ANALYZE TABLE..VALIDATE STRUCTURE Runs Forever
Answer : UPDATE: What Worked... So after reading the link from @Raj and reading @ora-600's answer I tried to validate the database with the RMAN command backup check logical validate database; . While this worked fine, it was also clear that it was not looking at everything that the ANALYZE INDEX command would. After trying many different variations, I finally discovered that this command would work: ANALYZE TABLE .. VALIDATE STRUCTURE CASCADE offline; Yep, just switching to OFFLINE appears to fix it. And that eventually led me to this bug# 5752105 on this page: http://www.eygle.com/case/10204_buglist.htm. I am not in a position to prove it right now (cannot apply any patches for the time being), but I strongly suspect that this is what I was running into. So while the question is not fully answered, I am going to mark @ora-600's very helpful answer as correct so that he can collect Paul White's very generous bounty. I think the article Raj quoted (https:...