ORA-19602 cannot backup or copy active file in NOARCHIVELOG mode

It's a common mistake done by the oracle beginner to take the backup of a database in noarchivelog mode and they simply got the following error:

ORA-19602 cannot backup or copy active file in NOARCHIVELOG mode

 

You attempted to use RMAN to backup your database and received the following error message:

RMAN-03009: failure of backup command on ORA_DISK_1 channel
ORA-196602: cannot backup or copy active file in NOARCHIVELOG mode

This message indicates that before you can create an RMAN online backup. you need to place your database
into archivelog mode.

Enabling Archivelog Mode :

SQL> connect sys/<password> as sysdba SQL> shutdown immediate; SQL> startup mount: SQL> alter database archivelog; SQL> alter database open; SQL> select log_mode from v$database; LOG_MODE -------------------------------------------------- ARCHIVELOG SQL> archive log list;

10g introduce new feature called FRA (flashback recovery area) so all archivelog files created in FRA.
If your not using FRA then all archivelog files created in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs.

Disabling Archivelog Mode :

SQL> connect sys/<password> as sysdba SQL> shutdown immediate; SQL> startup mount; SQL> alter database noarchivelog; SQL> alter database open;