http://www.datadisk.co.uk/html_docs/oracle_dg/architecture.

htm
http://www.slideshare.net/satishbabugunukula/data-guard-architecture-setup

Below are the main processes in DGconfiguration:

1)Logwriter(LGWr)Process
2)Archiver(ARCH)Process
3)LogwriterNetworkServer(LNS)
4)FetchArchiveLogs(FAL)forClient�Servermechanism
5)RemoteFileServer(RFS)
6)ManagedRecoveryProcess(MRP)forPhysicalstandby
7)LogicalStandbyProcess(LSP)forLogicalStandby
IfDataGuardBrokerisenabled:
8)DataGuardBrokerMonitor(DMON)processProcessesInvolvedintheArchitecture

1. Can Oracle's Data Guard be used on Standard Edition, and if so how? How can you
testthat the standby database is in sync?

Oracle's Data Guard technology is a layer of software and automation built on top
of the standbydatabase facility. In Oracle Standard Edition it is possible to be a
standby database, and update it*manually*. Roughly, put your production database in
archivelog mode. Create a hotbackup of the database and move it to the standby
machine. Then create a standby controlfile on the production machine, and ship that
file, along with all the archived redolog files to the standbyserver. Once you have
all these files assembled, place them in their proper locations, recover thestandby
database, and you're ready to roll. From this point on, you must manually ship,
andmanually apply those archived redologs to stay in sync with production.To test
your standby database, make a change to a table on the production server, and
commit thechange. Then manually switch a logfile so those changes are archived.
Manually ship the newestarchived redolog file, and manually apply it on the standby
database. Then open your standbydatabase in read-only mode, and select from your
changed table to verify those changes areavailable. Once you're done, shutdown your
standby and startup again in standby mode.

2. What is the difference between Active Dataguard, and the Logical Standby
implementation of 10g dataguard?

Active dataguard is mostly about the physical standby.Use physical standby for
testing without compromising protection of the production system. Youcan open the
physical standby read/write - do some destructive things in it (drop tables,
changedata, whatever - run a test - perhaps with real application testing). While
this is happening, redois still streaming from production, if production fails -
you are covered. Use physical standby for reporting while in managed recovery mode.
Since physical standby supports all of the datatypes -and logical standby does not
(11g added broader support, but not 100%) - there are times whenlogical standby
isn�t sufficient. It also permits fast incremental backups when offloading
backupsto a physical standby database.

3. What is a Dataguard?

Oracle Dataguard is a disaster recovery solution from Oracle Corporation that has
been utilizedin the industry extensively at times of Primary site failure,
failover, switchover scenarios.

4. What are the uses of Oracle Data Guard?

a) Oracle Data Guard ensures high availability, data protection, and disaster
recovery for enterprise data. b) Data Guard provides a comprehensive set of
services that create, maintain, manage, andmonitor one or more standby databases to
enable production Oracle databases to survivedisasters and data corruptions.c) With
Data Guard, administrators can optionally improve production database performance
byoffloading resource-intensive backup and reporting operations to standby systems.

5. What is Redo Transport Services?

It control the automated transfer of redo data from the production database to one
or morearchival destinations.Redo transport services perform the following tasks:
a) Transmit redo data from the primary system to the standby systems in the
configuration.
b) Manage the process of resolving any gaps in the archived redo log files due to a
network failure.
c)Automatically detect missing or corrupted archived redo log files on a standby
system andautomatically retrieve replacement archived redo log files from the
primary database or another standby database.

6. What is apply services?

A pply redo data on the standby database to maintain transactional synchronization

with the primary database. Redo data can be applied either from archived redo log
files, or, if real-timeapply is enabled, directly from the standby redo log files
as they are being filled, withoutrequiring the redo data to be archived first at
the standby database. It also allows read-onlyaccess to the data.

7. What is difference between physical and standby databases?

The main difference between physical and logical standby databases is the manner
inwhich apply services apply the archived redo data:

a) For physical standby databases, Data Guard uses Redo Apply technology, which
applies redodata on the standby database using standard recovery techniques of an
Oracle database.

b) For logical standby databases, Data Guard uses SQL Apply technology, which first
transforms the received redo data into SQL statements and then executes
thegenerated SQL statements on the logical standby database.

8.What is Data Guard Broker?

