what to do with redo logs before backup

Hey,

I've been reading on this for some time, but the more I read, the more confused I become. So I thought I'd run my problem by some of the experts here, to see if I'm understanding things, even remotely.

I'm running Oracle 8i on Solaris 8, and have archivelogs enabled. I am trying to set up my RMAN scripts to backup my database and archivelogs--which is going along swimmingly--that's no problem. In fact, I'm doing nightly cold backups as my application isn't required 24x7.

Here's where I'm becoming confused:
Should I issue an ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG CURRENT before I take the database down to begin the backups? I'm worried that if I don't, then after I backup the archive logs, the current redo log may still have information needed to restore the database to the point-in-time that I performed the shutdown normal. But backing up the archivelogs doesn't catch this info, nor does backing up the datafiles/controlfile (database).

Any light that could be shed my way would be greatly appreciated.

Chuck

P.S. Please also CC my e-mail address when replying to this post. Received on Mon Mar 10 2003 - 11:06:39 CST