Understood...its is often difficult to communicate a problem with others when you know what you are talking about.

a) You never transfer current redo log files anywhere because they are being written into. You transfer archived redo logs.

Yes, I have a cron job grabbing the archive log files every 20 min. But I specified, in the need of failover I would need to activate the standby. In an effort to recover as much of the primary as possible, I was told the primary's current redo log file can also be recovered onto the standby after primary shutdown but before standby activation. I'd like to know how.

b) There is no reason to make online redo logs available via NFS . It serves no purpose.

It was suggested by a non-DBA as a way of preserving the redo logs in the database was destroyed...of course, if the server the redo logs reside on was destroyed...well, I don't even want to think about that.

c)Standby database does not need online redo logs. Only archived redo logs are being transferred and applied to standby database. If standby database activated, it will create new (own) set of online redo logs.

Right...but as I mentioned under a) wanted redo logs for recovering as much of primary as possible.

Just want to know if I am only backed up as far as my latest archive files or can I get anything from the online redo log file as well...and if so, how?

Thanks for your help