Oracle Database Management - Oracle 10g Database Administration Concepts and Implementation Made Simple - page 252

Steps for Manual Archiving:
1. To setup manual archiving we set the
LOG_ARCHIVE_START initialization parameter to
False.
2. Put the database in ARCHIVELOG mode by first
shutting down the database as NORMAL and then
starting it in mount state using STARTUP MOUNT
statement. Then executing the following statement.
ALTER DATABASE ARCHIVELOG;
3. Finally open the database using the following statement.
ALTER DATABASE OPEN;
Now you are ready to perform manual archiving of Redo log
files using the following statements.
SQL> archive log all;
Or
SQL> archive log next;
With ALL clause you would be able to archive all Redo log files
available for archiving whereas with NEXT clause the next
group of redo logs will get archived.
Steps for Automatic Archiving:
Follow the same steps as in the manual method described above
except change LOG_ARCHIVE_START to True.
To make sure that the archiving is happening, execute the
following statement and then check the directory defined in