Oracle provides both graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line (CLI) tools for managing Data Guard configurations.
Also it features Automatic Block Repair and Fast Incremental Backup on Physical Standby,[6] LNS (log-write network-server) and ARCH (archiver) processes running on the primary database select archived redo logs and send them to the standby-database host,[7] where the RFS (remote file server) background process within the Oracle instance performs the task of receiving archived redo logs originating from the primary database and writing them to a standby redo log (SRL).
[8] Alternatively, a supplementary mechanism may transfer the archived redo logs.
If it finds a gap, it may invoke one or more Fetch Archive Log (FAL) servers to run on the primary database to forward the missing item(s).
It can also reduce the human intervention required to switch between databases at disaster-recovery ("failover") or upgrade/maintenance ("switchover") time.
[15] It supports heterogeneous configurations in which the primary and standby systems may have different CPU architectures, operating systems (for example, Microsoft Windows and Linux), operating-system binaries (32-bit/64-bit), or Oracle database binaries (32-bit/64-bit).
[16] If the network link connecting primary and standby is over-subscribed, the redo logs are not shipped in chronological order, which can result in large gaps appearing in the available redo at the standby.