50 Oracle Database 19c: Data Guard Administration Practice Questions: Question Bank 2025

What is the primary purpose of the Data Guard broker in an Oracle Data Guard configuration?

A DBA needs to configure a physical standby database to allow read-only access while continuing to apply redo data. Which feature should be implemented?

During a routine health check, you notice that the standby database shows a significant apply lag. Which query would provide the most comprehensive information about the apply lag on a physical standby database?

What is the correct sequence of database states when converting a physical standby database to a snapshot standby database?

An organization requires zero data loss and zero commit latency on the primary database. Which Data Guard configuration would best meet these requirements?

Which statement best describes the role of the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameter in a Data Guard configuration?

After a failover operation to a physical standby database, the former primary database needs to be reinstated as a new standby. What prerequisite condition must be met for the REINSTATE command to succeed?

A DBA is performing a switchover operation using the Data Guard broker. What command verifies that the primary database is ready for switchover before initiating the operation?

In a Data Guard environment with multiple standby databases, what is the purpose of configuring the LOG_ARCHIVE_CONFIG parameter with the DG_CONFIG attribute?

An organization has a Data Guard configuration with the primary database in New York and a standby database in London. Due to network latency, commits on the primary are experiencing delays. The organization requires zero data loss protection but needs to eliminate the commit latency. What architectural solution should be implemented?

A database administrator needs to configure a standby database to allow read-only queries while simultaneously applying redo data. Which type of standby database should be implemented?

During a planned switchover operation, the database administrator issues the 'ALTER DATABASE COMMIT TO SWITCHOVER TO PHYSICAL STANDBY' command on the primary database, but receives an error. What is the most likely cause?

An organization requires a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero for their mission-critical database. Which combination of Data Guard configuration settings will meet this requirement?

What is the primary purpose of configuring standby redo logs (SRLs) on a physical standby database?

A DBA notices that the primary database is experiencing performance degradation. Investigation shows that the LGWR process is waiting for acknowledgment from the standby database. Which query should be used to identify the specific wait event causing this issue?

After a failover operation to a physical standby database, the former primary database is still available but needs to be reinstated as a new standby. What is the prerequisite condition that must be met for successful reinstatement using Data Guard Broker?

An application team wants to test new code against production data without impacting the primary database or disrupting the Data Guard configuration. Which type of standby database should be created for this purpose?

A database administrator needs to apply a quarterly patch to both primary and standby databases in a Data Guard configuration. What is the recommended Oracle best practice for minimizing downtime during this process?

In a Data Guard environment, the V$DATAGUARD_STATS view shows an 'apply lag' of 4 hours on the physical standby database, but the 'transport lag' is only 30 seconds. What is the most likely cause and solution?

A financial institution requires that the primary database automatically shut down if it cannot write redo data to at least one standby database. Additionally, they need absolute zero data loss guarantee. Which Data Guard protection mode and configuration must be implemented?

Your Data Guard environment has a primary database and two standby databases. You want to ensure that redo data is applied automatically on both standby databases without manual intervention. Which database role and configuration should you implement?

During a planned switchover operation, the primary database validation returns the warning 'LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2 is not enabled'. What is the most likely cause and resolution for this issue?

A database administrator needs to test application functionality on a physical standby database while keeping the Data Guard configuration intact. Which standby database type conversion should be performed?

Your organization has a Data Guard configuration with MAXIMUM PROTECTION mode. The network between primary and standby experiences intermittent outages. The primary database has shut down during a network failure. What is the correct approach to restore service while maintaining data integrity?

You are configuring redo transport services for optimal performance in a Data Guard environment where the standby database is located across a WAN with 50ms latency. The primary database handles high-volume OLTP transactions. Which redo transport configuration provides the best balance of performance and protection?

During a failover operation to a physical standby database, you notice that some archived logs from the primary are missing on the standby. The fetch archive log (FAL) mechanism should resolve this, but gaps persist. What is the most likely cause and solution?

