What is the Difference Between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard

The main difference between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard is that Oracle Data Guard is an extension to the Oracle RDBMS and provides data availability and protection while Active Data Guard is an extension of Oracle Data Guard and improves the production database performance for critical transactions.

Oracle is an RDBMS developed by Oracle Corporation. It is one of the most popular relational database engines used by many organizations. Two extensions of Oracle are Data Guard and Active Data Guard.  Oracle Data Guard is used to maintain the secondary standby databases as alternatives to the production of primary databases. On the other hand, Active Data Guard is an extension of Oracle Data Guard that allows read-only access on the Physical standby node at the same time as applying archived transactions from the primary node. Overall, Active Data Guard is an extra costly extension of Oracle Data Guard.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is Oracle Data Guard
      –Definition, Functionality
2. What is Active Data Guard
     –Definition, Functionality
3. Difference Between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard
     -Comparison of key differences

Key Terms

Active Data Guard, Data Guard, Oracle, Oracle Data Guard

Difference Between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard - Comparison Summary

What is Oracle Data Guard

Oracle Data Guard is a feature of the Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). It helps to establish and maintain secondary standby databases as an alternative repository to produce primary databases. It is possible to manage data guard configurations using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) or the Command Line Interface (CLI). Furthermore, data guard uses the standby redo log files to reduce the data loss.

Difference Between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard

For a data guard, each Oracle database works in a primary database role or a standby database role. Furthermore, it is possible to change from one role to the other. A physical standby database duplicates the content of the primary database across the Oracle Net network layer. Logical standby database transforms the redo generated at the primary database into data and SQL. It also reapplies those SQL transactions on the logical standby.  Additionally, there is another option called Oracle Active Data Guard.

Overall, the main advantage of data guard is that it helps to minimize the human intervention in switching between databases during system maintenance and in a disaster. Therefore, data guard provides high availability for a database.

What is Active Data Guard

Active Data Guard is an evolution of Data Guard. It helps to increase the performance of the database for critical transactions. Moreover, Active Data Guard enables read-only access to a physical standby database. It is possible to offload queries and reports from the production system to a synchronized physical standby database. Thus, all queries at the standby database return up to date results. Furthermore, it is essential purchasing an Active Data Guard option license in addition to Oracle Enterprise Edition to obtain its new capabilities.

Difference Between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard

Definition

Oracle Data Guard is an extension to the Oracle RDBMS that helps to establish and maintain secondary standby databases as alternatives to the production primary databases. But, Active Data Guard (Oracle Active Data Guard) is an extended Oracle Data Guard functionality in the Oracle 11g configurations. Hence, this is the main difference between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard.

Usage

Furthermore, Oracle data guard provides data availability and protection while the Active Data Guard helps to improve the production database performance for critical transactions. Hence, this is another difference between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard.

Cost

Besides, Active data guard is more expensive than Oracle Data Guard.

Conclusion

The main difference between Oracle Data Guard and Active Data Guard is that Oracle Data Guard is an extension to the Oracle RDBMS that provides data availability and protection while Active Data Guard is an extension of Oracle Data Guard that improves the production database performance for critical transactions. In brief, the Active Data Guard is an extension of Oracle Data Guard.

References:

1.“Oracle Data Guard.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2018, Available here.
2.Active Data Guard FAQ, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1.”The logo of Oracle Corporation” By Oracle Corporation – the German Wikipedia where it was uploaded by Afrank99 (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia

About the Author: Lithmee

Lithmee holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Systems Engineering and is reading for her Master’s degree in Computer Science. She is passionate about sharing her knowldge in the areas of programming, data science, and computer systems.

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