APEX 22.2 : Vagrant and Docker Updates

I know it’s hard to believe that anything happened last week other than the implosion of Twitter, but APEX 22.2 was also released.

As normal, this resulted in a bunch of updates to my builds.

Vagrant

All relevant Vagrant builds were updated to include APEX 22.2. Many had been updated recently to bring them in line with the latest Oracle security patches. You can find the build here.

https://github.com/oraclebase/vagrant

Docker/Container

As with Vagrant, all the relevant Docker/Container builds have been updated to 22.2. You can find the build here.

https://github.com/oraclebase/dockerfiles

Real World

If the release had been a couple of weeks earlier I would have been able to push it out during this quarters patching cycle. Unfortunately this release will now how to wait until the January 2023 patching cycle for me to push it out at work.

Our APEX upgrades/patches are automated (as mentioned here), so I could push this release out at the press of a button, but all the relevant teams would have to do their testing, and that probably isn’t going to happen until the next patching cycle, so it’s just going to wait until then. πŸ™

My Suggestion

Even if your work environment moves forward at a slower pace than you would like, it still makes sense to keep a test/play environment at the latest and greatest versions, so you can learn the new stuff and see what issues are coming round the corner for your applications.

All my home builds are now on APEX 22.2, running on the beta release of the Oracle Games Console (#OGC). πŸ˜‰

Cheers

Tim…

Packer, Vagrant and Docker : Latest Changes

The quarterly Oracle security patches trigger a whole bunch of build changes for me. This post just gives you a run through of what happened over the weekend.

Packer

The release of VirtualBox 6.1.36 means all my Vagrant boxes on Vagrant Cloud have the wrong guest additions, so I rebuilt all of them using Packer. The Oracle Linux 7, 8 and 9 boxes are now up to date. You can see my Packer builds under my Vagrant repository on GitHub here.

https://github.com/oraclebase/vagrant/tree/master/packer

Note. During the packer builds I noticed the VirtualBox 6.1.36 guest additions require some extra packages during the installation (libX11, libXt, libXext, libXmu).

Vagrant

I had recently updated all relevant Vagrant builds with the latest versions of Tomcat, SQLcl and ORDS updates, but I was still waiting on the OpenJDK 11.0.16 release. On Friday morning I noticed Adoptium released it, so I made the necessary changes to the builds to include it. I usually don’t include Oracle patches in my database builds, but some installations, like Oracle 19c on OL8, require them. I’ve updated them to include the 19.16 patches where necessary. You can find my Vagrant builds on GitHub here.

https://github.com/oraclebase/vagrant

Docker

Similar to the Vagrant section above, the relevant Docker/Podman builds were updated to use OpenJDK 11.0.16, and the Oracle 19c on OL8 build had it’s patch script modified for the 19.16 patches. You can find my container stuff on GitHub here.

https://github.com/oraclebase/dockerfiles

Happy building!

Cheers

Tim…

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. πŸ™‚

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. πŸ˜‰

Cheers

Tim…

APEX 21.2 : Vagrant and Docker Builds

Unless you live under a rock, you’ll have seen APEX 21.2 was released yesterday. Being the worlds worst APEX developer, I’m not going to speak about the new release, as I’ll just embarrass myself, but I did want to give a heads-up of what I’ve been doing since the release.

Vagrant Builds

A number of my Vagrant database builds include APEX. Those that do have been updated to use APEX 21.2. 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.

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 the APEX 21.2 images now. You can find them here.

As with the Vagrant builds, these had already been updated to use the latest versions of Java, Tomcat, ORDS and SQLcl where appropriate.

You can read my Docker/Container articles here.

Thoughts

It’s taken a long time for us to roll out APEX 21.1 at work. Most of that delay is because of competing priorities. We’ve been pushing the Oracle 19c database upgrades hard, and it’s not left much space to focus on APEX. The last of our production systems will be upgraded to APEX 21.1 next week, so I’m not sure how eager people will be when I start pushing 21.2. πŸ™‚ I’ll try, but it might have to wait until next quarter’s security patching. We’ll see.

Despite that, APEX 21.1 is now dead to me. Long live APEX 21.2. πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Database 21c : Installation Articles, Vagrant and Docker Builds

As you have no doubt heard, Oracle database 21c was released on Friday. I went to work over the weekend doing the relevant articles and builds. They’ve been on the front page of the website since Sunday, but I was waiting for the release of the 21c preinstall package before announcing them. That has arrived now, so this is what I was up to at the weekend.

Installation Articles

First the articles for single instance, Data Guard, RAC and RPM installations.

Vagrant

There are a bunch of associated Vagrant builds on Oracle Linux 8 and 7.

Single instance database installs, using the conventional installation method, and the RPM installation.

Data Guard installs.

RAC installs.

Docker

There are two database builds for 21c database in containers.

