I am trying to minimize downtime for the move of a physical standby server to a new location across country and was hoping to set up an x86, 12.1.0.2 Virtual server and storage at the receiving location as another standby database and then just physically move the SPARC server opening those same dataafiles on my SPARC server after it is reconnected. Can I do that? I was hoping if all was the same except SPARC vs x86 I could do it. If not I guess I can save all the production SPARC archive log files generated during the move but if the move takes longer than expected that could also be a pain.
I dont think you can because Sparc is big endian, and x86 is little endian.
SQL> select * from V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM order by 3,1;
PLATFORM_ID PLATFORM_NAME ENDIAN_FORMAT
----------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------
1 Solaris[tm] OE (32-bit) Big
2 Solaris[tm] OE (64-bit) Big
3 HP-UX (64-bit) Big
4 HP-UX IA (64-bit) Big
6 AIX-Based Systems (64-bit) Big
9 IBM zSeries Based Linux Big
16 Apple Mac OS Big
18 IBM Power Based Linux Big
5 HP Tru64 UNIX Little
7 Microsoft Windows IA (32-bit) Little
8 Microsoft Windows IA (64-bit) Little
10 Linux IA (32-bit) Little
11 Linux IA (64-bit) Little
12 Microsoft Windows x86 64-bit Little
13 Linux x86 64-bit Little
15 HP Open VMS Little
17 Solaris Operating System (x86) Little
19 HP IA Open VMS Little
20 Solaris Operating System (x86-64) Little
21 Apple Mac OS (x86-64) Little
Hence to run an x86 version you need to convert all of the datafiles...which is probably a bigger exercise than transferring archive logs anyway. If its just a one-off, perhaps look at renting the smallest sparc box you can find, its job just being to roll the archives forward whilst the real server makes its journey.