RE: Flashback on Primary

From: Goulet, Richard <Richard.Goulet_at_parexel.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:51:21 -0400
Message-ID: <23C4836D8E9C5F4280A66C0C247BC16F1EB18E6A@US-BOS-MX011.na.pxl.int>


I have to question the need/desire/advisability of allowing a database flashback in a production database. One very simple reason is the needs of Sarbanes-Oxley and other similar mandated things that require you to prove that no one is illicitly changing data to suit their needs, aka "cooking the books". How do you explain to an auditor that say a weeks worth of data entries "never happen". Think of it, if you flashed back all of last weeks transactions because something horrible was done that the officers of the company don't want anyone knowing about how do you explain the lack of work for last week??  

Dick Goulet
Senior Oracle DBA
PAREXEL International
978.313.3426
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From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Maria Gurenich Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 10:30 AM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Flashback on Primary

 Hi people!

Oracle 10.2.0.3 RHEL4 + physical Standby I am going to enable flashback feature on the production database and I have a couple of questions regarding this.   

  1. I've heard a lot of talks about the difficulty of implementing FLASHBACK DATABASE command on primary if standby is not configured with flashback. Thinking about it, I am realizing indeed that I don't see an easy way of doing that. Let's say, I had to flashback my primary database. What will happen with the standby? I will need to open it in RO, find the data, and then make sure that MRP have synced with the primary. And I was told that this does not work with MAXIMUM PROTECTION. So I guess, my question is as follows: could you please advise me where can I read (or describe it in a few words) how the process of flashing back standby if flashback feature is not enabled on it will look like. And also, how it will look like, if I enable flashback feature on the standby (I think I would better just recreate the standby after the enabling flashback on primary).
  2. If i am not enabling flashback on standby can I have different ARCHIVELOG_DEST on primary and stanby? Will my ARCHIVELOGS (not flashback log) still be shipped to standby?
  3. I know that some folks do it in the opposite way, i.e. enabling flashback on standby only instead of primary. That is not my case. I do need flashback on primary only and I am trying to avoid enabling it on standby. (But I will do it if you guys tell me so.)
  4. Please let me know about any pitfalls that I've missed.

 Thanks in advance.

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Received on Mon Oct 20 2008 - 09:51:21 CDT

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