Caution

As I wrote in my previous post, Oracle 21c is an innovation release. It’s good to play with this, but be careful when considering it for production.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I’m struggling to notice the difference between “21” and “12” when reading at the moment. πŸ™‚

Updates to Vagrant and Docker Builds : ORDS and SQLcl 21.2

The 21.2 version of ORDS and SQLcl dropped at the start of the month. I guess I missed that, as the first I noticed was Alex Nuijten talking about SQLcl 21.2 nearly two weeks later. As soon as I realised they had arrived I downloaded them and went to work.

All of the relevant Vagrant and Docker builds were updated to use ORDS 21.2, SQLcl 21.2 and Tomcat 9.0.50.

You can check out what’s new in this post by Jeff Smith.

The Oracle security patches come out next week, so these builds will be updated again to include the latest versions of OpenJDK (AdoptOpenJDK) and the Oracle database patches where necessary.

SQL Developer and Database Modeler

These aren’t anything to do with my builds, but thought is was worth mentioning. The 21.2 version of SQL Developer and Data Modeler have been available for the last few days. You can read Jeff’s announcement here.

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. πŸ™‚

Vagrant and Docker Builds: ORDS 20.4, SQLcl 20.4 and Database Patches

The January Oracle quarterly patches were released yesterday, which prompted me to do some new builds.

We got Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) 20.4 and SQLcl 20.4, which I use in a number of my Vagrant and Docker builds, so I updated them and ran some builds.

The Vagrant database builds, which include ORDS, can be found here.

The Docker ORDS builds can be found here.

I also updated Tomcat to 9.0.41 and OpenJDK to 11.0.10_9 from AdoptOpenJDK.

Once I finished those I decided to try out the Oracle database 19c (19.10) OJVM+DB combo patch on a single instance build. That went fine. You can see that build here.

Since that went OK, I figured it was worth trying to update my OL8 19c RAC build with the 19.10 OJVM+GI combo patch. That also went fine. You can see that build there.

I wasn’t really expecting to cover so much ground so quickly, but that’s the great thing about automation. πŸ™‚

Tomorrow I’ve got to start putting together all the patch scripts for work. It’s always a bit tedious because I have to deal with a lot more products and variations, and I have to make sure I don’t screw up. Happy patching… πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

PS. If you are interesting in ORDS, SQLcl, Vagrant or Docker, these might help.

Vagrant & Docker Builds : ORDS and SQLcl 20.3

In a previous post I discussed the recent release of APEX 20.2 and the subsequent builds it triggered. Last night I pulled down ORDS 20.3 and SQLcl 20.3, so I updated my Vagrant and Docker builds again.

The ORDS download page is here. At the time of writing, the SQLcl download page is still showing 20.2, but the SQL Developer download page has a link for the 20.3 SQLcl download at the bottom. Both these versions have been available for about a week. Update: It’s showing 20.3 on both SQLcl pages now. πŸ™‚

Vagrant

All my GitHub Vagrant builds that include ORDS and SQLcl have been updated to use version 20.3.

I had previously updated Tomcat, and a few days ago I updated Java as soon as AdoptOpenJDK was available.

Docker

This is pretty much the same as the Vagrant story.

The relevant GitHub Docker builds, like the ORDS containers, have been updated to include ORDS and SQLcl 20.3.

They are on the latest release of Tomcat and Java from AdoptOpenJDK.

Conclusion

As always, this is made simple using automation! πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

Vagrant & Docker Builds : APEX 20.2 and other updates

The recent release of APEX 20.2 has triggered a build frenzy.

Vagrant

All my GitHub Vagrant builds that include APEX have been updated to APEX 20.2. The builds themselves are unchanged. This was literally an update to the environment files, so it took longer to test the builds than it did to make the changes.

While I was at it, I did a couple of extra updates. I updated Tomcat to version 9.0.39 on all relevant builds, and updated the optional patch script for the single instance database 19c on OL8 build to use the October 2020 bundle patch. The GI bundle isn’t available yet, so I’ve not altered the OL8 19c RAC build. That will happen soon.

Update: I’ve got the GI bundle patch now, and the OL8 19c RAC build has been updated to use it.

There will of course be more updates to the builds once we get the new versions of AdoptOpenJDK, ORDS and SQLcl, that are probably coming soon.

Packer

I mentioned in my VirtualBox 6.1.16 post I would be updating the oraclebase/oracle-7 and oraclebase/oracle-8 vagrant boxes to include the VirtualBox 6.1.16 guest additions. Those are done now.

Docker

This is pretty much the same as the Vagrant story.

The relevant GitHub Docker builds for Oracle database and ORDS containers have been updated to include APEX 20.2.

I’ve also added Tomcat 9.0.39 to the ORDS builds, and updated the optional patch script for the database 19c on OL8 build to use the October 2020 bundle patch.

Once again, more changes will appear as the new versions of AdoptOpenJDK, ORDS and SQLcl appear.

Conclusion

Automation is awesome! A few minutes and we are bang up to date!

Cheers

Tim…