This section covers additional features and use cases administrators can use to protect Oracle Database data with ActiveDR.
ActiveDR and Oracle Database
With Oracle Database, users have the option to store data in several formats, including Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) volumes and a standard file system. Regardless of how the data is stored, ActiveDR can replicate those volumes to a secondary location to support business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. Importantly, changes to ASM disk group configurations - which are not replicated by Oracle Data Guard - are fully captured by ActiveDR's storage-level replication.
For disaster recovery scenarios between data centers, ActiveDR replicates only the changed data, continuously and efficiently, from the primary to the secondary FlashArray system. This enables significantly faster recovery times for Oracle Database compared to traditional backup solutions. Because volumes are replicated at the storage level, businesses gain the flexibility to test failovers non-disruptively and remain fully operational, even in the face of outages or major site failures.
ActiveDR and Oracle Real Application Clusters
Oracle RAC is a database clustering solution that uses Oracle Clusterware to bind multiple servers together so they operate as a single system for high availability, scalability, and load balancing. Oracle Clusterware works with ASM to create a clustered pool of storage that can be used by any combination of non-cluster and Oracle RAC databases.
Database and storage administrators can use ActiveDR to replicate their Oracle RAC databases at the storage level to a secondary site, typically on a different subnet. Oracle RAC nodes can also be configured at the secondary site so the replication site can seamlessly take over for the primary, ensuring business continuity.
In this scenario, two or more Oracle RAC nodes utilize a shared ASM storage volume, where the Oracle datafiles, control files, parameter files, and redo log files are stored. The shared ASM storage volumes are placed into a FlashArray pod, which is then replicated to a remote FlashArray using ActiveDR.
If all instances of an Oracle RAC database fail, then Oracle Database automatically recovers the instances the next time one instance opens the database. To avoid a loss of data if the primary site goes offline, database administrators can also configure secondary Oracle RAC nodes at another location for failover via ActiveDR. In a disaster recovery event where the primary site is offline, such as during a natural disaster, the replicated ASM volumes at the remote site can be attached to a secondary Oracle RAC cluster, or the nodes replicated with ActiveDR can be brought online at the remote site. The remote Oracle RAC nodes must be preconfigured to recognize the replicated storage, allowing application requests to resume with minimal disruption to business continuity.
Because ActiveDR replicates everything on the volume—including Oracle binaries, configuration files (such as init.ora, spfile, listener files), and any other system-level or environment-specific changes, it provides a more complete recovery scenario compared to solutions that replicate only database-level activity.
Once the primary site is brought back online, storage administrators can reverse the ActiveDR replication from the secondary site back to the primary site and then fail back to the primary site at the time of their choosing.
VMware vSphere Integration with Oracle Database
FlashArray provides integration with VMware vSphere, which lets storage and database administrators replicate complete virtual machines to a remote location. Oracle also offers its own open-source virtualization solution, known as VirtualBox. In this scenario, FlashArray volumes are configured as VMware datastores (VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes [vVols] are not supported) that are attached to VMware ESXi hosts. These volumes contain files for virtual machines and any attached virtual disks.
Database and storage administrators can configure Oracle Database in virtual machines by creating separate virtual disks on FlashArray volumes. These volumes will contain the virtual machine, ASM volumes, and container databases/pluggable databases. If desired, ActiveDR can replicate a virtual machine and its contents to a remote site to be used with a remote VMware ESXi host.
For more information about ActiveDR and VMware, see ActiveDR with VMware User Guide.