Set the destination to 'DEFER' in your pfile, then set to 'ENABLE' in your DB startup scripts. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Niki Tragen Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 10:25 AM To: Oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Optional Archive Destination Hi I'm working with Oracle 9 on a server in a failover cluster (using Veritas Cluster Server). The primary server has an internal disk which I want to archive to in case I lose the shared external array. The secondary server can't see this disk and hasn't really got space for archiving to it's internal disk, only to the shared external array. I have tried setting up ARCHIVE_LOG_DEST_3 to optional and this works fine when I remove the directory it points to (to simulate it running on the secondary server where the location doesn't exist) but when I shutdown and restart the server I get the error ORA-16032: parameter LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_3 destination string cannot be translated .....so it only treats this as optional once it's started up. Is there an elegant way to do this without having to resort to messing about with files in the O/S. cheers Niki Niki Tragen Oracle DBA, System Support Officer Planning and Management Information Student and Academic Services Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints Building Oxford Road Manchester M15 6BH tel: 0044 161 247 1812 fax: 0044 161 247 6829 Email: n.tragen@xxxxxxxxx Web page: http://www.mmu.ac.uk/sas "Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read the Manchester Metropolitan University's email disclaimer available on its website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer " -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l