Just a quick heads-up to let you know I’ve updated my Docker builds to use the new 18c on-prem software.
If you like to play around with Docker, here is some stuff you might want to check out. Remember, I’m not saying this is production ready. It’s just stuff I use for learning and demos…
The new Docker compose file here to fire up an 18c DB container and a Tomcat 9 + ORDS 18.2 container to front APEX 18.1, and allow you to play with ORDS.
Remember, if Docker is not your thing, you can always my Vagrant build here to fire up the same thing, but in a single VirtualBox VM.
First, I’ve gone with a read-write Oracle home. I like the idea of the read-only home, but I’ve not played around with it enough at this point to commit.
The other thing is the Oracle home path itself. Currently I’m using “18.0.0”, rather than “18.3.0”. This feels a little strange to me, but I’m not sure how the Release Updates (RUs) will work out for this. I’m guessing what I’ll end up doing is creating a new Oracle home when a RU drops, then switch across to it, so it would be more appropriate to use 18.3.0, with a switch to 18.4.0 later. I’m still trying to decide how I want to play this. If you look at the SQL*Plus banner you will see this.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 18c Enterprise Edition Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 18.3.0.0.0
So neither of these choices feel bad. 🙂
I usually post pictures of the installer, but I think this is sending the wrong message. IMHO you shouldn’t be installing this way, so this time I’ve made the break and only posted the silent installation.
In addition to the articles I’ve got some Vagrant builds for it (OL7, F28). The OL7 one also includes APEX and ORDS etc.
I’ve got a couple more things in the pipeline, which will probably come out tonight. We shall see.
I’ve had access to 18c on the Oracle Cloud for some time, so I’ve already been able to write a bunch of stuff about it (see here), but it always feels geekier when it’s running on your own kit. It also makes demos a little less dangerous if you can fall back to your own machine. 🙂
Of course I’m starting the downloads now, so maybe I’ll get to have a play tomorrow? 🙂 If you want it you can grab it from here.
Just another quick update about how things are going with the new laptop.
I read with interest this post by Denis Savenko about his choice of a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th gen), which looks like a nice bit of kit. The ThinkPad seems to have almost as much loyalty as MacBook Pro. 🙂
The recent announcement about the revamped MacBook Pro range caught my eye in a, “Did I make a mistake?”, kind-of way. A quick comparison tells me I didn’t based on UK pricing. In both cases the Dell has a 3840 x 2160 resolution touch screen. There are cheaper options available, which makes the discrepancy even greater.
Dell XPS 15″ : Core i9, 32G RAM, 1TB SSD = £2,599
MBP 15″ : Core i9, 32G RAM, 1TB SSD = £3,689
Dell XPS 15″ : Core i7, 32G RAM, 1TB SSD = £2,048
MBP 15″ : Core i7, 32G RAM, 1TB SSD = £3,419
That price differential is crazy…
You may have seen the YouTube video by Dave Lee talking about the thermal throttling of the i9 in the new MBP, and that is really what I want to talk about here.
The XPS 15″ i9 runs hot! Like burn your hand hot. I had one incident when playing Fortnite where the machine shutdown as the internal temperature was so hot. Under normal workload, like a few VMs, it doesn’t get quite so hot, but it is still noticeable. I got a cooler pad, which helped a lot, but doesn’t do much if it’s under really high load. It seems all these laptops that try to look small and cute don’t have a cooling solution that can cope with an i9. On reflection an i7 would probably have been a better, and cheaper, choice.
I’m still happy with the purchase, and with Windows 10. If you are out in the market for a new laptop, I would seriously consider the i7 over the i9 unless you buy a big laptop with a great cooling solution. You will save yourself a bunch of cash, and I really don’t think you will notice the difference.
I’ve done the install on my Windows 10 PC at work and Windows 10 laptop at home and in both cases it worked fine. I can’t see any problems using it with Vagrant 2.1.2 either.
