Step 2Back up the control and Init.ora files.

To backup the control file,

SQL>alter database backup controlfile to '/u10/backup/control.ctl';
You can copy the Init.ora file to a backup location using
$cp $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl.ora /u10/backup
Step 3Stop archiving.
Archiving is a continuous process and, without stopping archiver, you might unin
tentionally copy the file that the archiver is currently writing. To avoid this,
first stop the archiver and then copy the archive files to backup location. You
can stop the archiver as follows:
SQL>alter system switch logfile;
SQL>alter system archive log stop;
The first command switches redo log file and the second command stops the archiv
er process.
Step 4Back up the archive files.
To avoid backing up the archive file that is currently being written, we find th
e least sequence number that is to be archived from the V$LOG view, and then bac
kup all the archive files before that sequence number. The archive file location
is defined by the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameter in the Init.ora file.
select min(sequence#) from v$log
where archived='NO';
Step 5Restart the archive process.
The following command restarts the archiver process:
SQL>alter system archive log start;
Now you have completed the hot backup of database.
An online backup of a database will keep the database open and functional for 24
/7 operations. It is advised to schedule online backups when there is the least
user activity on the database, because backing up the database is very I/O inten
sive and users can see slow response during the backup period. Additionally, if
the user activity is very high, the archive destination might fill up very fast.