How to get the Data Guard broker configuration from a SQL query?

Everybody knows that you can get the Data Guard configuration in dgmgrl with the command:

show configuration;

but few know that this information is actually available in x$drc:

SQL> desc x$drc
 Name            Null?    Type
 --------------- -------- ---------------
 ADDR                     RAW(8)
 INDX                     NUMBER
 INST_ID                  NUMBER
 CON_ID                   NUMBER
 OBJECT_ID                NUMBER
 ATTRIBUTE                VARCHAR2(30)
 VALUE                    VARCHAR2(4000)
 PARENT_ID                VARCHAR2(15)
 STATUS                   VARCHAR2(30)
 MESSAGE                  VARCHAR2(256)
 ERRNUM                   NUMBER
 VALUE_RAW                RAW(4095)
 ERRTIME                  NUMBER

The table design is not very friendly, because it is a mix of ATTRIBUTE/VALUE pairs (hence many rows per object) and specific columns.

So, in order to get something usable to show the databases and their status, the only solution is to make use of PIVOT().

SELECT
    piv.*,
    obj.status
FROM
    (
        SELECT
            object_id,
            attribute,
            value
        FROM
            x$drc
        WHERE
            object_id IN (
                SELECT
                    object_id
                FROM
                    x$drc
                WHERE
                    attribute = 'DATABASE'
            )
    ) drc PIVOT (
        MAX ( value )
        FOR attribute
        IN (
    'DATABASE'                     DATABASE                     ,
    'intended_state'               intended_state               ,
    'connect_string'               connect_string               ,
    'RAC'                          RAC                          ,
    'enabled'                      enabled                      ,
    'role'                         role                         ,
    'receive_from'                 receive_from                 ,
    'ship_to'                      ship_to                      ,
    'dgb_connect'                  dgb_connect                  ,
    -- 'static_connect_identifier'    static_connect_identifier    ,
    'FSFOTargetValidity'           FSFOTargetValidity           
	)
    )
    piv
    JOIN x$drc obj ON ( obj.object_id = piv.object_id
                        AND obj.attribute = 'DATABASE' );

To get it in a friendly format, I recommend using SQLcl and settting

set sqlformat ansiconsole

This is what I get on a simple two databases configuration (primary/standby):

OBJECT_ID DATABASE         INTENDED_STATE      CONNECT_STRING                        RAC   ENABLED   ROLE       RECEIVE_FROM   SHIP_TO          DGB_CONNECT                           FSFOTARGETVALIDITY   STATUS
   16842752 ludocdb2_site1   READ-WRITE-XPTON    newbox01:1521/ludoCDB2_SITE1_DGMGRL   NO    YES       PRIMARY    -N/A-          ludocdb2_site2   newbox01:1521/ludoCDB2_SITE1_DGMGRL   2                    SUCCESS
   33619968 ludocdb2_site2   PHYSICAL-APPLY-ON   newbox02:1521/ludoCDB2_SITE2_DGMGRL   NO    YES       PHYSICAL   -UNKNOWN-      -N/A-            newbox02:1521/ludoCDB2_SITE2_DGMGRL   1                    SUCCESS

Although it is much easier to get this information from DGMGRL, get it programmatically is more sure/flexible using the SQL interface, as you know what you want to get, no matter how the dgmgrl syntax changes.

Looking forward to have the REST APIs in a future version of Data Guard

—

Ludovico