Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

Continuous Improvement : It’s easy to get lazy…

I like to think that continuous improvement is always part of my process, but occasionally things crop up and remind me that I am just as lazy and set in my ways as everyone else. Here’s a little story to illustrate that…

The Issue

The main thing I’m supposed to be focussed on at work is server rebuilds. We are moving a bunch of stuff from Oracle Linux 7 (OL7) to Oracle Linux 9 (OL9), or OL8 if the vendor doesn’t support OL9 yet.

Anyone who follows my Vagrant builds knows I’ve got loads of scripts that build things, but because of our company organisation structure, there is only so much I can do without pinging requests to other teams, so full automation on-prem is not currently possible for me at work.

As a result of this limitation, there is a bunch of things I can do in Vagrant that I can’t do at work. The fact that work is semi-automated for builds has indirectly made me lazy in respect to continuously improving my build processes. In my head I guess I’ve been saying, “What’s the point if I can’t finish it?”

Making Progress

Due to the large number of rebuilds we are working through now, I’ve taken a step back and started again. I created a new build repo at work, and populated it with all the relevant stuff from our existing build processes, and some bits from my Vagrant builds. It’s still not fully automated, due to the company organisation issues mentioned before, but every step in the process is up to date with the best we can do, and the process is documented in the README.txt of the repo.

Along the way I noticed a bunch of things that were pretty crap in my original approach. It worked, but it wasn’t something to be proud of. 🙂

So What?

This just goes to illustrate the point I made in the title of this post. It’s easy to get lazy and let things start to slip, even when you know better. This is especially true if you have a “completionist” mentality like me. The thought of being able to finish something is quite compelling to me. Unfortunately, when I know I will not be able to complete something, I find it really hard to make the effort, because it all feels kind-of pointless. 🙂

Reframe The Goal

I guess this is really about reframing the goal. Rather than thinking that completion is when I have a fully automated process, it should be that I’ve got everything up to date and as far down the automation path as I can get at the moment.

The funny thing is I wrote about this in a previous post, but it seems I’m not always capable of taking my own advice. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle VirtualBox 7.0.14

VirtualBox 7.0.14 has been released.

The downloads and changelog are in the usual places.

I’ve installed it on my Windows 10 and 11 machines with no drama.

Vagrant 2.4.0

Vagrant 2.4.0 is still the current release, so no change there.

If you are new to Vagrant and want to learn, you might find this useful.

Once you understand that, I found the best way of learning more was to look at builds done by other people. You can see all my Vagrant builds here.

I’ve updated my Vagrant builds to include the latest Oracle patches, along with GraalVM, ORDS, SQLcl and Tomcat.

Packer 1.10.0

I use Packer to rebuild my Vagrant boxes (Oracle Linux 7, 8 and 9) so they have the latest guest additions. The current set of boxes were built using Packer 1.10.0. The new version of the boxes can be seen here.

If you are interested in creating your own Packer builds, you might take inspiration from mine, available here.

Packer has been warning about using built in plugins for some time. This version doesn’t use built in plugins at all, so I had to do the following (in bold) to load the plugins, so I could perform a build.

set PATH=%USERPROFILE%\u01\software\hashicorp\packer_1.10.0_windows_amd64;%PATH%
packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/vagrant
packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/virtualbox

cd \git\oraclebase\vagrant\packer\ol9

packer build -only virtualbox-iso ol9.json

How did it all go?

The new versions of VirtualBox and Packer worked fine. 🙂

What about the VirtualBox GUI?

Just a quick warning. I do everything using Vagrant, so I rarely look at the VirtualBox GUI. Remember, when I say everything worked fine, I mean for what I use.

Cheers

Tim…

Life Update : A new member of the family…

I’ve been conspicuous by my absence of late, so I thought I would tell you a little story…

The Trigger

I’m a cat person. I don’t dislike dogs, but I prefer cats. I’m a sucker for a Rottweiler or an American Akita, but really cats are my thing.

