Does increasing buffer cache speed up log applying? Metalink notes or threads 626404.999, 337403.995, 382627.999 all say recovery_parallelism speeds up recovery (or applying logs), but inconclusive if increasing buffer cache helps or not. But 233509.1 says "Increase standby database cache buffer size" helps. I assume it says increasing buffer cache size, not db_block_size. 11052.997 says "increasing the size of the buffer cache may help". What processes are active on standby? MRP (media recovery process), then DBWn. Not sure why DBWn? $ ps -ef | grep PROD huany1 24702 19134 0 16:23:25 pts/1 0:00 grep PROD oracle 1911 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:01 ora_smon_PROD oracle 3662 1 0 18:38:07 ? 1:54 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 5482 1 0 19:00:02 ? 1:37 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 1901 1 0 18:27:44 ? 13:45 ora_dbw0_PROD oracle 1903 1 0 18:27:44 ? 13:34 ora_dbw1_PROD oracle 1899 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:10 ora_pmon_PROD oracle 1916 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:00 ora_cjq0_PROD oracle 23288 1 0 18:45:02 ? 2:08 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 23286 1 0 18:45:02 ? 1:28 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 1905 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:00 ora_lgwr_PROD oracle 1909 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:04 ora_ckpt_PROD oracle 1914 1 0 18:27:44 ? 0:00 ora_reco_PROD oracle 27279 1 0 18:35:51 ? 0:53 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 1945 1 0 18:27:45 ? 0:00 ora_arc0_PROD oracle 1947 1 0 18:27:45 ? 0:00 ora_arc1_PROD oracle 1950 1 0 18:27:45 ? 0:00 ora_dmon_PROD root 1951 1 0 18:27:45 ? 0:02 ora_dism_PROD oracle 3136 1 0 19:30:04 ? 1:34 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 26768 1 0 18:35:42 ? 46:00 ora_mrp0_PROD oracle 7190 1 0 18:39:29 ? 1:55 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) oracle 27310 1 0 18:35:52 ? 1:40 oraclePROD (LOCAL=NO) SQL> select tch,count(*) from x$bh group by tch; TCH COUNT(*) ---------- ---------- 0 33276 1 41727 2 9517 3 4659 All these stats have 0 values: physical reads direct physical writes direct physical reads direct (lob) physical writes direct (lob) table scans (direct read) index fast full scans (direct read) Checkpoints are high: DBWR checkpoint buffers written 1992360 DBWR transaction table writes 0 DBWR undo block writes 0 DBWR revisited being-written buffer 1334779 DBWR make free requests 452 DBWR free buffers found 98354 DBWR lru scans 414 DBWR summed scan depth 98817 DBWR buffers scanned 98817 DBWR checkpoints 202 DBWR cross instance writes 0 DBWR fusion writes 0 SQL> select state,count(*) from x$bh group by state; --9.2.0.4.0 DB STATE COUNT(*) ---------- ---------- 0 9072 --free buffers 5 88704 --media recovery In eB standby (8i), all buffers are free. And $ ps -ef | grep TNS root 12410 12377 0 16:00:01 ? 0:00 vxstat -g TNSsbdg -i 60 -c 61 oracle 20961 1 0 May 07 ? 968:41 ora_dbw1_TNS oracle 20957 1 0 May 07 ? 0:04 ora_pmon_TNS oracle 20965 1 0 May 07 ? 966:38 ora_dbw3_TNS oracle 20959 1 0 May 07 ? 934:14 ora_dbw0_TNS oracle 20967 1 0 May 07 ? 0:02 ora_lgwr_TNS oracle 20963 1 0 May 07 ? 973:46 ora_dbw2_TNS oracle 20969 1 0 May 07 ? 5:32 ora_ckpt_TNS oracle 20971 1 0 May 07 ? 0:00 ora_smon_TNS oracle 20973 1 0 May 07 ? 0:00 ora_reco_TNS oracle 20975 1 0 May 07 ? 0:00 ora_arc0_TNS oracle 20978 1 0 May 07 ? 715:18 ora_p000_TNS oracle 20980 1 0 May 07 ? 483:11 ora_p001_TNS oracle 20982 1 0 May 07 ? 467:26 ora_p002_TNS oracle 20984 1 0 May 07 ? 469:00 ora_p003_TNS oracle 20986 1 0 May 07 ? 476:03 ora_p004_TNS oracle 20988 1 0 May 07 ? 467:15 ora_p005_TNS oracle 20990 1 0 May 07 ? 462:01 ora_p006_TNS oracle 20992 1 0 May 07 ? 464:42 ora_p007_TNS