Oracle data guard was included in 10g EE. On the 11g price list, I see it priced as a separate option.

Is the standard oracle data guard still included in the 11g EE price?

I read the product sheet on active data guard. It looks like all it does is provide a consistent readable standby using redo apply (similar to what standard data guard in 10g did with SQL apply). Is this all it is?

Werner

Hi Werner,

GREAT QUESTION!

Wow, I never heard the term "active Data Guard"! Is there a passive Data Guard? Here is a summary of 11g activedata guard:

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_11g_new_data_guard.htm


This is a new marketing thing! The site says that "active data guard" is physical standby, opened for read-only transactions:

Oracle Active Data Guard—an option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition—enhances Quality of Service by offloading resource-intensive activities from a production database to one or more synchronized standby databases. Oracle Active Data Guard enables read-only access to a physical standby database for queries, sorting, reporting, web-based access, etc., while continuously applying changes received from the production database. Oracle Active Data Guard also enables the use of fast incremental backups when offloading backups to a standby database, and can provide additional benefits of high availability and disaster protection against planned or unplanned outages at the production site.

The docs also say:

"If a license for the Oracle Active Data Guard option has been purchased, Redo Apply Services can also run on a physical standby database instance that is open."

YOu are correct, the 10g features document says that Data Guard (SQL Applu and REdo Apply) come with 10g Enterprise Edition (EE):

http://www.oracle.com/lang/de/collateral/d...duct_Family.pdf

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"Is the standard oracle data guard still included in the 11g EE price?"

Oracle is always changing their prices! This says Data Guard is an extra cost option in 11g:

http://www.oracle.com/database/product_editions.html

The ONLY way to know for sure is to contact your CSR.

Here is a note that confirms that active data guard, is only one special case:

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_active_data_guard.htm

Oracle 11g Data Guard introduced several new features. The Oracle 11g New Features book notes some Data Guard Pricing changes:

"As site failures do not happen on a regular occurrence these disaster recovery (DR) servers can be sitting idle for long periods of time without any use or value being obtained. Prior to 11g businesses were unable to benefit as greatly from their DR investment. Oracle’s goal for 11g was to make DR cost effective, better utilize standby resources and allow for easy testing of DR.

Data Guard is included with the Enterprise Edition of Oracle, but it should be noted that a named user or processor license may need to be purchased for the database. It’s always recommended to check with an Oracle sales."

The book also confirms that "active Data Guard" is essentially Data Guard Physical Standby with read-only access:

"Oracle Active Data Guard allows DBAs and users to run real-time queries on a physical standby system for reporting and other purposes while still seeing transactional consistent results. As opposed to previous versions where applying of logs had to stop while reporting was taking place, it now runs simultaneously.

Oracle versions 9 and 10 couldn’t have the physical standby in readable state;11g has this and is fully synced. This ability makes an organizations DR investment much more valuable. This capability is known as Real-Time Query."

Thanks for the info - lots of good stuff in the links you provided. "What's new in oracle 11" looks like a worthwhile book.