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a cat for ages, but it never seemed fair. I used to travel a lot, and worked long hours in the office. I’m now working from home and only work 4 days a week, so things have changed…

With the change in working conditions, I thought now was the time, but that meant decluttering my house. For the last couple of months I’ve been clearing all the crap from the house that I’ve accumulated over the last 20+ years. I gave myself until the end of the year to complete it, but things escalated pretty quickly…

The Cat

I mentioned to a friend I was going to adopt a senior cat. A couple of days later he rang me and asked if I wanted a kitten his friend was trying to rehome. I panicked and said yes. Yesterday he arrived.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is klaus.jpg

I’m still trying to figure out a name, but I’m thinking it’s going to be Klaus.

He’s four months old. I’m told you can see Bengal markings on him in the right light, but he looks jet black to me. He’s really confident and will happily occupy himself. When I’m in the office he pops in, says hello, then goes out and starts playing with his toys.

I now have some furniture for the first time, but it’s cat furniture… 🙂

I’m not sure how many photos/videos I’ll post in future, because it’s hard to take a photo that doesn’t show you my house, and you will definitely judge me. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: I registered him with the vet, so he is definitely called Klaus now…

Fedora 39 and Oracle

Fedora 39 was released recently. Here comes the standard warning.

Here are the usual suspects.

I like messing about with this stuff, as explained in the first link.

I pushed Vagrant builds to my GitHub.

If you want to try these you will need to build a Fedora 39 box. You can do that using Packer. There is an example of that here.

What’s New?

So what’s new with Fedora 39? You can read about it here.

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Database 19c on Oracle Linux 9 (OL9): Installation Articles and Vagrant Builds

Earlier this year I wrote a rant about the lack of product certifications on Oracle Linux 9 (OL9).

One of the points I made was we are having to replace OL7 servers, but were forced to go to OL8 because Oracle 19c was not certified on OL9, and Oracle 23c on-prem is not available.

This blog post by Mike DieTrich changed all that because now 19c is certified on OL9, provided you are on patch 19.19 or above, and are on the correct version of UEK or the RHEL kernel. See Mike’s post for details.

Installation Articles

Of course, this triggered some installation articles.

Vagrant Builds

There are database, RAC and Data Guard vagrant builds here.

Odd Occurrence

I noticed something a little odd when doing these builds using the 19.21 RU patches.

For the database and Data Guard builds I used the DB RU and OJVM combo patch, and I was still forced to fake the distribution using the CV_ASSUME_DISTID environment variable. For the RAC build I used the GI RU and OJVM combo patch, and I didn’t need to fake the distribution.

I went back to the DB build, and instead used the GI RU and OJVM combo patch, and I no longer needed to fake the distribution. So it looks like there is something different about the database patches between these two types of RUs that slightly affect the installation process. It’s no big deal, but it might catch you out.

Oracle 19c is old. Why do you care?

We are in the process of replacing a load of VMs that are currently running OL7, and we want to go to OL9. Prior to this announcement were were going to have to do one of two things.

  • Migrate to 19c on OL8, which would be OK for 23c when it drops, but not ideal as building an OL8 box now seems like a fail.
  • Wait for 23c on-prem to drop and move to 23c on OL9. The problem here is we could run out of time waiting for 23c to come.

This announcement gives us a new option.

  • Migrate to 19c on OL9, then upgrade to 23c when the on-prem version drops.

This third option is way better for us!

Remember

There are a couple of things to remember.

  • You need to be on 19c to upgrade to 23c, so getting your 19c database on an OS that is supported for 23c is important. We’ve had confirmation that 23c will be available for OL8 and OL9 on release.
  • The extended support waiver for 19c was increased from 1 year to 2 years. Mike also wrote about this here. That means you get free extended support for 19c until April 30, 2026.

Conclusion

This is massive for us. I’m very happy!

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle VirtualBox 7.0.12, Vagrant 2.4.0 and Packer 1.9.4

Oracle VirtualBox 7.0.12

VirtualBox 7.0.12 has been released.

The downloads and changelog are in the usual places.

I’ve installed it on my Windows 10 and 11 machines with no drama.

