Originally posted by ckwan
I get this error then I also modify the log_archive_dest_1
to become log_archive_dest_1 = 'LOCATION=d:\oracle\oradata\mydb\archive\'
I belive that last backslash is the culprit of all your troubles! It shouldn't be there. I belive Oracle is interpreting it as an escape character, so the following quote character does not act as an enclosing quote. So Oracle is interpreting path for the LOCATION way down to the next quote chaqracter, which is before SERVICE keyword in log_archive_dest_2 parameter. So it is interpreting the word SERVICE as the next parameter, which of course is unknown and invalid as a parameter.

Remove that backslash and let us know if it has solved your problem.
Originally posted by ckwan
it seems quite 'challenge' to setup the standby database
I've setup standby at least 10 times and never had any major problems .