Database Software

Hello DG experts:

I'm running Oracle 11.2 on Linux 5.8.
I am in the process of (trying) to mimic our existing production DG environment for testing purposes.

So far...
I've managed to set up a primary and standby database and ensured all logs apply properly.
My database name is DGTEST (on both primary and standby).
My db_unique_name is DGTEST_DG1 on primary, and DGTEST_DG2 on standby.

I performed a switchover from primary to standby, and opened the standby database as primary.
But, first thing is that when I check the switchover_status from v$database, it says: NOT ALLOWED.
:-(

Okay, so now what? Do I need to have another pfile to set specifically for when I am in primary or standby modes?

Here are relevant commands I have checked already:

on new Primary (db_unique_name = DGTEST_DG2)

SQL> select switchover_status from v$database;

SWITCHOVER_STATUS
--------------------
NOT ALLOWED

SQL> select sequence#, applied from v$archived_log order by 1;

      SEQUENCE# APPLIED
--------------- ---------
            291 YES
            292 YES
            293 YES
              . . .
            398 YES
            399 NO
            400 NO
            401 NO
            402 NO

112 rows selected.

SQL> select destination, status, error from v$archive_dest;

DESTINATION                    STATUS    ERROR
------------------------------ --------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
/arch/DGTEST/archivelogs       VALID
/arch/DGTEST_STBY              VALID
                               INACTIVE
                               INACTIVE
                                . . .
                               INACTIVE

31 rows selected.

on new Standby (db_unique_name = DGTEST_DG1)

SQL> select switchover_status from v$database;

SWITCHOVER_STATUS
--------------------
TO PRIMARY

1 row selected.

SQL> select sequence#, applied from v$archived_log order by 1;

      SEQUENCE# APPLIED
--------------- ---------
            276 YES
            277 YES
            278 YES
             . . .
            397 NO
            397 YES
            398 YES
            398 NO

231 rows selected.

SQL>  select destination, status, error from v$archive_dest;

DESTINATION                    STATUS    ERROR
------------------------------ --------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
/arch/DGTEST                   VALID
DGTEST_DG2                     VALID
/arch/DGTEST_STBY              DEFERRED
                               INACTIVE
                               INACTIVE
                                 . . .

Please keep in mind that I have made this test environment as close as possible (I think) to our production environment.
One of the objectives is to confirm we can switchover and back in our production environment.
So if there is something seriously wrong with this environment and it is the same in our production environment, that would be one of my primary objectives to find out about.

Only significant difference is that we are also using DGBroker in production and I did create configuration yet until I got the switchover working manually first.