I would have a go at installing on by MacBook Pro, only the latest macOS updates have turned it into a brick again. Nothing changes…
There is also an event in Guatemala on the 28th August, but I can’t make that as it adds another 4 days on to the trip, which isn’t practical for me. Sorry folks!
I’m still in the process of booking flights and hotels, but I’ve got the travel approval now from the Oracle ACE Program & Oracle Developer Champions Program, I everything should be good now!
It’s great that people go to the trouble to organise these tours and that Oracle sponsor them, but they only work if attendees come and interact. Your stories are as important as our presentations. Please make the effort to come along, join in and make the Latin America tour as fun as usual! 🙂
See you soon!
Cheers
Tim…
Update. It seems some people think I’m doing some additional events on the ODC Latin America Tour. I don’t know if this is because of some mistakes on event agendas, or some other mistaken communication. Sorry to disappoint you, but these are the only events I’m doing on the tour this year. I didn’t agree to do any more and I don’t have time, approval or funding for any more. If you do notice something that contradicts this post, please inform the relevant user group, or drop me a line so I can clear it up. Really sorry if some communications have gone out to make you think differently…
Cloud Control 13c (13.3) was released a few days ago, but from what I can see the documentation hasn’t been made available yet (see update). Despite this I had a go at installing it using the instructions for 13.2, and with a couple of small exceptions it was similar, which wasn’t surprising. The upgrade from 13.2 to 13.3 was similar to the previous upgrade from 13.1 to 13.2 also.
These articles are in no way a replacement for reading the manuals (if there were any), but it will hopefully give you a feel for how easy it can be to get going with Cloud Control.
For the installation article I did the basic setup of the box and the DB using Vagrant. You can repeat the build using my Vagrant setup here if you like.
Note. I used a different database version for the upgrade article to more closely match what I have at work. This was basically a trial run for a work upgrade, although that will probably not happen for a few months because of other priorities.
I will revisit both articles once I get eyes on the documentation. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Update: Thanks to Peter in the comments who found the docs here.
ITIL is quite a divisive subject in the geek world. Once the subject is raised most of us geeks start channelling our inner cowboy/cowgirl thinking we don’t need the shackles of a formal process, because we know what we are doing and don’t make mistakes. Once something goes wrong everyone looks around saying, “I didn’t do anything!”
Despite how annoying it can seem at times, you need something like ITIL for a couple of reasons:
It’s easy to be blinkered. I see so many people who can’t see beyond their own goals, even if that means riding roughshod over other projects and the needs of the business. You need something in place to control this.
You need a paper trail. As soon as something goes wrong you need to know what’s changed. If you ask people you will hear a resounding chorus of “I’ve not changed anything!”, sometimes followed by, “… except…”. It’s a lot easier to get to the bottom issues if you know exactly what has happened and in what order.
So what’s this got to do with automation? The vast majority of ITIL related tasks I’m forced to do should be invisible to me. Imagine the build and deployments of a new version of an application to a development server. The process might look like this.
Someone requests a new deployment manually, or it is done automatically on a schedule or triggered by a commit.
A new deployment request is raised.
The code is pulled from source control.
The build is completed and result of the build recorded in the deployment request.
Automated testing is used to test the new build. Let’s assume it’s all successful for the rest of the list. The results of the testing are recorded in the deployment request.
Artifacts from the build are stored in some form of artefact store.
The newly built application is deployed to the application server.
The result of the deployment is recorded in the deployment request.
None of those tasks require a human. For a development server the changes are all pre-approved, and all the ITIL “work” is automated, so you have a the full paper trail, even for your development servers.
It’s hard to be annoyed by ITIL if most of it is invisible to you! 🙂
IMHO the biggest problem with ITIL is bad implementation. Over complication, emphasis on manual operations and lack of continuous improvement. If ITIL is hindering your progress you are doing it wrong. The same could be said about lots of things. 🙂 One way of solving this is to automate the problem out of existence.
