ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE

1. This is asynchronous command.
2. Command is fast to return by invoking program. It not wait for complete archive writing.
3. The writing of the redo log to the OS filesystem is done in the background.
4. In this command the ARCH process cannot complete writing the redo log.
5. Using this in scripts also move to next step of script which completing. So its better to avoid it.

ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG CURRENT

1. This is synchronous command.
2. This command waits until the online redo log has completed the writing of the redo log file to the filesystem.
3. We use it in scripts it wait for complete the process of archiving.
4. We recommed to use this command for production backup scripts instead of ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE.