Data Guard sp_name Tips Oracle Database Tips by Donald BurlesonDecember 9, 2015

Oracle Data Guard - Using sp-name

The sp-name initialization parameter specifies the unique service provider name for the standby database. Data Guard identifies all the databases in its configuration from their service provider names. A service provider name can be assigned with the sp_name. When the database identifiers are assigned with this parameter, keep names that are unique for each database. The sp_name value must remain constant for a given database.

Each sp_name value can be up to 30 characters long and should be the same for all instances in a RAC database. sp_name replaces lock_name_space, which is now deprecated. lock_name_space can still be used and it will not halt the startup of the instance. However, sp_name takes precedence over lock_name_space.  The default is the database name. If the Data Guard Manager GUI is used to create a standby, it will set this to a unique value for the new standby.

Using sp_name, the configuration can be defined with the initialization parameter log_archive_config.