Archive logs FORMAT

You use LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT parameter to specify how will the archive log files look like. You have the following possible variables:

%s log sequence number
%S log sequence number, zero filled
%t thread number
%T thread number, zero filled
%a activation ID
%d database ID
%r resetlogs ID that ensures unique names are constructed for the archived log files across multiple incarnations of the database

There is not a single word in the document that some of the variables are actually REQUIRED
So after setting it to something like

ALTER SYSTEM SET log_archive_format='%d_%s_%r.arc' SCOPE=SPFILE;

After restarting the instance you will get an error like this:

ORA-19905: log_archive_format must contain %s, %t and %r

Why not to do the check when the parameter is actually set? Instead oracle chooses to check it on startup and you end up with an unstartable instance. You also cannot restore the spfile from autobackup, because rman needs instance running at least in NOMOUNT mode. The only option is to boot with a pfile (no matter where you'll get it) . But this is the only solution oracle offers you

It also seems that you cannot affect the format of archive logs saved to the DESTINATION 10, which is set to USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST value. It must be that oracle manages filenames on his own inside the recovery area.

oracle archive log destinations

been recently having a problem with oracle when the disk was getting full with archivelogs and oracle just stopped responding until the logwriter could save the log and the redo log could be switched. So I thought I should add an alternate location, which would be used if the primary one becomes invalid.

So I read the manual and did like it says:

firstly:

The first method is to use the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameter (where n is an integer from 1 to 10) to specify from one to ten different destinations for archival. Each numerically-suffixed parameter uniquely identifies an individual destination.

secondly:

The LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_STATE_n (where n is an integer from 1 to 10) initialization parameter allows you to control the availability state of the specified destination (n). The destination state can have three values: ENABLE,DEFER, or ALTERNATE. The value ENABLE indicates that Oracle can use the destination, whereas DEFER indicates that the location is temporarily disabled. The third value, ALTERNATE, means that the destination is an alternate. It's availability state is DEFER, unless there is a failure of its parent destination, in which case its state becomes ENABLE.

So after I added parameters to my init.ora file accordingly, the database wouldn't start!

Alert log didn't contain any errors, it would simply end with this line:

Using log_archive_dest parameter default value

But if to try starting the database from sqlplus with startup nomount, it would give this error:

ORA-00439: feature not enabled: Managed Standby

So it comes out that the Managed Standby is a feature of Enterprise Edition ONLY! And LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n depends on that feature and therefore cannot be used with Standard Edition.
So I have do with LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST parameter and just make the disk larger... Can't think of any other good solution now...

Administrator's guide doesn't say a word about this. It has a link although to the 9i Reference, which has a note of this dependency trick..

This parameter is valid only if you have installed Oracle Enterprise
Edition. You may continue to use LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST if you have installed Oracle
Enterprise Edition. However, you cannot use both LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n and
LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST, as they are not compatible.