Data Guard Symmetrical initialization ora files Tips  Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

To make this activation process as quick as possible, a symmetrical initialization parameter file will be used for this configuration. This means having the same initialization parameters file for the primary and the standby database.  The initialization file does not have to be changed during switchover or failover operations.

The init.ora file, in this case, will contain a superset of parameters specific to both the standby and the primary database. For example, the standby_archive_dest parameter is not required for the primary database and the log_archive_dest_2 parameter is not required for the Oracle instance during their normal operations, but the symmetrical init.ora file will contain both of these parameters.

What happens to the parameters that are not required? The answer is that the non-essential parameters are ignored. Therefore, the standby_archive_dest parameter will be ignored when the database is behaving as the primary, and the log_archive_dest_2 will be ignored when the database is acting as the standby. There will not be any errors or warnings in the alert log file about the parameters that have been ignored.

The following example shows a symmetrical init.ora file for database meddb:

BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST=/oracle/meddb/admin/bdump
CORE_DUMP_DEST=/oracle/meddb/admin/cdump
USER_DUMP_DEST=/oracle/meddb/admin/udump

# Control File Configuration

CONTROL_FILES=("/oracle/meddb/control/control01.ctl",
               "/oracle/meddb/control/control02.ctl",
               "/oracle/meddb/control/control03.ctl")

# Archive

STANDBY_ARCHIVE_DEST='LOCATION=/oracle/meddb/arch'
LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT=meddb_%t_%s.dbf
LOG_ARCHIVE_START=TRUE
LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1='LOCATION=/oracle/meddb/arch'
LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2='SERVICE=medstdby'
LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_2=ENABLE

# Miscellaneous

COMPATIBLE=9.2.0
DB_NAME=meddb
STANDBY_FILE_MANAGEMENT=AUTO

# Network Registration

INSTANCE_NAME=meddb
FAL_SERVER=medstdby
FAL_CLIENT=medprim

The init.ora parameters for the appsdb database are similar except for the changes in the directory structure, db_name and instance parameters. In this configuration, an assumption has been made that the DBA is able to create the standby database in same directory structure on remote host. If it must be created it in a different directory structure, include the db_file_name_convert and log_file_name_convert parameters in the init.ora files.