Vagrant 2.4.0

Releases of VirtualBox prompt me to check for new versions of Vagrant. The current version is Vagrant 2.4.0. All my test systems are built with Vagrant, so I installed it as well.

If you are new to Vagrant and want to learn, you might find this useful.

Once you understand that, I found the best way of learning more was to look at builds done by other people. You can see all my Vagrant builds here.

I’ll be doing some updates to my Oracle builds over the coming days, so this will get a lot of testing.

Packer 1.9.4

I use Packer to rebuild my Vagrant boxes (Oracle Linux 7, 8 and 9) so they have the latest guest additions. The current set of boxes were built using Packer 1.9.4. The new version of the boxes can be seen here.

If you are interested in creating your own Packer builds, you might take inspiration from mine, available here.

How did it all go?

The new versions of VirtualBox, Packer and Vagrant all did their jobs fine. 🙂

What about the VirtualBox GUI?

Just a quick warning. I do everything using Vagrant, so I rarely look at the VirtualBox GUI. Remember, when I say everything worked fine, I mean for what I use.

Cheers

Tim…

Joel Kallman Day 2023 : It’s a Wrap! (#JoelKallmanDay)

Yesterday was an Oracle community day called the Joel Kallman Day (#JoelKallmanDay) 2023.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to join in. Here is the list of posts I saw in chronological order. If I missed you out, give me a shout and I’ll add you. 

Thanks to everyone who got involved with blog posts, tweets and retweets. It all helps add to the buzz. We are not just an English speaking community, so it’s always good to see posts in different languages. If you want to read the non-English posts, Google Translate usually does a reasonable job.

Thanks again, and remember you’ve got a year to get ready for the 2024 event! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Application Express (APEX) has come of age #JoelKallmanDay

Oracle Application Express (APEX) has been around for over 20 years. You can read about the history here. For something so mature, why would I talk about it coming of age?

Why now?

If you happened to watch the Larry Ellison keynote at CloudWorld 2023, you will notice he talks about Oracle Application Express (APEX) quite a bit. Essentially saying Oracle have stopped developing new applications in Java, and instead are focussing on building new applications using APEX. Why? Because it’s low code, so they can get a lot more done in less time, and the end result is more consistent and secure. It was really nice to hear this, and its been a long time coming…

Many of us know that APEX has been a serious contender for a long time, but the fact it is a “no cost option” of the Oracle database means it doesn’t make any money for Oracle directly. Of course, you need an Oracle database and they make money from that, but you don’t have to buy a bunch of WebLogic licenses to run it. You can just run Oracle REST Data Service (ORDS) for free on some boxes to front APEX and you are good to go. I’ve written about the topology of APEX environments here.

We all know Oracle are about making money, and faced with promoting two solutions, one of which generates revenue and one of which doesn’t, you know which one they are going to pick right? That is why I was so surprised by Larry Ellison’s comments during his keynote. You can argue WebLogic is already dead, because I rarely hear of anyone wanting to do something new with it, but I was surprised by the change of direction. Happy surprised.

It’s a shame Joel Kallman was not alive to see this shift!

One tool to rule them all?

Of course, there is no one tool that is perfect for every situation. There will be projects where APEX is not the right tool for the job, but APEX has evolved a lot over the years, and the fact Oracle use it internally so extensively tells you it’s not a bit player.

I hope companies that either don’t use APEX, or skirt around the edges of APEX see the change in stance at Oracle, and take note.

It’s been a long time coming, but Oracle Application Express (APEX) has finally come of age!

Cheers

Tim…

Joel Kallman Day 2023 : Announcement

Since 2016 we’ve had an Oracle community day where we push out content on the same day to try and get a bit of a community buzz. The name has changed over the years, but in 2021 it was renamed to the “Joel Kallman Day”. Joel was big on community, and it seems like a fitting tribute to him.

When is it?

The date is Wednesday October 11th. That’s just over a week away from today!

How do I get involved?

Here is the way it works.

