Hardware Clustering VS Oracle Hot Standby

[Former Member]

We want to implement high availability (via hardware clustering) for our SAP Production Database server.

• The server is Sun-Solaris with Oracle database.

• The server is shared: ECC5.0 ERP Database and SRM4.0 Database

• The central instance for ERP and SRM each run on a separate Windows server. We would like to move the CI's to the Database server, to further reduce single point of failure and reduce problems of heterogenous landscape.

• ERP and SRM have been live for over a year.

Question 1:

Documentation appears to indicate that clustering must set up as a step during the SAP installation. Is there any way to configure Sun clustering without reinstalling SAP, or do we have no choice?

Question 2:

In consideration of other high availability options, we are toying with the concept of "Oracle Hot Standby". Can anyone comment if this would be a viable alternative to hardware clustering? With limited resources, we are looking for the best option, cost-wise and time-wise.

Thanks!

Joyce

[Former Member]

(1) Yes you can if you use virtual hostnames upfront, which need to be retro-vitted afterwards in your cluster installation.

(2) hotstandby databases are used for disaster recovery purposes, not for cluster purposes in case of component failures.