Question about ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG START

Question

Good morning,
I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to get my database to be in archive log mode.
These are the steps I followed:
SQL> shutdown immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount;
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area  535662592 bytes
Fixed Size                  1375792 bytes
Variable Size             377487824 bytes
Database Buffers          150994944 bytes
Redo Buffers                5804032 bytes
Database mounted.
SQL> select log_mode from v$database;
LOG_MODE
ARCHIVELOG
SQL> show parameter log_archive_start;
NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
log_archive_start                    boolean     FALSE
SQL> alter system archive log start;
System altered.
SQL> show parameter log_archive_start;
NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
log_archive_start                    boolean     FALSE
SQL>I've gone thru that process twice but, I don't seem to be able to get the ARCH process to start. (newbie mistake I'm sure...)
Thank you for your help (again!),
John.

Answer 1

The parameter log_archive_start is no more needed John (as suggested already) and the best way to check the archive options is through the archive log list command.
[oracle@edhdr2p0-orcl oui]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Tue Aug 10 10:51:57 2010
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP, Data Mining
and Real Application Testing options
SQL> archive log list
Database log mode              No Archive Mode
Automatic archival             Disabled
Archive destination            USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Oldest online log sequence     11
Current log sequence           13
SQL> shut immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area  418484224 bytes
Fixed Size                  1336932 bytes
Variable Size             318769564 bytes
Database Buffers           92274688 bytes
Redo Buffers                6103040 bytes
Database mounted.
SQL> select process,status from V$archive_processes;
   PROCESS STATUS
         0 STOPPED
         1 STOPPED
         2 STOPPED
         3 STOPPED
         4 STOPPED
         5 STOPPED
         6 STOPPED
         7 STOPPED
         8 STOPPED
         9 STOPPED
        10 STOPPED
   PROCESS STATUS
        11 STOPPED
        12 STOPPED
        13 STOPPED
        14 STOPPED
        15 STOPPED
        16 STOPPED
        17 STOPPED
        18 STOPPED
        19 STOPPED
        20 STOPPED
        21 STOPPED
   PROCESS STATUS
        22 STOPPED
        23 STOPPED
        24 STOPPED
        25 STOPPED
        26 STOPPED
        27 STOPPED
        28 STOPPED
        29 STOPPED
30 rows selected.
SQL>
SQL> alter database archivelog;
Database altered.
SQL> alter database open;
archive log list;
Database altered.
SQL> Database log mode         Archive Mode
Automatic archival             Enabled
Archive destination            USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Oldest online log sequence     11
Next log sequence to archive   13
Current log sequence           13
SQL>
SQL> select * from V$archive_processes where status <> 'STOPPED';
   PROCESS STATUS     LOG_SEQUENCE STAT
         0 ACTIVE                0 IDLE
         1 ACTIVE                0 IDLE
         2 ACTIVE                0 IDLE
         3 ACTIVE                0 IDLEHTH
Aman....