Latest Posts

The Grafana Plugins for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring are back!

Author: 7. October 2020

In September 2019 I wrote a blog post how to monitor an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Autonomous database with Grafana plugin oci-datasource. But some weeks after publication, the plugin was not available on the Grafana page anymore. And only Oracle and Grafana had a clue why.

Now everything will be fine now. Since the 6th of October, there are two new Grafana plugins available for download. They both don’t require a Grafana enterprise account.

The first one is a successor of the former oci-datasource plugin, the second allows to get logs from OCI resources like Compute or Storage. As an infrastructure guy, let’s install the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Metrics on an local Oracle Enterprise Linux 8 installation!

Install and configure the OCI CLI

Link: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/API/SDKDocs/cliinstall.htm

OS User oci and Installer

As OS user root, create a new user mentioned oci, change to new created user oci.

Run the installer script.

In this demo case, I use the default settings and the tab completion. After some seconds, all packages are installed and the OCI CLI is ready to configure.

Configure the OCI CLI

If you have already a created SSH key pair from a former OCI action, then you can use it here. Otherwise this setup process creates a new private and public key for you. Take care, the public key has to be in the PEM format!

Required values to finish the setup:

config location /home/oci/.oci/config
user OCID OCI > Identity > Users > [YOUR_USER] > OCID
tenancy OCID OCI > Administration > Tenancy Details > [YOUR_TENANCY] > OCID
region choose your region, e.g. eu-zurich-1
generate a new API signing RSA key pair Y -> only if you don’t have already an existing key pair
key directory /home/oci/.oci
key name oci_api_key_07102020

 

Run the setup.

OCI Console API Key

The content of the created public key has to be added in OCI Console as API key – just copy and paste it. OCI Console >> Identity >> Users >> User Details >> API Keys >> Add Public Key.

How to: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/Content/API/Concepts/apisigningkey.htm#How2

OCI CLI Configuration Test

Verify the configuration by execute a CLI command. Example to list images based on Oracle Linux.

OCI Console Group Policy

If your user is not part of the Administrator group, a new group and a group policy is needed which has the permissions to read tenant metrics. OCI Console >> Identity >> Groups >> Create Group.

Create the policy in the root compartment of your tenant. OCI Console >> Identity >> Policy>> Create Policy.

Install and configure Grafana and the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Metrics Data Source Plugin

Grafana

Link: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/API/SDKDocs/grafana.htm

Start and enable the service.

Don’t forget to open the firewall port 3000 for the Grafana UI.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Metrics Data Source Plugin

List the available OCI Grafana plugins.


Install the metric plugin.

Restart Grafana Server.

Grafana Data Source Configuration

RSA Key Configuration

Grafana needs the configuration file and the RSA Key from the user oci. One solution: as user root, copy the files and set the ownership to OS user grafana.

Change the path to the key file in /usr/share/grafana/.oci/config.

from:

to:

Add a new Data Source

Login into the Grafana server by address <server-ip>:3000. The initial username and password is admin. It’s recommended to change the password at the first login. Add a new data source. Configuration >> Data Sources >> Add data source.

Filter by oracle and select the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Metrics plugin.

Set Tenancy OCID, select your Default Region and set the Environment to local. Press Save & Test to verify the functionality.

Create a new Dashboard and add a new panel.

Now you can query the data, for example the VPN bandwidth for region eu-zurich1 in my personal compartment. Feel free to add new panels based on the available metrics.

Example

Summary

Great to have the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Grafana plugins back. To get an idea, which metrics are all available, verify it in the OCI Console >> Monitoring >> Metrics Explorer. The free ADB is not available in the collected metrics. But this is a general issue.

This was a review of the first OCI plugin. In the next week I will take a deeper look into the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Logging Data Source plugin.

Autonomous Database, Oracle ACE, Oracle Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle Linux, TrivadisContent

Let’s IPSec VPN – How to connect your Unifi Security Gateway to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Author: 28. September 2020

When I connect from home to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure normally I used a Bastion Host, an Open VPN compute instance or Public IPs.  Some of the cool stuff like MV2OCI (which transfers data from on-premises to OCI) or integration of an ADB instance in my local running Oracle Enterprise Manager are referred to direct cloud connections. A SSH reverse tunnel works fine, but this cannot be a permanent solution for my lab environment.

