Redo Log Status

Hello Oracle fellows,

A few days ago, I saw in my alert log a message like : "can not allocate redo thread xy, redo needs archiving".
I added a new redo group with two redo members, so now I have three redo groups with each having two members. There have been no more alert messages of this kind.

Today I checked the V$LOG table, and the status field told me that group1 and group2 are "inactive". What is the exact difference between "inactive", "active", and "unused"? What should be the ideal status of a redo group that is not the current redo group? I also checked the V$LOGFILE table, and there the status field tells me that both members of redo group 2 are "stale". According to the Oracle Server Reference book, this means that the "file's contents are incomplete". That's very nice, but it does not tell me what I should do next.

Could somebody please explain to me in detail what is happening to my redo logs, and give me suggestions as to what I can do to get back to normal?

Thank you very much for any help,

Anne-Marie Ternes Received on Fri Nov 20 1998 - 00:00:00 CST