v$log.status = 'INVALIDATED' Even in Oracle 9.0.1, select view_definition from v$fixed_view_definition where view_name = 'GV$LOG' shows 'INVALIDATED' as a flag or status for a log group. But v$log reference doesn't show it until 10g documentation, which says: INVALIDATED - Archived the current redo log without a log switch So, how do we get this status? According to Metalink thread 348268.995, you should only see this status on physical standby and it's normal. But if you do want to see it on primary possibly for curiosity, just do this (test on 9.2.0.1.0 running on XP): alter system archive log current noswitch; After that, the database is unmounted. Alert.log shows: Mon Jan 31 10:24:32 2005 SMON: disabling tx recovery SMON: disabling cache recovery Mon Jan 31 10:24:32 2005 Shutting down archive processes Archiving is disabled Archive process shutdown avoided: 0 active Thread 1 closed at log sequence 16 Successful close of redo thread 1. Mon Jan 31 10:24:32 2005 ARCH: noswitch archival of thread 1, sequence 16 ARCH: Evaluating archive log 3 thread 1 sequence 16 ARCH: Beginning to archive log 3 thread 1 sequence 16 Creating archive destination LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1: 'C:\ORACLE\ORA92\RDBMS\ARC00016.001' ARCH: Completed archiving log 3 thread 1 sequence 16 ARCH: archiving is disabled due to current logfile archival Database shutdown required The current log group was 3 when I submitted that command. It looks like the database is unmounted before the current log is archived. Since the database is unmounted, we have to mount it to check v$log. SQL> alter database mount; Database altered. SQL> select * from v$log; GROUP# THREAD# SEQUENCE# BYTES MEMBERS ARC STATUS FIRST_CHANGE# FIRST_TIM ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --- ---------------- ------------- --------- 1 1 14 104857600 1 YES INACTIVE 923486 15-NOV-04 2 1 15 104857600 1 YES INACTIVE 143404885 31-JAN-05 3 1 16 104857600 1 YES INVALIDATED 143404908 31-JAN-05 One puzzle is that trying to open it throws this error: SQL> alter database open; alter database open * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01531: a database already open by the instance But if you connect to the database as a regular user, you get the correct error: SQL> conn yong/yong ERROR: ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1 ORA-01219: database not open: queries allowed on fixed tables/views only Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE. Looks like the only way to fix it is shutdown and startup.