Need basic explanation of standby server hardware and costs

I'm an Oracle beginner looking for an automatic standby system for a 9i database that lets clients do queries over the internet.

I would like to add another server so that while it's being updated during low client usage at night, the other server is up. Then, when during the day when the queries are the busiest, both servers are up under a load-balancing configuration. If one server hangs up during the nightly copy process, then the other server stays on line by itself.

There's no writing or editing type transactions going on during the day, just clients reading the data.

There's about 10 million records that are retrieved via a PL/SQL created web interface. The web site gets a high volume of hits.

Can anyone give me a really rough idea of what my options are to accomplish the above and even rougher idea of what the costs would be to add another server and other hardware? Can you spell out the concepts for me in basic terms that almost a lay person could understand? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex Glaros Received on Fri Oct 29 2004 - 01:35:45 CDT