Oracle APEX Docker Stack

Deploy a complete Oracle database & APEX stack on Docker using Docker Compose.

Overview:

Prerequisites
Version Info
How to Install
Connecting to the Database
Optional Settings
Alternative Install
Docker Terms

Prerequisites

Have Docker Installed
Create an account & test login to Oracle Image Registry
- Oracle Image/Container Registry

In a command(cmd) window, Log into Oracle Registry

docker login container-registry.oracle.com

Pull the latest Oracle XE & ORDS Images from the Oracle Registry

docker pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/express:latest
docker pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords:latest

Version Info

Note: Its best to review details on Oracle container registry website, but pulling latest images as of (11-22-2022) from oracle will have the following versions:

APEX Environment	ORDS	Oracle Database
APEX 22.1.0	ORDS 22.3.1	Oracle Database XE Release 21c (21.3.0.0)

How to Install

Step 1: Download and/or Clone this Git Repo

Directory Structure:

oracle-apex-offical
  ---- docker-compose.yml
  ---- variables
      ---- conn_string.txt

Step 2: Update the "conn_string.txt" with variables as you see fit

CONN_STRING=sys/PASSWORDHERE@database:1521/XEPDB1

Note: The conn_string.txt file will be deleted when the container starts. The database connection details are not held in environment variables in the container.

Step 3: In a text editor, update "docker-compose.yml" with password set in "conn_string.txt" file

services:
  auto-xe-reg:
    container_name: auto-xe-reg
    image: container-registry.oracle.com/database/express:latest
    ports: 
      - 1521:1521
    environment:
      - ORACLE_PWD=PLACEPASSWORDHERE
    volumes:
      - db-vol-reg:/opt/oracle/oradata
    hostname: database
  auto-ords-reg:
    container_name: auto-ords-reg
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - auto-xe-reg
    volumes:
      - ./variables:/opt/oracle/variables
      - ords-config-reg:/etc/ords/config
    ports:
      - 8181:8181
    image: container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords:latest
volumes:
  db-vol-reg:
    name: db-vol-reg
    external: false
  ords-config-reg:
    name: ords-config-reg

Step 4: In CMD, navigate to the folder with the updated "docker-compose.yml" file (note replace path with your path)

cd/

cd C:\Users\FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME\Desktop\esd-oracle-apex-docker-stack\oracle-apex-offical

Step 5: Run Docker Compose File

docker compose up

And Done. The downloading of the images, and creating of the stack happens automatically

First time setup may take a few moments to download the images.

Connecting to the Database

Connecting to the Database Within the Container

docker exec -it auto-xe-reg sqlplus / as sysdba
docker exec -it auto-xe-reg sqlplus sys/<your_password>@XE as sysdba
docker exec -it auto-xe-reg sqlplus system/<your_password>@XE
docker exec -it auto-xe-reg sqlplus pdbadmin/<your_password>@XEPDB1

Connecting to the Database Outside of the container using SQL*Plus:

sqlplus sys/<your password>@//localhost:1521/XE as sysdba

Connecting to the Database via SQL Dev:

Optional Settings

Reuse Existing Database or Mount Database & ORDS containers to host directory folders for database/file persistence

In the "docker-compose.yml" file, replace volumes with a directory path.

repalce:

    volumes:
      - db-vol-reg:/opt/oracle/oradata

with

    volumes:
      - <writable_directory_path>:/opt/oracle/oradata

example:

    volumes:
      - C:\Oracle\opt\oracle\oradata:/opt/oracle/oradata

Configure & Change ORDS Container default config options

For ords 22.2 java ords.war deprecated

View current commands:

ords config info

Examples:

ords config set jdbc.MinLimit 5
ords config set jdbc.MaxLimit 30
ords config set jdbc.InitialLimit 15
ords config set jdbc.MaxStatementsLimit 20
ords config set jdbc.InactivityTimeout 3600
ords config set jdbc.statementTimeout 1800
ords config set jdbc.MaxConnectionReuseCount 2000

Alternative Install

Alt Install (1): Use Community Docker Images, by using the "oracle-apex-community" directory of files with the same steps as above

Various versions and options available. I would recommended to use the latest version(regular) if seeking a balance of image size and features. Slim version is not compatiable with Oracle Apex.

https://hub.docker.com/r/gvenzl/oracle-xe

Alt Install (2): Build your own image - coming soon

Requires downloading and staging the software. Coming soon!

Docker Terms

Docker:

Platform for creating and running containers

Docker Compose File:

tool for deining and running multi-container docker stack/apps
get app running in one command
Can be used in a Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) Pipeline

Docker file(can be used or ran via command line)

Build instructions for an image

Docker image

Made with build command
Read only
Source code. Template with all files needed to make container

Docker container:

Made with run command
read-write
An instance of an image.
Can have multiple containers to one image.
Can be saved as a new image like a snapshot

Docker volume

Storage for persistent data generated by docker container
Other option is to mount to filesystem directly

Notes

\\wsl$

docker save -o C:\temp\docker_oracle\ords\ords.tar container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords
docker save -o C:\temp\xe-image\xe.tar container-registry.oracle.com/database/express:latest
docker export -o C:\temp\docker_oracle\xe_database_container\xecontainer.tar testapex

Stop the container

docker stop $CONTAINER

Create a new image

docker commit $CONTAINER $CONTAINER

Save image

docker save -o $CONTAINER.tar $CONTAINER

Save the volumes (use ".tar.gz" if you want compression)

docker-volumes.sh $CONTAINER save $CONTAINER-volumes.tar

Copy image and volumes to another host

scp $CONTAINER.tar $CONTAINER-volumes.tar $USER@$HOST:

On the other host:

docker load -i $CONTAINER.tar
docker create --name $CONTAINER [<PREVIOUS CONTAINER OPTIONS>] $CONTAINER

Load the volumes

docker-volumes.sh $CONTAINER load $CONTAINER-volumes.tar

Start container

docker start $CONTAINER

Create a Registry and Push Image to local copy

docker pull registry
docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --restart=always --name registry registry
docker login container-registry.oracle.com
docker pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/express:latest
docker pull container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords:latest
docker image tag container-registry.oracle.com/database/express localhost:5000/xe-21-3
docker image tag container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords localhost:5000/ords-apex-22
docker push localhost:5000/xe-21-3
docker push localhost:5000/ords-apex-22
docker image remove container-registry.oracle.com/database/express:latest
docker image remove container-registry.oracle.com/database/ords:latest
docker image remove localhost:5000/xe-21-3
docker image remove localhost:5000/ords-apex-22
docker pull localhost:5000/xe-21-3
docker pull localhost:5000/ords-apex-22

To bash into a running container, type this:

docker exec -t -i container_name /bin/bash
or

docker exec -ti container_name /bin/bash
or

docker exec -ti container_name sh

or just /bin/bash

sudo apt update
ls usr/lib
# ls usr/lib/oracle/21