It is mandatory to make an offline backup of your database when you change from circular to archival logging. Note: LOGRETAIN and USEREXIT configuration parameters have been replaced by LOGARCHMETH1 in DB2 UDB V8.2. LOGRETAIN and USEREXIT parameters are still supported for back-level compatibility. 6.1.2 Types of backup DB2 UDB supports three types of backup: Offline backup Online backup Incremental backup Offline backup The database is offline (inaccessible to users) while a offline backup is performed. During an offline backup, an exclusive connection to the database is made by the DB2 agent performing the offline backup. Also, this backup is referred to as a full database backup . This method of backup is supported for both circular logging and archive logging.