Data Guard NET_TIMEOUT

Question

Hi,
I'm getting confused on the documentation relating to the NET_TIMEOUT paramater associated with an archive destination.
I want to run in MAXIMUM_AVAILABILITY mode, and if the network goes, drop to MAXIMUM_PERFORMANCE fast, without stalling the production database for an excessive number of seconds.
The DG Concepts and Administration's documentation, Chapter 12, for NET_TIMEOUT says I can set this down to 15 seconds. It also says I should set the SQLNET.EXPIRE_TIME on the standby to something lower, but as this value is in minutes, the only thing lower is 0, which means don't check for dead connections!
Have I misunderstood something, or does the documentation not reflect reality for small timeout values?
A bit later in the same section, it talks about the LGWR tring to automatically reconnect, and gives a guideline of 2 minutes of reconnect attempts for MAXIMUM_AVAILABILITY. is this occurring in the background, or does this mean that whatever I set NET_TIMEOUT to be, I could stall the production database for 2 minutes.
Any help appreciated.
Graham

Answer 1

But, in dgmgrl, it shows it is 180. See below...
DGMGRL> show database verbose 'MERCY';
Database
Name: MERCY
Role: PRIMARY
Enabled: YES
Intended State: ONLINE
Instance(s):
MERCY
Properties:
InitialConnectIdentifier = 'MERCY'
ObserverConnectIdentifier = ''
LogXptMode = 'SYNC'
Dependency = ''
DelayMins = '0'
Binding = 'OPTIONAL'
MaxFailure = '0'
MaxConnections = '1'
ReopenSecs = '300'
NetTimeout = '180'
LogShipping = 'ON'
PreferredApplyInstance = ''
ApplyInstanceTimeout = '0'
ApplyParallel = 'AUTO'
StandbyFileManagement = 'AUTO'
ArchiveLagTarget = '0'
LogArchiveMaxProcesses = '4'
LogArchiveMinSucceedDest = '1'
DbFileNameConvert = ''
LogFileNameConvert = ''
FastStartFailoverTarget = ''
StatusReport = '(monitor)'
InconsistentProperties = '(monitor)'
InconsistentLogXptProps = '(monitor)'
SendQEntries = '(monitor)'
LogXptStatus = '(monitor)'
RecvQEntries = '(monitor)'
HostName = 'csctestprd1'
SidName = 'MERCY'
LocalListenerAddress = '(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=csctestprd1)(PORT=1521))'
StandbyArchiveLocation = 'dgsby_MERCY'
AlternateLocation = ''
LogArchiveTrace = '0'
LogArchiveFormat = '%t_%s_%r.arc'
LatestLog = '(monitor)'
TopWaitEvents = '(monitor)'
Current status for "MERCY":
Error: ORA-16778: redo transport error for one or more databases