ARCHIVELOG mode

https://arcserve.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202080249-What-is-ARCHIVE-LOG-and-NO-ARCHIVE-
LOG-mode-in-Oracle-and-the-advantages-disadvantages-of-these-modes-

ARCHIVELOG mode is a mode that you can put the database in for creating a backup of all transactions
that have occurred in the database so that you can recover to any point in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode
is basically the absence of ARCHIVELOG mode and has the disadvantage of not being able to recover to
any point in time.

ARCHIVELOG MODE

Advantages

You can perform hot backups (backups when the database is online).

The archive logs and the last full backup (offline or online) or an older backup can completely recover
the database without losing any data because all changes made in the database are stored in the log file.

Disadvantages

It requires additional disk space to store archived log files. However, the agent offers the option to
purge the logs after they have been backed up, giving you the opportunity to free disk space if you need
it.

NO-ARCHIVELOG MODE

Advantages

It requires no additional disk space to store archived log files.

Disadvantages

If you must recover a database, you can only restore the last full offline backup. As a result, any
changes made to the database after the last full offline backup are lost.

Database downtime is significant because you cannot back up the database online. This limitation
becomes a very serious consideration for large databases.
Note: Because NOARCHIVELOG mode does not guarantee Oracle database recovery if there is a disaster,
the Agent for Oracle does not support this mode. If you need to maintain Oracle Server in
NOARCHIVELOG mode, then you must backup full Oracle database files without the agent using CA
ARCserve Backup while the database is offline to ensure disaster recovery.

Commands

Verify the database log mode.

Note: The log mode is No Archive Mode.

Note that Archive destination is USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST. You can determine the path by looking
at the parameter RECOVERY_FILE_DEST.

SQL> show parameter recovery_file_dest

NAME TYPE VALUE

------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------

db_recovery_file_dest string /u01/app/oracle/flash_recovery _area

db_recovery_file_dest_size big integer 3852M

SQL>

Note: By default, archive logs will be written to the flash recovery area. If you do not want to write
archive logs to the flash recovery area you can set the parameter LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n to the location
in which you wish to write archive logs.

SQL>alter system set log_archive_dest_1='LOCATION=/u02/app/oracle/oradata/orcl/arch' scope = both;

System altered.
SQL> archive log list;

Database log mode No Archive Mode

Automatic archival Disabled

Archive destination /u02/app/oracle/oradata/orcl/arch

Oldest online log sequence 25

Current log sequence 27

SQL>

Now we shutdown the database and bring it backup in mount mode.

Lastly all that is needed it set archive log mode and open the database.
Note: We can now see that archive log mode is enabled.

Disable Archive Log Mode

The following are the steps required to disable archive log mode on an Oracle 10g or 11g database

Verify the database log mode.

The Database log mode is Archive mode. Next we shut down the database and bring up back up in
mount mode.
All that is left is to disable archive log mode and open the database.

As you can see, ARCHIVELOG mode has been disabled.