Cloning an Oracle Data Guard standby database

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IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot can clone an Oracle Data Guard standby database.

To clone an Oracle Data Guard standby database, on the Oracle Data Guard standby server complete the following steps:
  • Shut down the Oracle Data Guard standby instance.
  • Log on to the Oracle Data Guard standby server and use the Oracle instance user ID.
  • To create a clone, enter the following command:
    ./fcmcli -f create_clone -C CLONE_ORACLE_SID -u CLONE_ORACLE_USER
This clone is a stand-alone Oracle database that can be opened in read and write mode. You can use the cloning command optional function -X preprocessing-configuration-filename and -Y postprocessing-configuration-filename to run preprocessing and postprocessing scripts on the cloned target system. You can use shell or sql scripts.
Tip: If the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot profile parameter OVERWRITE_DATABASE_PARAMETER_FILE is set to YES, the initDBSID.ora file is copied from the Oracle Data Guard standby server to the clone target system. This file contains Data Guard configuration information that is not required by the clone instance and can cause problems. Therefore, create a customized initDBSID.ora file for the Oracle clone instance and set the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot OVERWRITE_DATABASE_PARAMETER_FILE profile parameter to NO. You can copy the initDBSID.ora file and remove any specific Data Guard configuration information.

Typically Oracle temporary tablespace files are not present in the Data Guard standby server. If the temporary tablespace files are on the same file systems as the Oracle data files, no additional configuration is required by IBM Storage Protect Snapshot. If the temporary tablespace files are on a dedicated file system or volume group, use the FLASH_DIR_LIST parameter in the cloning section of IBM Storage Protect Snapshot profile to include these files. Use the FLASH_DIR_LIST parameter to specify a fully qualified directory name and file name. This file contains the mount points where the Oracle temporary files are located. Use a separate line for each mount point. Then, IBM Storage Protect Snapshot includes the mount points and the corresponding volume groups in the FlashCopy® cloning operation.