Oracle Archive Log Mode

Follow these steps to take an Oracle database out of archive log mode.

Log in to sqlplus as sysdba.

-- shutdown the instance.
shutdown
startup mount exclusive
alter database noarchivelog
alter database open
-- check alert.log for archiving messages.



Follow these steps to put an Oracle database into archive log mode.

SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 5554802160 bytes
Fixed Size 744944 bytes
Variable Size 2164260864 bytes
Database Buffers 3388997632 bytes
Redo Buffers 798720 bytes
Database mounted.
SQL> alter database archivelog;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.

SQL> select log_mode from v$database;

LOG_MODE
------------
ARCHIVELOG

SQL> show parameter log_archive_start;

NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
log_archive_start boolean TRUE
SQL> alter system switch logfile;

System altered.


From alert.log:
Tue Aug 8 22:09:10 2006
Thread 1 advanced to log sequence 4224
Current log# 4 seq# 4224 mem# 0: /u111/oradata/KANQA/redo04a.log
Current log# 4 seq# 4224 mem# 1: /u110/oradata/KANQA/redo04b.log
Tue Aug 8 22:09:10 2006
ARC0: Evaluating archive log 6 thread 1 sequence 4223
ARC0: Beginning to archive log 6 thread 1 sequence 4223
Creating archive destination LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2: '/u116/oraarchive/KANQA/arch4223.arc'
ARC0: Completed archiving log 6 thread 1 sequence 4223


Verify the archived log file has been created.
$ ls -l /u116/oraarchive/KANQA
total 2656
-rw-rw---- 1 oracle dba 1352704 Aug 8 22:09 arch4223.arc