At home I have an Unifi Security Gateway (USG) up an running at home. This gateway has the capability, to create site-to-site VPN connections. Good: The Oracle Cloud Infrastruicture VPN service is for free, and I don’t expect over 10 TB outbound traffic. Time to create a VPN setup from home to OCI. Take care about the USG, it needs a “direct” internet contact, this is why my FTTH modem is configured in bridge mode on port 4. Small hint: If your modem is not bridged, ask your internet provider. Here in Switzerland, almost all internet providers support this function.

Architecture

Click on the image for a larger view.

Prerequisites

  • Unifi Security Gateway Public IP – visible in the USG web interface or on webpage (search term: what’s my IP)
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure network setup according the setup guide
  • Knowledge about IPSec details which are used by OCI and as described in the setup guide: Key Exchange Version (IKEv1), Encryption (AES-256), Hash (SHA-1), DH Group (5)
  • VCN and local network ranges
  • The IPSec endpoint IP addresses and the secrets

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IPSec Setup

My Oracle Cloud infrastructure network is configured 1:1 as described in the manual Setting Up VPN Connect: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-en/iaas/Content/Network/Tasks/settingupIPsec.htm. Here in the IPSec connection you can see the endpoint IPs, the IPSec status is actually shown as down. The secrets are provided in the detail view.

Unifi Security Gateway Setup

Here you find the details of the USG site-to-site configuration: https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002668854#3. Create a new network in Settings – Networks.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Settings

VPN Type Manual IPsec
Enabled Checkbox activated
Route Distance 30
Peer IP OCI VPN endpoint IP
Local WAN IP Local public address of the USG
Pre-Shared Key OCI IPsec tunnel secret
IPsec Profile Customized
Key Exchange Version IKEv1
Encryption AES-256
Hash SHA1
DG Group 5
PFS Checkbox activated
Dynamic Routing Checkbox activated

 

Network Configuration

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure IPSec Status Update

After about two minutes, the OCI tunnel status turns into green. The VPN tunnel is now ready to use.

Unifi Security Gateway Routing

To be sure that local connections to instances running in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure private subnet are working properly, we need a routing entry in the USG. Create a new routing entry in Settings – Routing & Firewall.

Routing Settings

Enabled Checkbox activated
Type Bullet activated
Destination Network CIDR of the OCI VCN network / subnet
Local WAN IP Local public address of the USG
Static Route Type: Interface
Interface Select interface created above, in my case OCI – Tunnel 1

 

Connection Verification

For testing purposes, I have created a compute instance in the OCI private subnet with IP 172.16.0.2, no public access – works!

A quick Bandwith Test

I am using iperf for this small test between my Windows client and the OCI compute instance. It’s not for production, just for the feeling. 68.7 Mbits/sec 🙂

Troubleshooting in USG

The connection can be verified when logged in as administrator in the Unifi Security Gateway as user ubnt / admin. Link to the documentation: https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002668854-UniFi-UDM-USG-Verifying-and-Troubleshooting-IPsec-VPNs

Show the current VPN configuration

Follow the Logfile

Troubleshooting in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

There is a small document available to verify the basic configuration, maybe in future some log access will be provided. In a past project where we had VPN connection issues with a Fortigate firewall, I had a good experience with the guys from My Oracle Support.

Link: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Network/Troubleshoot/ipsectroubleshoot.htm

Summary

Finally I have a stable VPN connection to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for free. If all requirements are met, the configuration can be done in a few minutes. Next steps: Activation of the second tunnel to get VPN redundancy, enable notifications when a IPsec tunnel is down and some other Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c monitoring stuff. The weather conditions in Switzerland are bad for the next days, so there is enough time in the evenings to do further research.

#freedom #network #together #doer #curiosity

DBaaS, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle Linux, Oracle Tools, Security, TrivadisContent

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Security first: Cloud Guard and Security Zones – a first View

Author: 15. September 2020

Two new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Security Services

Good news: Oracle has provided two new services for cloud security. Cloud Guard to get an overview of existing possible security breaches and Security Zones, which allows to create a full restricted compartment.  In this blog, I will give you a short overview about this brand new services.

Cloud Guard

The Cloud Guard service helps you to identify security issues in your tenancy. Before the first use, it has to be enabled and a base region and for a minimum one compartment has to be selected. It needs a new policy which Cloud Guard allows to gather information in your tenancy. Oracle Cloud Guard discovers available object in compartments like Compute Instances, Object Storage and many more and checks Oracle Cloud Infrastructure security best practices.

