Instantiating PDB in Data Guard using STANDBY_PDB_SOURCE_FILE_DIRECTORY – FlashGrid Help Center

Prerequisites

This method can be used from 12.1.0.2 onwards.
The functionality is natively available in 18c and later.
12.1.0.2 and 12.2 require a one-off patch 25802510. The patch is also available in some 12.1/12.2 RU. Please refer to: Bug 25802510 - Create PDB from .xml does not propagate PDB files to standby (Doc ID 25802510.8) for more details.

Source Database

Close the PDB:

alter pluggable database <pdb_name> close instances=all;

For example:

alter pluggable database pdb_test close instances=all;

Unplug the PDB:

alter pluggable database <pdb_name> unplug into '<filename>';

For example:

alter pluggable database pdb_test unplug into '/mnt/pdb_test.xml';

Create a copy of PDB datafiles using RMAN:

backup as copy pluggable database <pdb_name> format '<format_spec>'

For example:

backup as copy pluggable database pdb_test format '/mnt/datafile/%U';

Standby Database

Copy/Move the XML metadata file and PDB datafiles of the source database created by the RMAN backup to a filesystem accessible to the standby database in a Data Guard configuration. The datafiles can be on a regular filesystem or an ASM disk group. In the case of a network filesystem, it can be shared between primary and standby hosts and set to read-only.

Set the STANDBY_PDB_SOURCE_FILE_DIRECTORY parameter pointing to the location of the PDB datafiles, e.g.:

alter system set standby_pdb_source_file_directory='<directory>' sid='*' scope=both;

For example:

alter system set standby_pdb_source_file_directory='/mnt/racdbb/datafile' sid='*' scope=both;

Primary Database

Copy/Move the XML metadata file and PDB datafiles of the source database created by the RMAN backup to a filesystem accessible to the primary database in a Data Guard configuration. The datafiles can be on a regular filesystem or an ASM disk group.

Plugin the PDB:

create pluggable database <pdb_name> as clone using '<filename>'
  source_file_directory='<directory>'
  copy;

For example:

create pluggable database pdb_test as clone using '/mnt/racdba/pdb_test.xml'
  source_file_directory='/mnt/racdba/datafile'
  copy;

When Standby receives a redo corresponding to the plugged in PDB, it will search for its datafiles in the location specified by STANDBY_PDB_SOURCE_FILE_DIRECTORY. Then, the files will be copied from that location to the ASM disk group. Here are sample lines from the standby alert log showing that:

2021-11-18T16:33:09.609489+00:00
Recovery created pluggable database PDB_TEST
2021-11-18T16:33:10.641643+00:00
Recovery attempting to copy datafiles for pdb-PDB_TEST from           source dir-/mnt/racdbb/datafile
2021-11-18T16:33:19.962650+00:00
Recovery copied files for tablespace SYSTEM
Recovery successfully copied file +DATA/RACDBB/D083CCA609EB63DDE0530101A8C08BEA/DATAFILE/system.292.1088958791 from /mnt/racdbb/datafile/data_D-RACDB_I-1085957449_TS-SYSTEM_FNO-34_110eg082
PDB_TEST(4):Successfully added datafile 38 to media recovery
PDB_TEST(4):Datafile #38: '+DATA/RACDBB/D083CCA609EB63DDE0530101A8C08BEA/DATAFILE/system.292.1088958791'