Oracle Data Guard Reviews

Oracle Data Guard ensures data protection and disaster recovery. The better way to configure Data Guard is by having an Oracle production database on one site as the primary database, and an Oracle standby database on another site. This solution provides high availability.

If you have a problem with your primary site and can't access your primary database, you can continue working with the database that you have as standby on the other site, by changing its role to primary.

Another valuable feature is the possibility of backing up the database from the standby database instead of the primary database, to avoid backup process overhead in the primary system.

Active Data Guard is other feature with advanced capabilities that extend basic Data Guard functionality. Some of the functions of Active Data Guard are: 

• Real Time Query - Offloads read-only workloads to an up-to-date standby database
• Automatic Block Repair - Automatically detects a block corruption and repairs it.

I think it would be great to have a graphical interface assistant (like DBCA, ASMCA, NETCA, etc.) for initial configuration, monitoring, configuring Oracle Data Guard Broker and all the Data Guard Broker commands, without needing Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control installed.

There is no issue with primary database stability. Once Data Guard is configured, you don't have to change anything more in your primary database.

Oracle Data Guard is a feature available only in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, and is available for extra cost.

Provides an active data guard.

I would like to see better failover.

We have been using this solution for five years.

There were no scalability issues.

I would give customer service a rating of 7/10.

I would give technical support a rating of 7/10.

We did not evaluate another solution.

We did not implement through a vendor team.

We did not evaluate other options.

My primary use case is to cache our monthly data and ensure that same data is copied for DR (disaster recovery) side. This solution is deployed on-premises. 

One of the most valuable features is real-time replication. The version we're using is reliable and easy to deploy.

Oracle could be improved by the ability to manage it on the cloud. This on-premises version is secure and reliable, but I'm sure that they will soon provide a cloud solution that will be even better. In one to two years, we will probably move to the cloud—we have already moved to the cloud with Microsoft Exchange, but our databases are still on-premises. I would prefer managing a cloud version of Oracle.

I have been using Data Guard for about five years. 

This is a stable solution. We have one person who is responsible for maintaining and working on the database. 

In our organization, we have over thirty to forty people using Oracle ERP solutions. 

We have Oracle's Extended Support. Whenever an issue arises, we log in to the portal and our queries are resolved with the help of Oracle's technical support. The support could be better, but we are still using the support offering of our old version of Oracle and the legal portion normally suggests an early upgrade to the newer release. 

The installation is straightforward. It's not complex at all, and our IT guy managed it easily. 

We implemented through an in-house team. 

We work for a non-profit organization, so we have a discounted rate on licensing and other purchasing agreements. 

I rate this solution a nine out of ten. We are currently running version 11g, but we are planning on upgrading to 12c. I always recommend Oracle Data Guard for anyone considering implementing it in their organization. 

We use Data Guard for online replication from data center to data center for high availability. This is the most important feature.

I'm not really sure about what needs improvement because we use all Data Guard's features successfully.

Pricing is expensive and can use improvement. 

I have been using Oracle Data Guard for about eight years. 

Over the course of eight years, I do think this solution is very stable. 

It is scalable. 

We also use Active Data Guard. We use it to clone the production environment. We constantly use it. 

I have contacted their support. We have been using their support more. We open cases one to five times a month. We use a lot of Oracle databases and because of that, we contact their support a lot. 

The quality of support will depend on the support engineer. If we speak to an agent from the Asian department, it could be a little difficult to understand the terminology. If it's with somebody from the US, Canada, or Europe, they're easier to understand.  

We also use a real application cluster rack database. I have experience with IBM. 

The initial setup was not complex. At first, many years back it was complex, but it's getting easier to set up in the last couple of years. It's been easier in the last few years and has been easier than past versions. 

We had somebody help us with the deployment. 

It is a very useful administrative IT tool. It saves on costs.

I strongly recommend Data Guard. I've been using it for eight years and I would strongly recommend it. 

I'd rate Oracle Data Guard a seven out of ten. To make it a ten, the core base license could be cheaper. The cloud environment would also make it cheaper. 

We implemented Oracle Data Guard for disaster recovery, even though one can't implement disaster recovery across multiple sites using stretch clusters, and implement a server pool at both sites. You have to build a dedicated server pool on each of the locations. 

