Preparing to create an Oracle replica

Before you can begin using your replica, perform the following tasks.

Enabling automatic backups

Before a DB instance can serve as a source DB instance, make sure to enable automatic backups on the source DB instance. To learn how to perform this procedure, see Enabling automated backups.

Enabling force logging mode

We recommend that you enable force logging mode. In force logging mode, the Oracle database writes redo records even when NOLOGGING is used with data definition language (DDL) statements.

To enable force logging mode

1. Log in to your Oracle database using a client tool such as SQL Developer.

2. Enable force logging mode by running the following procedure.

   exec rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.force_logging(p_enable => true);

For more information about this procedure, see Setting force logging.

Changing your logging configuration

If you want to change your logging configuration, we recommend that you complete the changes before making a DB instance the source for replicas. Also, we recommend that you not modify the logging configuration after you create the replicas. Modifications can cause the online redo logging configuration to get out of sync with the standby logging configuration.

Modify the logging configuration for a DB instance by using the Amazon RDS procedures rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.add_logfile and rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.drop_logfile. For more information, see Adding online redo logs and Dropping online redo logs.

Setting the MAX_STRING_SIZE parameter

Before you create an Oracle replica, ensure that the setting of the MAX_STRING_SIZE parameter is the same on the source DB instance and the replica. You can do this by associating them with the same parameter group. If you have different parameter groups for the source and the replica, you can set MAX_STRING_SIZE to the same value. For more information about setting this parameter, see Turning on extended data types for a new DB instance.

Planning compute and storage resources

Ensure that the source DB instance and its replicas are sized properly, in terms of compute and storage, to suit their operational load. If a replica reaches compute, network, or storage resource capacity, the replica stops receiving or applying changes from its source. Amazon RDS for Oracle doesn't intervene to mitigate high replica lag between a source DB instance and its replicas. You can modify the storage and CPU resources of a replica independently from its source and other replicas.