Link to documentation: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/cloud-guard/using/index.htm

Enable Cloud Guard first

Based on recipes, it show you security recommendations for the findings and can execute corrective actions. There are two different receipes types available:

  • Oracle Managed Detector Recipe – provided by Cloud Guard, doesn’t allow to disable rules
  • User Managed Detector Recipe – a clone of an Oracle managed recipe, allows to disable individual rules

Examples for recipes – docs.cloud.oracle.com

  Oracle Managed Recipe User Managed Recipe
Rule Status Risk Level Status Risk Level
Bucket is public ENABLED HIGH DISABLED HIGH
Instance has public IP address ENABLED CRITICAL ENABLED HIGH
VCN has no inbound Security List ENABLED MEDIUM DISABLED MEDIUM

 

Based on detected findings, Cloud Guard is able to to corrective actions. This feature called Responder Rules requires a policy. Problems can be fixed on three ways:

  • Remediated – Fix using Cloud Guard responder
  • Resolved – Fixed by other process
  • Dismissed – Ignore and close

Example for a Cloud Guard Responder Action

Example – Cloud Guard has detected a Public IP 

Cloud Guard Dashboard

The dashboard gives you an overview of the findings and actions. There are direct links to the findings and recommendations. Ok, It looks I have to review my test compartment 😉

Security Zones

A security zone is associated on a compartment and a security zone recipe. For example when in the recipe is defined, users cannot create an Internet Gateway in a defined compartement, an error message occurs when he tries to create one.

Link to documentation: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/security-zone/using/security-zones.htm

Create a new Security Zone

Recipes

There are some basic rules in the Oracle defined recipe (at the moment you can not create a customer based recipe) – for example:

  • Resources can’t be moved out from a security zone to a regular compartment
  • Resources are not accessible by Internet
  • Resources must be regularly backed up

 

Test – Create an Internet Gateway in the new created Security Zone

A violation message occurs, the security zone recipe doesn’t allow creating Internet Gateways.

Summary

I really like these two new services. Cloud Guard which helps me to identify possible security issues and Security Zones to create secure compartments without writing manual policies. This is only a short overview, in next days I will definitely take a deeper look, especially in Cloud Guard and the corrective actions. I have a great interest to find out how it works in the background for example when a public IP is detected and so on. The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure security is definitely on track!

DBaaS, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle RDBMS, Security, TrivadisContent

Windows 10 WSL 2, Docker and Oracle – a perfect Partnership

Author: 2. September 2020

I admit it, I was not a friend of Oracle databases running in Docker containers for a long time. My database systems for testing and demo purposes were all running in VMware, Virtual Box or in the Oracle Cloud. But I have used the Windows Subsystem for Linux since beginning, to work with the Oracle Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI, Git Integration etc.. And what I really like is the WSL extension for Visual Studio Code which gives me to chance, to edit Ansible Vault files in Windows without any additional Linux based VM running.

With the update of the existing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) architecture to version 2, the Docker Desktop for Windows is now fully integrated and able to run Docker container in WSL as a lightweight VM. Now it’s time to change my mind, why not use Docker to try out new Oracle features, do some development stuff and more?

What to we need to run Oracle databases in WSL 2 Docker Containers?

  1. WSL 2
  2. Docker Desktop for Windows
  3. Docker images with an Oracle Database – I may use the images (oehrlis/docker) from my workmate Stefan Oehrli (oradba.ch)- merci vöumou

This blog post shows you how to setup WSL 2 to run Docker images. Sure, you can use the Oracle provided Docker images or self created images too. But I have verified the Oracle repository today, the Dockerfile version is 19.3.0. And I don’t have the passion, to create new Dockerfiles for example to run 19.8 and download additional RU software.

Installing Windows Subsystem 2 for Linux

Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux basic Functionality

Start Windows PowerShell as Administrator and enable WSL.

Do not restart Windows 10 at the moment.

Activate Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Check your version before enabling WSL 2, the criteria from the install document must be meet – for example for my x64 platform:

  • Running Windows 10, updated to version 1903 or higher, Build 18362 or higher for x64 systems.

Let’s check it with Windows logo key + R and winver – my version us 1904:

Enable the ‘Virtual Machine Platform’ – this component is required for WSL 2.

Restart the Windows machine. Now wsl.exe is available as command in Power Shell.

Set WSL 2 as default when installing Linux distributions from Microsoft Store like Ubuntu and SLES.

