http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/license.111/b28287/editions.htm#BABDJGGI

Oracle licenses the database servers by Oracle Database Editions. In 11g there are 5 editions with Oracle Enterprise Edition being the most inclusive one.

Other licenses relevant to business are Standard Edition One (entry level) and Standard Edition.

On the top of the ‘Edition’ licenses there are ‘Extra Cost Options’.

Enterprise Edition, for example comes with Data Guard included, but Active DataGuard is an ‘Extra Cost Option’. Partitioning is always ‘Extra Cost Option’.

On the subject of the DataGuard, experienced DBA can set up standby databases on Standard Edition without using DataGuard, and thus provide necessary redundancy to the system. DataGuard is in a way an automated management on the top of the basic functionality of the standby databases. It is very slick, but at a price.

Other useful linkes on licensing :

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/community/database-11g-product-family-technic-133664.pdf
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/sig-070616.pdf

Author: Guru Ananth

A complete high availability and disaster recovery strategy requires dependable data backup, restore, and recovery procedures. Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN), a command-line and Enterprise Manager-based tool, is the Oracle-preferred method for efficiently backing up and recovering your Oracle database. RMAN is designed to work intimately with the server, providing block-level corruption detection during backup and restore. RMAN optimizes performance and space consumption during backup with file multiplexing and backup set compression, and integrates with Oracle Secure Backup and third party media management products for tape backup.

RMAN takes care of all underlying database procedures before and after backup or restore, freeing dependency on OS and SQL*Plus scripts. It provides a common interface for backup tasks across different host operating systems, and offers features not available through user-managed methods, such as parallelization of backup/recovery data streams, backup files retention policy, and detailed history of all backups. Overview of RMAN Functional Components The RMAN environment consists of the utilities and databases that play a role in backing up your data. At a minimum, the environment for RMAN must include the following: The target database to be backed up The RMAN client, which interprets backup and recovery commands, directs server sessions to execute those commands, and records your backup and recovery activity in the target database control file.

Some environments will also use these optional components: A flash recovery area, a disk location in which the database can store and manage files related to backup and recovery Media management software, required for RMAN to interface with backup devices such as tape drives A recovery catalog database, a separate database schema used to record RMAN activity against one or more target databases

New Features in Oracle Database 11g Data Recovery Advisor The Data Recovery Advisor is a new tool aimed at reducing a user’s time spent analyzing and formulating a suitable recovery plan for a given failure. A ‘failure’ in the context of the DRA can be a missing, inaccessible, or wrong version of a file (e.g. control file, data file), physical corruptions resulting from I/O errors, or logical block inconsistency. After identifying all current failures, the DRA then recommends the optimal, feasible recovery plan, and if the user desires, automatically executes a selected recovery plan. All DRA functions can be accessed via EM or RMAN’s command-line interface. Multisection Backups

RMAN can back up or restore a single file in parallel by dividing the work among multiple channels. Each channel backs up one file section, which is a contiguous range of blocks. This speeds up overall backup and restores performance, and particularly for bigfile tablespaces, in which a data file can be sized upwards of several hundred GB to TB’s.

Fast Backup Compression In addition to the Oracle Database 10g backup compression algorithm (BZIP2), RMAN now supports the ZLIB algorithm, which offers 40 lower compression ratio, versus BZIP2.

Network-enabled Database Duplication A clone database on a remote site can now be easily created directly over the network with the enhanced DUPLICATE command, without the need for existing backups.

Virtual Private Catalog A recovery catalog administrator can grant visibility of a subset of registered databases in the catalog to specific RMAN users.

Integration with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) The Oracle database can participate in the VSS infrastructure on Windows platforms, with compatible backup management applications and storage systems. This feature allows VSS-enabled backup management applications to snapshot the Oracle database and restore at the datafile, tablespace, or database level.

Source: https://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/589481?articleid=589481

Excellent article for all aspects of RAC implementation

Project Guide for Oracle RAC Implementation
by Christopher Haskins

A guide for defining, designing, and delivering a successful Oracle RAC project.

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is the premier database clustering solution in the RDBMS market space. Oracle RAC’s configuration options and features offer companies a wide range of flexibility for designing their high-availability solutions. However, with all the configuration options, features, and flexibility, how do you guarantee a successful implementation?

This article is a guide for defining, designing, and delivering a successful Oracle RAC project. It details the steps required to reduce risks and increase your chances of a successful implementation. In addition, it highlights many major pitfalls you may encounter during your Oracle RAC project and offers suggestions on how to avoid them.

Although this article focuses on Oracle RAC, the following steps are applicable to many types of Oracle implementation projects. (Note that this guide is intended for informational purposes only; under no circumstances should you consider it a consulting offering.)

So let’s get started! ……

http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/haskins-rac-project-guide.html

This is no longer available in Oracle 10g, the only option is  installation of OAS components.

OID can be deployed on Windows or Unix. 

Bits of terminology and theory :

LDAP:  The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a standard, extensible directory access protocol. It is a common language that LDAP clients and servers use to communicate

Online directory: An online directory is a specialized database that stores and retrieves collections of information about objects.

Although an online directory is a database i.e. structured collection of data, it is not necessarily a relational database.

OID: Oracle Internet Directory is a general purpose directory service that enables fast retrieval and centralized management of information about dispersed users and network resources.

It combines Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Version 3 with the high performance, scalability, robustness, and availability of Oracle

Oracle Internet Directory includes:

–        Oracle directory server, which responds to client requests for information about people and resources, and to updates of that information, using a multi-tiered architecture directly over TCP/IP

–        Oracle directory replication server, which replicates LDAP data between Oracle directory servers (optional)

–        Oracle Directory Manager, a Java-based graphical user interface administration tool

–        A variety of command line administration and data management tools

Net8 LDAP Directory Naming

Directory naming is the process of resolving an alias using an LDAP-compliant directory service (specifically, Oracle Internet Directory).

Net8 directory naming allows net service names to be stored in and retrieved from Oracle Internet Directory.

Net service names stored in OID are accessible by any client machine in the network as long as the client has sufficient access privileges.

The process for establishing a client session using directory naming is as follows:

–        The client initiates a connect request providing a connect identifier.

–        The connect identifier is resolved to a connect descriptor by a directory server. This information is returned to the client.

–        The client makes the connect request to the address provided in the connect descriptor.

–        A listener receives the request and directs it to the appropriate server.

–        The connection is accepted by the server.

Lets get started :

The kits can be easily downloaded from Oracle, look for

‘Oracle Identity Management Infrastructure and Oracle Identity Federation’ for x86 :

as_windows_x86_oim_oif_101401_disk1.zip

as_windows_x86_oim_oif_101401_disk2.zip

I have been asked many times this question – here is what Oracle says :

“Oracle Data Guard is available only as a feature of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.”

So if you already run The Enterprise Edition, there is no additional licensing involved. 

“It is not available with Oracle Database Standard Edition. This means the same release of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition must be installed on the primary database and all standby databases in a Data Guard configuration.”

“It is possible to simulate a standby database environment with databases running Oracle Database Standard Edition. You can do this by manually transferring archived redo log files using an operating system copy utility or using custom scripts that periodically send archived redo log files from one database to the other. The consequence is that this configuration does not provide the ease-of-use, manageability, performance, and disaster-recovery capabilities available with Data Guard.”

“A Data Guard configuration consists of one primary database and up to nine standby databases. The databases in a Data Guard configuration are connected by Oracle Net and may be dispersed geographically. There are no restrictions on where the databases are located if they can communicate with each other. For example, you can have a standby database on the same system as the primary database, along with two standby databases on another system.