into and this change would break VCS if they had used .profile in VCS).

Mike

16 Replies

mikebounds
Level 6
11 years ago
Its seems a bit poor that if you use SQL Plus to switch Oracle Dataguard that Oracle doesn't update Oracle's dgmgrl BROKER configuration, so you could perhaps query this with Oracle, unless using dgmgrl is the official supported way from 11g and SQL Plus method is only available for backward compatibilty and if this is the case then the Symantec VCS agent really needs updating to allow Oracle Data Guard broker agent to be used in an RDC (if it can't already as the documenation is not exactly clear)

Mike
Kimberley
Level 6
11 years ago
Hi Alex and Mike,

I just wanted to let you know that I saw this thread and sent a link over to our Documentation team so that they could investigate the docs that you refer to here, and it looks like there's an opportunity for revision/updating. Someone from that team may ping you for additional information.

Best,

Kimberley

~ Community admin
actitud
Level 3
11 years ago
I'm nobody on Veritas's world but I'm open to provide any information needed to improve the documentation.

Thanks,

Alex.
actitud
Level 3
11 years ago
Kimberley.

I haven't got any information from the documentation team and besides I've marked this as RESOLVED, I still have lots of questions regarding how to properly set this up.

Thanks,

Alex.
Kimberley
Level 6
11 years ago
Hi Alex,

Thanks for letting me know. I'd touched base with our Docs team and believe they saw they thread, but will remind them that no one has reached out to you directly yet <<correction, looks like Nayana above did>> - this seems like really interesting and valuable information for us at Symantec to collect.

Thanks again for your help!

Best,

Kimberley
Nayana_Dighe
Level 2
11 years ago
Hello Alex,

I am from the Agent Pack documentation team. Can you send me an email addressed to nayana_dighe@symantec.com with the questions you have? With the help of the development and QA teams, I will try and get you the information you are looking for and will also update the agent guide at the earliest.

Best regards,

Nayana Dighe

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Oracle Data Guard over VCS 6.0

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