DBA Tips for Logical Standby Databases Oracle Database Tips by Donald BurlesonDecember 9, 2015

Administration of Logical Standby Databases

• Startup and Shutdown of the database.
   

• Starting and Stopping the log apply service.
   

• Monitoring the logical standby database.
   

• Managing schema objects and transactions on the logical standby database.
   

• Manually propagating changes to the logical standby site.

In addition to these administrative tasks, this section will briefly describe how to manage logical standby databases with time lag.

Starting Up and Shutting Down Logical Standby Databases

The startup and shutdown procedure of a logical Oracle instance is similar to the primary database. Be sure to stop the log apply service before shutting down the database. In order to avoid gap sequence, it is recommended to keep the logical standby database up when the primary database is running and sending the archive logs to the standby site. That is, before shutting down the logical standby database, stop the log archive services to the logical standby site.

Starting and Stopping the Log Apply Service

Once the logical Oracle instance is started, then start the log apply service to keep it in sync with the primary database. The log apply service can be started using:

ALTER DATABASE START LOGICAL STANDBY APPLY;

The INITIAL keyword is required only when the log apply service is started for the first time after the creation of the logical standby database.