 

 

Getting Windows 10 ready for Docker

Install Docker Desktop for Windows

Run the Docker Desktop Installer executable. Let the checkboxes activated.

Two minutes later.

Start Docker and verify the Availability

After starting the Docker Desktop, you get a notification that Docker is starting. Docker is recognising that WSL is installed.

Docker is now ready to use.

Open a new PowerShell as Administrator and verify if docker and docker-compose are available.

Install Git

Link: https://git-scm.com/download/win

We use Git to checkout the Oracle docker containers later. There are several Git clients for Windows available. I use the one from git-scm.com. Just run the executable. After the successful installation, verify Git availability in PowerShell.

Go for the Oracle Database

Startup the Oracle Docker Image

Before cloning of the Git repository, I created a new directory in my Workplace folder.

Clone Docker Image Repository

The content of my cloned directory Oracle Database 19.0.0.0.

We use Docker Compose here, this makes it very easy to handle networking stuff like port forwarding. Example content of the docker-compose.yml file. In this case, I have not configured the Docker Volume Base, the files for the container are created in a subfolder of the clone directory.

After pulling, let’s start the container with docker-compose.

In the background, the database will be created and configured – example output in Docker Desktop.

SQL Developer Connect

Verify in the Shell if the Oracle database and the listener are running – example output from the Trivadis Toolbox component TVD-Basenv.

Summary

The integration of Docker in Windows Subsystem for Linux is fast and easy to configure. I like the idea to run a lightweight VM inside my existing WSL. In future, before I think about to start a VMware or Virtual Box VM to do some Oracle testing stuff, I will verify if there is Docker image available. And I will definitely spend more time to discover the possibilities of Docker 🙂

19c, Docker, Oracle Linux, Oracle Tools, Testing

Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 Update 5 (13.4.0.5) – Time to Patch the OMS

Author: 19. August 2020

Availability and Information Release Update 13.4.0.5

Since some days, the Release Update 13.4.0.5 for the Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 is available in My Oracle Support. Time to update my lab environment.

Note: This blog post describes how to apply the RU on an Oracle Enterprise Manager 13 Release 4 Oracle Management Server which is running on an Oracle Linux 7.6 machine. Applying the RU for agents is not part of of this blog post. For agent patching please visit readme of Patch 31544641: Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 Platform Update 5 (13.4.0.5) for Oracle Management Agent.

The RU for the Oracle Management Server is generic and the compressed patch file has the size of 964.6 MB. Useful links for this Release Update like contained fixes and improvements:

From the Patch Readme:

Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 Update 5 for Oracle Management Service contains bug fixes, and can be applied on the following:

  • Oracle Management Service 13c Release 4 (13.4.0.0.0)
  • Any Release Update previously released for Oracle Management Service 13c Release 4 (13.4.0.0.0)

OMSPatcher Prerequisites 

OMSPatcher has to be version 13.9.4.1.0 for Enterprise Manager 13.4.0.0.0 – let’s verify it on my OEM environment:

If your OMSPatcher has an older release, take a look here how to update it: EM 13c: How To Upgrade Enterprise Manager 13.4 Cloud Control OMSPatcher Utility to Version 13.9.4.1.0 (Doc ID 2646080.1)

Transfer and extract Release Update

The RU is extracted in the stage directory on the OEM server:

Pre-Check

Run the pre-check to analyze the existing Oracle Enterprise Manager system.

Extract from the OMSPatch logfile, here in my case called omspatcher_2020-08-18_21-35-49PM_analyze.log.

These warnings can ignored, these are patches for plugins which I am not using. So the patch will not be applied here, for example:

  • oracle.sysman.emfa.oms.plugin (Enterprise Manager for Fusion Applications)
  • oracle.sysman.bda.oms.plugin (Oracle Big Data Appliance)

OPatch – The inventory shows Platform Update 13.4.0.3 which is my actual release.

About Enterprise Manager

Show the installed Plugins – emcli

Login

Sync emcli

List plugins

Release Update Apply

1st – Stop the OMS

2nd – Apply RU with OMSPatcher

I don’t use a credential file, therefore the username (if not using weblogic which is default) and the password for the Weblogic AdminServer has to be provied.

Warnings can be ignored as long they depend on plugins which are not installed.

OPatch – The inventory shows Platform Update 13.4.0.5 the RU is applied.

3rd – Start the OMS again

About Enterprise Manager

Summary

Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 Update 5 (13.4.0.5) – easy to apply, works!

EM13c Cloud Control