Time for action – enabling the archive log mode

Perform the following steps on the primary database:

1. Check whether archiving has been enabled or disabled, as follows:

   SQL> archive log list
   Database log mode                No Archive Mode
   Automatic archival               Disabled
   Archive destination              USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
   Oldest online log sequence       6
   Current log sequence             8
   

2. Perform a clean shutdown, as follows:

   SQL> shutdown immediate
   Database closed.
   Database dismounted.
   ORACLE instance shut down.
   

   Tip

   Ensure that you have performed a clean shutdown; if not, you may see this error: ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode.

3. Start the database in the mount state.

   SQL>startup mount
   ORACLE instance started.
   Total System Global Area      818401280 bytes
   Fixed Size                    2217792 bytes
   Variable Size                 515901632 bytes
   Database Buffers              297795584 bytes
   Redo Buffers                  2486272 bytes...