A financial institution requires zero data loss and needs to maintain two synchronized standby databases in different geographic regions. During peak hours, synchronous redo transport to both standbys is causing unacceptable transaction latency. Which configuration strategy best addresses this requirement?

After a successful failover to a physical standby database, you need to reinstate the former primary database as a new standby. The former primary has flashback enabled and flashback logs are available. However, the REINSTATE command fails with error ORA-16649. What is the most probable cause?

You are troubleshooting performance issues in a Data Guard environment where real-time apply is enabled on the standby. The query on V$DATAGUARD_STATS shows increasing values for 'apply lag' but 'transport lag' remains minimal. Which component should you investigate and what action might resolve the issue?

An organization has a physical standby database configured with Active Data Guard. Users report that queries on the standby return stale data compared to the primary. Investigation shows that the standby is in 'real-time query' mode with real-time apply enabled, but queries consistently return data that is several minutes old. What is the most likely architectural explanation?

A database administrator needs to configure a Far Sync instance to improve data protection for a geographically distributed Data Guard configuration. What is the PRIMARY purpose of a Far Sync instance?

When monitoring a Data Guard environment, you notice the APPLY_LAG value is consistently increasing on a physical standby database. Which action would be MOST effective in reducing the apply lag?

Which statement accurately describes the behavior of Active Data Guard during normal operations?

During a planned switchover operation, the switchover verification returns 'SESSIONS ACTIVE' for the primary database. What is the BEST course of action?

A company has a Data Guard configuration with the primary database using LGWR SYNC transport mode to a local standby and LGWR ASYNC to a remote standby. After a network interruption to the local standby, the primary database performance degrades significantly. What is the MOST likely cause?

You need to perform a failover to a physical standby database due to primary database failure. After the failover, what must be done with the former primary database when it becomes available again?

When configuring redo transport compression for a Data Guard environment with limited network bandwidth, which statement is TRUE?

An administrator is troubleshooting a snapshot standby database that cannot be converted back to a physical standby. The error message indicates 'flashback database failed'. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

In a Maximum Protection mode Data Guard configuration, the primary database has two standby databases configured. What happens if both standby databases become unavailable?

Which Oracle Data Guard Broker command should be used to display detailed information about lag statistics and transport status for all members of a Data Guard configuration?

What is the primary purpose of the Data Guard broker configuration file?

A DBA notices that redo transport is experiencing network congestion during peak hours. Which parameter should be configured to compress redo data before transmission to reduce network bandwidth usage?

An organization is implementing a disaster recovery solution with a standby database located 2000 miles from the primary. They require minimal data loss but cannot accept the performance impact of synchronous redo transport. What configuration should they implement?

During a routine check, a DBA discovers that the standby database has a gap in the archived redo log sequence. The primary database is still operational. What is the most likely automatic resolution mechanism if FAL_SERVER and FAL_CLIENT are properly configured?

A financial institution requires that certain tablespaces on the primary database should NOT be replicated to the standby database for regulatory compliance reasons. What Data Guard feature allows this configuration?

A company performs a switchover operation, but after the role transition, applications cannot connect to the new primary database. The TNS configuration uses a service name that was working before the switchover. What is the most likely cause?

An administrator needs to perform testing on a physical standby database without impacting its ability to receive and apply redo from the primary. What snapshot standby feature characteristic allows this?

A DBA is troubleshooting slow redo apply on a physical standby database. After investigation, they find that parallel recovery processes are not being utilized. Which parameter controls the degree of parallelism for redo apply on the standby?

During a failover operation to a standby database, a DBA discovers that some committed transactions from the primary are missing. The configuration was using ASYNC redo transport. What Data Guard feature could have prevented this data loss while still using asynchronous transport?

After a successful failover to a standby database, the DBA wants to reinstate the old primary database as a new standby. However, the old primary had some transactions that were not replicated before the failure. What must be done to the old primary before it can be reinstated?