In case of disaster with Primary Database site, or not available for production for any reason then we can activated standby database as a primary production database.

Note: If you are trying to activate standby database for production use, please get permission from senior authority to do so.

Previously, we covered “Incremental backup from SCN – Oracle 11g Manual Data Guard Part-IV”.

On Standby database, steps to perform failover OR Activate standby database:

One:

Check database listener, it should be running:

[oracle@DR ~]$ lsnrctl status

Two:

Check database mode and role, It should be MOUNTED and PHYSICAL STANDBY:

SQL> select name,open_mode,database_role from v$database;
NAME OPEN_MODE DATABASE_ROLE
--------- -------------------- ----------------
RTS MOUNTED PHYSICAL STANDBY

Three:

Copy archive logs from primary database, those yet to apply on standby database before activate it.

SQL> recover standby database until cancel;
AUTO

Four:

Activate standby database as primary database:

[oracle@DR ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> alter database activate standby database;
Database altered.

Five:

Shutdown standby database and startup:

SQL> shut immediate;
ORA-01109: database not open
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 755769344 bytes
Fixed Size 2217184 bytes
Variable Size 448793376 bytes
Database Buffers 301989888 bytes
Redo Buffers 2768896 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.

Cheers!! Standby database successfully activated as Primary database. Failover successful.

Post activity check, ensure database mode and role, it should be READ WRITE and PRIMARY.

SQL> select name,open_mode,database_role from v$database;
NAME OPEN_MODE DATABASE_ROLE
--------- -------------------- ----------------
RTS READ WRITE PRIMARY

Note: Please perform full database backup after failover.
Note: Once old primary database is available for use then you can reconfigure standby database.

Your suggestions and comments are highly appreciated, if any.

Stay tune 🙂