Run Autonomous Database, ORDS and APEX on your laptop with single command!

Last week was full of excitement, you know it is that time of the year: Cloud World You can watch the recaps! Lots of announcements, new partnerships, product launches, demos, tons of interesting sessions and chance to connect with gurus, product managers and community! I didn't have the chance to be there yet, maybe next year...

One of the announcements was a container image for Autonomous database made available! It has built-in tools like Database Actions (SQL Developer Web, Performance Hub, etc.), ORDS and APEX, and Mongo API is enabled. Just the right things for developing locally without loosing anytime. Here is the offical documentation and the GitHub Page where you can find all the details.

So here is what I did to have my container running on my Windows laptop within WSL2 Ubuntu.

1We start with podman installation (you can also use docker)

2When the container runs the following ports will be exposed:

Port	Description
1521	TLS
1522	mTLS
8443	HTTPS port for ORDS / APEX and Database Actions
27017	Mongo API ( MY_ATP )

I recommend pulling the image first. Size is around 10GB and it can take a while. You can run the container with the following command.

3 Now we need to change ADMIN user password. There is a script provided for this purpose and we need to execute it by connecting to container.

4 We are ready to explore the tools already provided. Point your browser to https://localhost:8443/ords/my_atp/ and a landing page will welcome us.

5 APEX and Database Actions are also made available, no installation, no configuration, start building immediately.

6 How about connecting to database? Easy, for mTLS it requires a wallet. You can copy the wallet to any location on your local filesystem, export TNS_ADMIN then connect.

Note: You can safely skip this first part, unless you want to update your WSL2 Ubuntu. I was using a manual built experimental kernel because of a really weird debugging requirement I had in the past and I didn't need it anymore. So I needed to replace it but never had the chance or motivation, but this time it was inevitable. So writing this section as a reference for my future self.

References:
1. ADB Free GitHub Page: https://github.com/oracle/adb-free
2. Podman Documentation: https://podman.io/docs/installation
3. Instal Docker on WSL2: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/install-docker-in-wsl-2-without-do...
4. Autostart Docker Daemon: https://blog.nillsf.com/index.php/2020/06/29/how-to-autom...
5. Upgrade Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1428423/upgrade-ubuntu-in-wsl...
6. Reboot Ubuntu: https://superuser.com/questions/1126721/rebooting-ubuntu-o...

How to connect Autonomous Database using java JDBC with or without a wallet

Sometimes it is good to go back to the basics. Connection between Autonomous database and the client is always encrypted with TLS. Depending on the network access type, either it has to be mutual (mTLS) or TLS only. Why this is important? Well, I can think of couple good reasons. If I allow "secure access from everywhere" to my database then I would want to ensure only the clients that I shared necessary information (in this case a wallet) should be able to access it. Other logical options are allowing access only from the network addresses that I know, like my own IP address or from private network that I trust.

So I will be writing a small piece of java code to test it. It is all about setting my environment and constructing JDBC connection string. So at the minimum I add jdbc driver to my pom file. You might want to use UCP for your applications, it will be the same. I will be following official documentation

1 In order to connect with a Wallet, I download the wallet from console, unzip it then use the folder as my TNS_ADMIN. Connection string looks like

jdbc:oracle:thin:@{CONNECT_DENTIFIER}?{TNS_ADMIN}

As you will see there are different ways to construct it: Wallet folder can be set as a system property or passed as a query string. Here is a small sample code

2 If I can restrict access to my autonomous database with an access controll list (ACL) or connect with a private endpoint in a private subnet then I can uncheck Require mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication checkbox then I can connect to this database without a wallet. Connection is still encrypted with TLS.