archivelog backup and its files

HiYa folks

I am having some trouble with the basics of back up and recovery and since this is the first time I have done any of this I thought that I would ask a simple question.

I have been following the guidance of the document by HJR who suggests that a hot backup sequence be something like this
(from SQLPlus)

        alter tablespace mydata begin backup;

(from the os copy the file somewhere)

(from SQLPlus)

        alter tablespace mydata end backup;
        alter system switch logfile;

now, my problem is this, I have just changed a new database to be in archivelog mode by using the following
sqlplus /nolog

SQL>
SQL>startup nomount      
SQL>alter database mount
SQL>alter database archivelog 
SQL>alter database open  
SQL>alter system arvhive log start   

and of course edit the file init$ORACLE_SID.ora to add the lines

log_archive_start = true  
log_archive_dest = "/u01/app/oracle/admin/DEV/arch"
log_archive_format = arch_%t_%s.arc 

now my problem is, that there is no file in the log archive dest after I have done this procedure, have I done something wrong?

I wasnt sure, so I tried issuing the command

        alter tablespace mydata begin backup;

which didn't make any file either

I then took the next step of

        alter tablespace mydata end backup;

and then

        alter system switch logfile;

and lo and behold a file appears in the location.

so my question is "is his order right or am I doing something wrong?"

do I have to change file first, then backup that changed file??

Thanks folks

See Ya

--


(when bandwidth gets better ;-)


Chris Eastwood
Photographer, Programmer, Motorcyclist and dingbat

please remove   u n d i e s   for reply