Active/Passive For Oracle Database

[Former Member]

Hi, Our Company has decided to go for an Active/Passive Oracle Database configuration for the SAP Production Setup. We understand that an active/passive configuration of Oracle Database with Data Guard is acceptable by SAP as we have seen in the SAP Note: 105047.
However, we also noted that having an Oracle RAC ONE NODE is NOT Allowed in SAP setup.

1. We would like to know why is RAC ONE NODE not allowed and technically since RAC is allowed, RAC ONE NODE is the same configuration as RAC with just ONE NODE being down as Passive. So why is this a problem and

2. We also understand that RAC ONE NODE would be certified by SAP soon and if so when can we expect this?

This is very crucial for us to know as we have business decisions to be made based on this. We have searched extensively for further details in SAP forums, SCN, SAP notes, etc but we have not been able to find further information on this subject. So we need your inputs please.

3. I would also be interested to know that if we implement an active/passive setup using oracle clusterware 11.2.0.3 by not technically calling it as RAC ONE but just as an active/passive setup using Oracle Clusterware, will that be accepted by SAP? I did read a document in Oracle that this sort of setup using Oracle Clusterware for an active/passive setup for 11.1.x was allowed but its not supported by Oracle from 11.2.x onwards. Could someone shed some light on this arena?

Thanks and Regards,
Augustine

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Augustine,

I had some discussions about RAC One Node in 2010 with Christian Graf from SAP. Contact him if you need further details. Here is my summary as far as I can remember:

1. SAP doesn't see a real customer demand in RAC One Node. Active/Passive can be realized with Dataguard without additional license costs. RAC One Node doesn't add much to this but would be more costly.

2. Ask Christian Graf about support. Even better, find some friends from other companies who also ask him about the topic to build up a "critical mass".

3. The document you read on 11.1 was the predecessor of RAC One Node. Oracle uses that functionality and named it RAC One Node in 11.2, so it got a branding name.

Personally, I find DataGuard is sufficient for an Active/Passive setup, but I mainly use it simply for homogenous migrations with near-zero-downtime. What I like most is that the Dataguard functionality is already licensed with the normal SAP database license.

Regards,

Mark

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Mark, I have contacted Christian Graf now after seeing your post! Thank you for that.

Meanwhile, let me inform you that Oracle has provided us with the license quotes and the DataGuard works out to be higher in price than the Rac One Node. This is because, we know in EE, Data Guard is included (free) however, the standby database (physical) will have to be equally licensed as the Active One. So this increases the license cost higher than Oracle RAC ONE. We are yet to get a final quote but this is what we hear from Oracle. Let me tell though that SAP plays a different ball game when it comes to Database Licensing. I guess if we get the database license from SAP for Oracle, then SAP does not charge you for the Standby Database as what you have mentioned. So we are having a twist here, and we need to get it confirmed.

Thanks a lot for you quick feedback and I appreciate your inputs.

Best Regards,

Augustine