Disaster recovery for an Oracle Database 12c database in an Azure environment

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs

Assumptions

  • You have an understanding of Oracle Data Guard design and Azure environments.

Goals

  • Design the topology and configuration that meet your disaster recovery (DR) requirements.

Scenario 1: Primary and DR sites on Azure

A customer has an Oracle database set up on the primary site. A DR site is in a different region. The customer uses Oracle Data Guard for quick recovery between these sites. The primary site also has a secondary database for reporting and other uses.

Topology

Here is a summary of the Azure setup:

  • Two sites (a primary site and a DR site)
  • Two virtual networks
  • Two Oracle databases with Data Guard (primary and standby)
  • Two Oracle databases with Golden Gate or Data Guard (primary site only)
  • Two application services, one primary and one on the DR site
  • An availability set, which is used for database and application service on the primary site
  • One jumpbox on each site, which restricts access to the private network and only allows sign-in by an administrator
  • A jumpbox, application service, database, and VPN gateway on separate subnets
  • NSG enforced on application and database subnets

Diagram that shows Primary and DR sites on Azure
.

Scenario 2: Primary site on-premises and DR site on Azure

A customer has an on-premises Oracle database setup (primary site). A DR site is on Azure. Oracle Data Guard is used for quick recovery between these sites. The primary site also has a secondary database for reporting and other uses.

There are two approaches for this setup.

Approach 1: Direct connections between on-premises and Azure, requiring open TCP ports on the firewall

We don't recommend direct connections because they expose the TCP ports to the outside world.

Topology

Following is a summary of the Azure setup:

  • One DR site
  • One virtual network
  • One Oracle database with Data Guard (active)
  • One application service on the DR site
  • One jumpbox, which restricts access to the private network and only allows sign-in by an administrator
  • A jumpbox, application service, database, and VPN gateway on separate subnets
  • NSG enforced on application and database subnets
  • An NSG policy/rule to allow inbound TCP port 1521 (or a user-defined port)
  • An NSG policy/rule to restrict only the IP address/addresses on-premises (DB or application) to access the virtual network

Diagram that shows direct connections between on-premises and Azure, requiring open TCP ports on the firewall.

Approach 2: Site-to-site VPN

Site-to-site VPN is a better approach. For more information about setting up a VPN, see Create a virtual network with a Site-to-Site VPN connection using CLI.

Topology

Following is a summary of the Azure setup:

  • One DR site
  • One virtual network
  • One Oracle database with Data Guard (active)
  • One application service on the DR site
  • One jumpbox, which restricts access to the private network and only allows sign-in by an administrator
  • A jumpbox, application service, database, and VPN gateway are on separate subnets
  • NSG enforced on application and database subnets
  • Site-to-site VPN connection between on-premises and Azure

Screenshot of the DR topology page

Additional reading

Next steps