Cnetics Provides a High Availability Database Services for the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia

Objective: When the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia (MGAG) planned a database upgrade and failover database, they looked outside their organization for help to assist with the project. Ann Vincent, the lead DBA at the MGAG, explains, "We have moved into a need for high availability of our systems and failover systems became a requirement. We operate very leanly here at the Gas Authority and so we have a need to supplement our staff with consultants".

Cnetics Technologies had presented a class on Oracle Database Security at a recent Georgia Oracle Users Conference which MGAG staff attended. They were impressed with the level of Oracle expertise Cnetics displayed and approached them with the opportunity to consult on the project.

Solution: Cnetics, working with MGAG staff, upgraded the database server to Oracle's 10g software from the previous release. To minimize risk and downtime, the upgrade process was done in two stages: first the production database was migrated to the latest software release; then a failover database was created on the original production machine.

The upgrade step happened quickly and easily. The new machine was loaded with the Red Hat Linux operating system and configured for Oracle. Then a new production database was created on this new machine. Once the new 10g Linux server was prepared, Cnetics migrated the data from the current production machine to the new one and verified that all information had been appropriately migrated. The complete production migration of data took only eleven hours!

When the new 10g Oracle/Linux database was operational, Cnetics engineers upgraded the former production machine to the new Oracle 10g Linux configuration. Cnetics also configured Oracle DataGuard 10g, the database failover configuration for Oracle, on the new and old production machines. This enabled the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia to have a failover database in place for use if a serious problem occurred with the primary Oracle 10g production database.

While the upgrade process was being completed, Municipal Gas staff was present to observe, ask questions, and make suggestions in order to learn the process so that they could "pick up the ball and run with it", one of the requirements established by Ann Vincent prior to the initiation of the project.

Documentation and notes were provided to the MGAG so that they could understand and repeat the process themselves. Ann Vincent noted that the Cnetics engineer "modified the software to perform as required and then stepped us through the modifications made."

Results: In only eleven hours, The Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia has upgraded their database software to Oracle 10g and has a failover database in place, if and when their primary system fails. Through hands-on training and supporting documentation, Cnetics has made sure that the staff understands the modifications made and is equipped to handle issues that may arise.