tape: local tape device

Always archive offline redo log files finally to tape, if possible twice.

disk: local disk. normally only use the option for archiving to disk in exceptional cases, such as two-step archiving. See archive_copy_dir.

stage: remote disk

pipe: archiving on a tape device of a remote system (UNIX only)

tape_auto or pipe_auto: the BRARCHIVE program generally only uses one tape for archiving (exception: archiving with -ss or -ssd). No continuation tapes are created. Therefore, specifying tape_auto or pipe_auto has no effect.

tape_box or pipe_box: jukeboxes or autoloader tape devices that can be addressed locally or remotely. See Backup with Automatic Tape Changers.

util_file: archiving with BACKINT – see the corresponding option in -d|-device.

rman_util|rman_disk|rman_stage: archiving with Oracle Recover Manager (RMAN) and an external backup tool. See RMAN Backup with an External Backup Library and backup_dev_type.