ORDS and APEX 22.1 : Vagrant and Docker Builds

I was on top of the recent ORDS 22.1 release, but somehow I managed to miss the APEX 22.1 release. Here’s an update on what’s been going on with my builds…

Vagrant Builds

A number of my Vagrant database builds include APEX. Those that do have been updated to use APEX 22.1. You can find them here.

They had already been updated to use the latest versions of Java, Tomcat, ORDS and SQLcl where appropriate, so the APEX upgrade was a small change. The ORDS update was done 11 days ago. It was a bigger update, as the installation process for ORDS 22.1 has changed quite a bit. I wrote about that here.

You can read my beginner’s guide to Vagrant here.

Docker/Container Builds

I have some ORDS containers that include the APEX images, so those image builds have been updated to use ORDS 22.1 and APEX 22.1 images now.

APEX is also included in the database builds. You can find them here.

I was a little slow to add the updates to the Docker builds. The Tomcat and SQLcl changes were done a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve only added the Java, ORDS and APEX changes today. I held back a little on the ORDS 22.1 changes, as I was rewriting a bunch of articles that were affected by the installation and configuration changes.

You can read my Docker/Container articles here.

Real Life

We probably won’t be putting APEX 22.1 live until the next patching cycle, which will be July. In the past I could be quite aggressive about the upgrades, but as APEX is becoming more important in the organisation, the rollout of updates has to be a bit more considered. 🙂

The same will probably be true for the ORDS 22.1 rollout. We run ORDS in containers, so it’s really quick and easy to replace all the infrastructure, but I wanted to be a bit cautious because of all the changes in the new version. Having played with it a bit now, I’m feeling a lot more confident, but at the time we were starting our patching cycle I was too nervous to include it.

As far as home systems are concerned, I only use the latest and greatest, unless there is a compelling reason not to. 😉

Cheers

Tim…

Updates to Vagrant and Docker Builds (Oracle Patches and Upgrades)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will know there have been a load of software patches and updates released recently. As a result I’ve been constantly updating my Vagrant and Docker builds as each one has dropped. With the release of ORDS 21.1, the main push for this quarter is done.

This is just a heads-up of what’s been happening.

Packer : My Packer builds of OL7 and OL8 Vagrant boxes have been updated and pushed to Vagrant Cloud. This ended up happening twice due to the quick release of VirtualBox 6.1.22 a few days after 6.1.20.

Vagrant : All relevant builds now have the latest Java 11, Tomcat 9, ORDS 12.1 and SQLcl 21.1 versions. Where necessary the database patches are included. I mostly try to do builds with stock releases, so people without a support contract can still use them, but some things require the patches to function properly. If you follow the blog you will already know the Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13.5 builds have now been included.

Docker/Containers : Similar to Vagrant, all relevant builds now have the latest Java 11, Tomcat 9, ORDS 12.1 and SQLcl 21.1 versions. Database patches are updated where necessary.

There is still some stuff on the horizon though. With the new version of APEX dropping on the apex.oracle.com, I expect a new on-prem release soon (see update). There is also the on-prem release of Oracle database 21c, which I’m hoping drops soon. Once it does I will be adding those builds…

Cheers

Tim…

Update: APEX 21.1 dropped today (12-May-2021) just after publishing this post. It’s been added to all the builds now. 🙂

Multitenant : PDB CONTAINERS Clause

I forgot to mention, I put another multitenant article live at the weekend.

I’m not sure I will ever use it, but it’s good to know it’s there.

I was originally working on an article on a completely different multitenant feature, but the examples I was using highlighted a bug, which kind-of scuppered that article. I’ve raised an SR and I’m waiting on the acknowledgement and possible fix. I’ll hold that article back until the fix is in place.

Cheers

Tim…