ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE
- This is asynchronous command.
- Command is fast to return by invoking program. It not wait for complete archive writing.
- The writing of the redo log to the OS filesystem is done in the background.
- In this command the ARCH process cannot complete writing the redo log.
- Using this in scripts also move to next step of script which completing. So its better to avoid it.
ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG CURRENT
- This is synchronous command.
- This command waits until the online redo log has completed the writing of the redo log file to the filesystem.
- We use it in scripts it wait for complete the process of archiving.
- We recommed to use this command for production backup scripts instead of ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE.