Oracle Linux

MV2OCI – One-Click Move of your Data into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Database

Author: 30. October 2020

mv2oci is a tool which helps to migrate on-premise data to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure based on Oracle Data Pump and works as a data load tool. The local Data Pump export is transferred and imported to/on the target cloud server automatically. There is no use of Oracle Cloud Object Storage, the dump files are transferred with rsync or scp to the target database node. This is the different behavior to mv2adb – see my blogpost here – which uses the Object Storage. As an option, the data can be transferred via Database Link (mv2oci Parameter –netlink).

All you need to know about mv2oci is written in the My Oracle Support Note (OCI) MV2OCI: move data to Oracle Cloud Database in “one-click” (Doc ID 2514026.1).  The newest version of the rpm package can be downloaded there. The package has to be installed on the source server.

Prerequisites

  • SQL*Net connection between the two databases
  • A Java executable – in my case I have installed jre (yum install jre)
  • Verify if the firewall to the VCN Subnet is open for Port 1521 – Port 22 is open as per default
  • Password of database user SYSTEM

The Use Case

Let’s move the database schema SOE from my on-premise Oracle Linux Server into the cloud step-by-step. An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure database instance is already up and running, the target tablespace is created. The data centers are connect by VPN.

 

Database Information

Source Target
CDB Name CDB118 CDB118
PDB Name pdb11801 pdboci
Hostname heckenweg srv-cdb118
IP Address 192.168.1.184 172.16.0.8
PDB Service Name pdb11801.kestenholz.net pdboci.subnetvcnmohnwe.vcnmohnwegvpn.oraclevcn.com

1. Package Installation

Download and transfer the package to the on-premise server, for example in directory /tmp. As user root, install the package.

Verify that the SSH private key which is used for the connection to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure server is available and the connection is working. Here is the OCI SSH key available in the $HOME/.ssh.

2. Encrypt the SYSTEM passwords for both databases – mv2oci encpass

3. Configuration File

A template of the configuration file is located in /opt/mv2oci/oci. I used the following parameters – other parameters like ICHOME for Instance Client configuration are well described.

Source DB Parameters

Parameter Value
DB_CONSTRING //heckenweg/pdb11801.kestenholz.net
SYSTEM_DB_PASSWORD Encrypted SYSTEM password
SCHEMAS SOE
DUMP_FILES /tmp/exp_soe_18102020_01.dmp, /tmp/exp_soe_18102020_02.dmp
OHOME /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1

Expdp/Impdp Parameters

Parameter Value
Dump Name exp_soe_18102020.dmp
DUMP_PATH /tmp
PARALLEL 2 – creates two Dumpfiles called exp_soe_18102020_01.dmp and exp_soe_18102020_02.dmp

OCI Parameters

Parameter Value
OC_HOST 172.16.0.8
OC_SSHKEY /home/oracle/.ssh/id_rsa_oci_29012020
OC_DB_CONSTRING //172.16.0.8/pdboci.subnetvcnmohnwe.vcnmohnwegvpn.oraclevcn.com
OC_DB_PASSWORD Encrypted SYSTEM password
OC_DUMP_LOC /tmp

 

4. Export Data – mv2oci expdp

Dump files created in /tmp.

5. Transfer Data – mv2oci putdump

Files are available now on target server.

6. Import Data

Tablespace SOEDATA exists on target server, otherwise you can use to the EXTRA_IMPDP parameters in the mv2oci configuration file to do a remapping etc.

Analysis of the error in the SQL*Developer – there is a missing execution permission on package DBMS_LOCK.

This is an easy thing:

7. Reporting – mv2oci report

The report compares the objects on source and target database.

8.  All in One – mvoci auto

We did the steps one-by-one, by using the parameter auto, the steps above are done automatically (except reporting).

9. Logfiles

Logfiles tom the mv2oci actions are located in:

mv2oci /opt/mv2oci/out/log
Data Pump Directory in parameter DUMP_PATH

Summary

mv2oci is another great tool to support the movement to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Easy to configure, easy to use. #ilike

Oracle ACE, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle Linux, Oracle RDBMS, TrivadisContent

Oracle Release Update 19.9 – Lab Update Time (Grid Infrastructure Standalone & RDBMS)

Author: 26. October 2020

The Oracle Release update 19.9 for Linux is available since a few days. Time to upgrade my lab environment at home which consists of the following components:

  • Oracle Grid Infrastructure Standalone 19.8.0 with ASM Normal Redundancy – +ASM
  • Oracle 19.8.0 RDBMS as Repository for Oracle Enterprise Manager – EMREPO

The running 19.8 Environment

Output from Trivadis base environment tool TVD-Basenv(TM).

Patch Download, Transfer and Extract

I have downloaded the Combo which contains the RU for Grid Infrastructure and Oracle Java Virtual Machine.

  • COMBO OF OJVM RU COMPONENT 19.9.0.0.201020 + GI RU 19.9.0.0.201020(Patch 31720429)
    • OJVM RELEASE UPDATE 19.9.0.0.0(Patch 31668882)
    • GI RELEASE UPDATE 19.9.0.0.0(Patch 31750108)

The local stage directory with the extracted files:

OPatch

OPatch in Grid Infrastructure home directory has to be version 12.2.0.1.19 or later.

Version Verification

+ASM – Grid Infrastructure Standalone

EMREPO – RDBMS

CheckConflictAgainstOHWithDetail

+ASM – Grid Infrastructure Standalone

EMREPO – RDBMS

Take care, this line here produces an error:

According My Oracle Support Note opatch CheckSystemSpace Command For Grid Infrastructure RU Fails With: “This command doesn’t support System Patch” (Doc ID 2634165.1), this error can be ignored and the line removed in future patch apply actions.

CheckSystemSpace

To check for space, we create there two files which contain the patch directories. The checks have to be successful.

+ASM – Grid Infrastructure Standalone

EMREPO – RDBMS

Release Update Apply

As first action I stop the OEM. The I run opatchauto as user root. Grid Infrastructure and RBDMS components are stopped, started and patch automatically one by one. Here is the full output of the patch apply where you can see the executed steps. In my lab environment, it took about 20 minutes.

Version Verification

+ASM – Grid Infrastructure Standalone

EMREPO – RDBMS

As you can see, the components were updated successfully. Time to start Oracle Enterprise Manager 13c Release 4 Update.

OJVM Apply

At the end, the OJVM patch has to applied. Set ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME according the RDBMS environment.

Stop the RDBMS with srvctl

Change to OJVM Patch Directory

Apply the OJVM Patch

Startup Upgrade – Container Database and Pluggable Database – in SQL*Plus

Run datapatch

Shutdown Database in SQL*Plus

Start the RDBMS with srvctl

Version Verification

EMREPO – RDBMS

Summary

There were no issues. Ok, it’s just a GI Standalone environment. But this was really a pleasure.

19c, Oracle ACE, Oracle Linux, Oracle RDBMS, Oracle Tools, Release Update, TrivadisContent

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

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