DataGuard对主备库异构平台的支持一直是让很多人纠结的问题,我们在学习Oracle数据卫士时必要优先阅读的官方文档是<Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration 10g Release 2>,在这个文档中给出了极为苛刻的硬件环境限制条件:
All members of a Data Guard configuration must run an Oracle image that is built for the same platform.

For example, this means a Data Guard configuration with a primary database on a 32-bit Linux on Intel system
can have a standby database that is configured on a 32-bit Linux on Intel system. However, a primary database
on a 64-bit HP-UX system can also be configured with a standby database on a 32-bit HP-UX system,
as long as both servers are running 32-bit images.
以上主要提出了2点要求:即平台(platform)和字长(word size)都必须一致,注意这里不管是physical standby还是logical standby都要求遵守。 官方文档这样撰写的原因是Oracle并不推荐用户在异构平台上搭建DataGuard,如果有用户大量地部署异构平台上的DataGuard可能给后续的服务和支持带来麻烦;所以除非是找不到其他可用的硬件了,否则不推荐采用异构平台搭建的DataGuard环境来提供高可用性。 实际情况是在10g中已经有少数几个异构平台组合可以兼容physical standby或logical standby,而在11g中更增加了对physical standby支持的几种异构平台组合(As of Oracle Database 11g Data Guard provides increased flexibility for Data Guard configurations in which the primary and standby systems may have different CPU architectures, operating systems (for example, Windows & Linux), operating system binaries (32-bit/64-bit), or Oracle database binaries (32-bit/64-bit). For specific information about mixed-platform support, see the My Oracle Support note 413484.1)。 具体10g/11g DataGuard可以利用的异构平台组合,见下列图表:
10g
Physical StandbyLogical Standby
Heterogeneous SupportNoWin<->Linux Only
Different Word-size (32 / 64 bit)Win32<->Win64 Linux32<->Linux64Win32->Win64   Linux32->Linux64 (1 way only)
Heterogeneous AND Word-size NoNo
 
11g
Physical StandbyLogical Standby
Heterogeneous SupportWin<-->Linux Solaris <-->AIX Solaris<-->LinuxWin<->Linux Only
Different Word-size (32 / 64 bit)Win32<->Win64 Linux32<->Linux64Win32->Win64 Linux32->Linux64 (1 way only)
Heterogeneous AND Word-size Win32<->Linux64Win32->Linux64 (1 way only)
  而在metalink文档 <Data Guard Support for Heterogeneous Primary and Physical Standbys in Same Data Guard Configuration [ID 413484.1]><Data Guard Support for Heterogeneous Primary and Logical Standbys in Same Data Guard Configuration [ID 1085687.1]>中列出了更为详尽的平台间的兼容信息,在这里一并引用: Physical Standbys In addition to general support when using the