Archive mode (or lack thereof)

Friends,

What is an example of a situation where you would NOT want your database to be in archive mode? Is it only when you have a database that is read-only?

Thanks in advance!

Joe B.

when you use conventional mode to import or load (sql loader) large amount of data.

I would not want my database to be in archive mode if

1) i have hardware constraint i.e not enough disk space to hold the archive log files,

2) when i generally take offline database backup or logical backups i.e. using Export / Import

3) when i can bear to have some amount of downtime and also point-in-time recovery is not an absolute essential.

4) finally if my database is not a Production line database

5) even if it is a production line database i do not need to have my database in archive log mode if i have configured my database to use RMAN using Recovery Catalog

I would never want a production OLTP or 24x7 database not in archivelog mode. If there is a hardware resource problem, the database doesn't belong on that machine.

You might want to have a Data Warehouse in noarchivelog mode if a backup is taken directly after the data is loaded.

Development databases can be in noarchivelog as long as regular backups are taken and you can tolerate having your developers out of commission for some time.