We only use this solution from a functionality point of view to provide software coverage, so I haven't seen any special functionalities yet. It just really provides recovery in case of a disaster. It also provides a really good product forecast, like what will happen after 2023.

It is a rather complex solution, so it could be more user-friendly.

The solution has been stable so far. I would like to know what the performance impact will be when we go to the really big database of a customer. Because you have to synchronize everything to that effective location, with no data loss extracted, which means you have to go for a really hot interface. So you have to look at the experience for big databases. But so far there have been no problems with big databases.

So far we've only had to open one ticket regarding a failure with the encryption manager of defected fault and it was handled well. We've dealt with Oracle's customer service for eight years, and their service is astonishingly good. 

Oracle has a team that can help you with the setup. We have tested the solution for more than 2 months because moving our labeled, especially our big databases, because it's always an issue. With Data Guard, the main thing was for the application to switch the default recovery site in case of a disaster, and finding out how to score this site afterwards. 

It's a master of making money! If you want to have everything automated and done smoothly, you have to add additional licenses. They should have more standard licenses without us having to go for additional licenses to get full support. 

Regarding infrastructure, most of the time the additional costs for uploading systems, alarming the operations, patching the operating system, caring about the shadow data, all of this needs to be maintained as well. So we end up having additional costs and that's why I would advise others to avoid it, if possible.

I don't really have any advice for other users, because we only use the solution's basic functionality for disaster recovery. Personally, I would advise others to avoid it due to its complexity. On a scale from one to ten, I rate this solution a seven. From a functionality point of view, I can't complain about Data Guard. But I would avoid it as it adds more complexity to a configuration, which is not necessary. From a setup point of view, Oracle has experienced people that will help you with it. 

This is one of the most stable products to support critical DR sites.

It provides us with online replication.

I would like to see replication/fail-over sites.

We have been using this for over five years.

There were not many deployment issues.

There were not many stability issues.

We sometimes had scalability issues with read only.

I would give customer service a rating of 8/10.

I would give technical support a rating of 7/10.

There were no previous solutions.

It was a self-driven setup. It was not too much trouble.

We implemented in-house.

We are under ULA.

We did not evaluate many other solutions.

It simply works.

The Active Data Guard and Fast-Start Failover features are excellent. The Active Data Guard helps in providing read only data for reporting purposes. The Fast-Start Failover is an automatic feature that allows failover from primary database instance/server to the preferred standby instance/server.

I've implemented these features in several projects.

Oracle Data Guard is part of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. Oracle Corporation has provided features in Data Guard for its new Database version Oracle 12c.

I've used Oracle Data Guard for over eight years.

Yes, If the underlying Network is not stable, then the Data Guard and Standby Databases will disconnect and not be operational.

No.

Oracle Support is rated an eight out of 10.

If the Database SLA is much higher than Oracle RAC, it is a better product than Data Guard.

The initial setup was simple, but there were problems setting up the connectivity between the different servers. Once these problems are resolved, then the Data Guard was operational.

The Oracle Data Guard is part of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, there is no extra licensing cost for the software. However, there is a hardware cost for the number of Standby Databases for each server and storage.

The only other product is Oracle RAC which is very expensive for small businesses as it involves software for clustering, hardware for networking and larger SAN environments.

It's a simple replication solution for small businesses.

We primarily use the solution for disaster recovery.

Once you get used to it, you get to know what to do when certain things happen. However, for a person who's just jumping into it, the management of it and how to implement it probably would be something that could be improved upon. The GUI could be better.

The solution is really very stable. One good thing about it, compared to other products, is that you can just run it and forget about it. Unless you come across some interruptions in the network, it works like a charm.

When you are using an Oracle product you get Oracle support. The support that we received has been good. There were no issues on that front.

We previously used an SQL server.

The implementation is complex for anyone who's jumping into it without any experience. It's all command-line driven implementations. For some, that's a turn-off.

Most of the time taken during deployment was for the restoration of the backup. We chose the backup methods because our DR was across the VPN and the speed for which to make the online backup was too small. Instead, we took the backup from the source and just copied over to the target and then stored it there. That particular process took time. Other than that, the deployment docs for Data Guard made everything pretty quick. It took maybe an hour, or an hour and a half.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten. I'd rate it higher if the GUI was better, but it's a very stable solution.

For disaster recovery, I think this is one of the best native Oracle products that you could use, provided you have the Enterprise edition.