Data guard Broker manage primary and standby databases using the SQL command-
lineinterfaces or the Data Guard broker interfaces, including a command-line
interface (DGMGRL)and a graphical user interface that is integrated in Oracle
Enterprise Manager. It can be used to perform:a) Create and enable Data Guard
configurations, including setting up redo transport services andapply services b)
Manage an entire Data Guard configuration from any system in the configurationc)
Manage and monitor Data Guard configurations that contain Oracle RAC primary or
standbydatabasesd) Simplify switchovers and failovers by allowing you to invoke
them using either a single keyclick in Oracle Enterprise Manager or a single
command in the DGMGRL command-lineinterface.e) Enable fast-start failover to fail
over automatically when the primary database becomesunavailable. When fast-start
failover is enabled, the Data Guard broker determines if a failover isnecessary and
initiates the failover to the specified target standby database automatically, with
noneed for DB
A
intervention.
9. What are the Data guard Protection modes and summarize each?

Maximum availability :This protection mode provides the highest level of data
protection that is possible without compromising the availability of a primary
database. Transactions do not commit until all redo data needed to recover those
transactions has been written to the online redo log and to at least one standby
database.

Maximum performance :This is the default protection mode. It provides the highest
level of data protection that is possible without affecting the performance of a
primary database. This is accomplished byallowing transactions to commit as soon as
all redo data generated by those transactions has been written to the online log.

Maximum protection :This protection mode ensures that no data loss will occur if
the primary database fails. To provide this level of protection, the redo data
needed to recover a transaction must be written to both the online redo log and to
at least one standby database before the transaction commits. To ensure that data
loss cannot occur, the primary database will shut down, rather than continue
processing transactions.

Here are some additional Oracle Data Guard Interview Questions for newer versions
of Oracle:
10. If you didn't have access to the standby database and you wanted to find out
what errorhas occurred in a data guard configuration, what view would you check in
the primarydatabase to check the error message?
You can check the v$dataguard_status view. Select message from v$dataguard_status;
11. In Oracle 11g, what command in RMAN can you use to create the standby
databasewhile the target database is active?
Oracle 11
g
has made it extremely simple to

set up a standby database environment because

Recovery Manager
(RM
AN
) now supports the ability to clone the existing primary databasedirectly to the
intended standby database site
over the network
via the
DUPLICATEDATABASE
command set
while the target database is active
. RM
AN
automatically generatesa conversion script in memory on the primary site and uses
that script to manage the cloningoperation on the standby site with virtually no DB
A
intervention required. You can execute thisin a run block in RM
AN
:duplicate target database for standby dorecover from active database;
1
2
. What additional standby database mode does Oracle 11g offer?
Oracle 11g has introduced the Oracle Snapshot Standby Database. In Snapshot
StandbyDatabase a physical standby database can easily open in read-write mode and
again you canconvert it back to the physical standby database. This is suitable for
test and developmentenvironments and also maintains protection by continuing to
receive data from the productiondatabase and archiving it for later use.
1
3
. In Oracle 11g how can speed up backups on the standby database?
In Oracle 11g, block change tracking is now supported in the standby database.

Oracle 11g introduces the capability to compress redo log data as it transports
over the network to the standby database. It can be enabled using the compression
parameter. Compression becomes enabled only when a gap exists and the standby
database needs to catch up to the primary database.alter system set
log_archive_dest_1='SERVICE=DB
A
11GDR COMPRESSIO
N
=E
NA
BLE';
1
9
. In an Oracle 11g Logical Standby Data Guard configuration, how can you tell
thedbms_scheduler to only run jobs in primary database?
Oracle 11g, logical standby now provides support for DBMS_SCHEDULER. It is capable
of running jobs in both primary and logical standby database. You can use
theDBMS_SCHEDULER.SET_
A
TTRIBUTE procedure to set the database_role. You can specifythat the jobs can run
only when operating in that particular database role.
2
0. How can you control when an archive log can be deleted in the standby database
inoracle 11g ?
In Oracle 11g, you can control it by using the log_auto_delete initialization
parameter. Thelog_auto_delete parameter must be coupled with the
log_auto_del_retention_target parameter tospecify the number of minutes an
archivelog is maintained until it is purged. Default is 24 hours.For archivelog
retention to be effective, the log_auto_delete parameter must be set to true.
2
1. Can Oracle Data Guard be used with Standard Edition of Oracle ?
Yes and
N
o. The automated features of Data Guard are not available in the standard edition
of Oracle. You can still however, perform log shipping manually and write scripts
to manually perform the steps. If you are on unix platform, you can write shell
scripts that identify the logsand then use the scp or sftp command to ship it to
the standby server. Then on the standbyserver, identify which logs have not been
applied and apply/recover them maually and removethem once applied