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.