Standby database activation failed with ORA-01203: wrong incarnation of this file - w

[Arjen Visser]

Dbvisit Standby was used to create and manage an Oracle standby database.

During an activation test the standby database was activated with:

C:\Program Files\Dbvisit\Standby>dbv_orastartstop activate evs
================================================== ====
Dbvisit Standby Database Technology (6.0.10.7165) (pid 2228)
dbv_oraStartStop.exe started on serverX: Wed Feb 29 16:30:18 2012
================================================== ====
Activating means this database will become a Primary Database.
It will no longer be a Standby Database for evs on serverX.
Activation cannot be reversed.
=>Activate Standby Database on serverX? [No]: Yes
Are you sure? [No]: Yes
Activating now...
Activate Standby Database evs...
Standby Database evs activated.
Shutting down standby Database evs...
Standby Database evs shutdown successfully.
Windows Service OracleServiceEVS stopped.
Windows Service OracleServiceEVS starting...
Windows Service OracleServiceEVS started.
Starting Activated Standby Database evs...
201202291630 - ORA-01092: ORACLE instance terminated. Disconnection forced
Dbvisit Standby terminated.
Return code = 433
(Tracefile required if contacting Dbvisit Standby support:
C:\temp\2228_dbv_oraStartStop_activate_evs_2012022 91630.trc(server:serverX))


The alert log for the standby database contained:

ORA-01186: file 201 failed verification tests
ORA-01122: database file 201 failed verification check
ORA-01110: data file 201: 'D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\EVS\TEMP01.DBF'
ORA-01203: wrong incarnation of this file - wrong creation SCN


Solution
The Oracle primary database version is 10.2.0.1.
The Oracle standby database version is 10.2.0.5.0.

Both primary and standby database must be the same version.

Once the primary server was upgraded to the same level as the standby server (10.2.0.5.0) and the standby database was re-created the standby database could be activated as normal with no errors.