  • Write a blog post. The title should be in the format “<insert-the-title-here> #JoelKallmanDay“.
  • The content can be pretty much anything. See the section below.
  • Tweet/X out the blog post using the hashtag #JoelKallmanDay.
  • Publishing the posts on the same day allows us to generate a buzz. In previous years loads of people were on twitter retweeting, making it even bigger. The community is spread around the world, so the posts will be released over a 24 hour period.
  • Oracle employees are welcome to join in. This is a community day about anything to do with the Oracle community.

Like previous years, it would be really nice if we could get a bunch of first-timers involved, but it’s also an opportunity to see existing folks blog for the first time in ages! 

The following day I write a summary post that includes links to all the posts that were pushed out through the day. You can see examples here.

What Should I Write About?

Whatever you want to write about. Here are some suggestions that might help you.

  • My favourite feature of {the Oracle-related tech you work on}.
  • What is the next thing on your list to learn.
  • Horror stories. My biggest screw up, and how I fixed it.
  • How the cloud has affected my job.
  • What I get out of the Oracle Community.
  • What feature I would love to see added to {the Oracle-related tech you work on}.
  • The project I worked on that I’m the most proud of. (Related to Oracle tech of course)

It’s not limited to these. You can literally write about anything Oracle-related. The posts can be short, which makes it easy for new people to get involved. If you do want to write about something technical, that’s fine. You can also write a simple overview post and link to more detailed posts on a subject if you like. In the previous years the posts I enjoyed the most were those that showed the human side of things, but that’s just me. Do whatever you like. 

Do I have to write in English?

No! It’s great to see people contributing to their own community. Google Translate does a pretty good job of translating them, so we can still read them.

Do I need to write about Joel or APEX?

I’m sure people would be happy to read stories about Joel, or content about APEX, but you don’t have to write about that. You can write about whatever you want, so long as it has an Oracle and/or community spin…

So you have a little over a week to get something ready!

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Database 23c Generally Available – Sort Of

Oracle Cloud World is happening, which typically means lots of announcements. One of the welcome announcement was the release of Oracle 23c on OCI Oracle Base Database Service, so there is a production version generally available… Sort of… Why do I say “sort of”?

OCI Oracle Base Database Service

This is a single cloud service, and it’s not available on the free tier, so it’s only available for paying customers that want to use this particular service.

At the time of writing there is no Autonomous Database service for this version, and there is still no full on-prem release.

I thought it was unavailable in my data centre, but Jeff Smith told me 23c GA is only available for Intel shapes at the moment. Once I switched from the default AMD shape to an Intel shape and 23c release was in the database version list. Happy days.

Oracle Database 23c Free

In addition to the OCI Oracle Base Database Service, the announcement post mentions a new version of Oracle Database 23c Free. It is now a “Developer Release”, not a “Developer Preview”. You can get hold of it here.

The slightly confusing thing is there is no difference in the file name, so my immediate impression was it had not actually been released yet. I downloaded the file and did an installation, and sure enough it was version 23.3. It would have been nice if there was an indication of the update on the page, or a version number in the file name…

For those that previously used Oracle XE, Oracle Database 23c Free is now the natural replacement, so go crazy with it. 🙂

Here’s how you can get started.

  • Install documentation here.
  • My installation article here.
  • My Vagrant build here.
  • VirtualBox appliance from Oracle here.
  • Docker image from Oracle here.

Documentation

The documentation links we’ve been using for 23c Free are no longer marked as “Free”. It is the normal GA documentation now.

My 23c Articles

You can see all my 23c articles here. There are still some I can’t publish until the on-prem GA release happens…

On-Prem Release

As mentioned previously, there is no full on-prem release for Oracle 23c, so you can’t start planning your upgrades from 19c yet. It’s really good to have an updated version of Oracle Database 23c Free so quickly for home use, but from a work perspective 23c won’t really exist for me until there is an on-prem release.

I’m hoping that won’t be long, but time will tell.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: Someone pointed me to Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1), which has now been updated to include 23c. It says the on-prem releases for 23c will start appearing during 1H CY2024, which is the first half of 2024.