Oracle Database 23.8 Free multi-platform images are now available on container registries docker.io/gvenzl/oracle-free and ghcr.io/gvenzl/oracle-free. With this release, 23.6 images have now gone into Unsupported. See the support matrix for more information.
This update of the images not only introduces the latest Oracle Database Free version but also includes additional container functionality.
Auto-plugin of .pdb files
Users can now have one or more PDBs automatically plugged in by providing a <PDB_NAME>.pdb file(s) inside the /pdb-plug folder (via a volume) and listing the PDB name(s) in the ORACLE_DATABASE environment variable. The setup phase will keep a lookout for the <PDB_NAME>.pdb file and, if found in both the folder and environment variable, undergo a plugin operation instead of creating a new, empty PDB.
Plugging in existing PDBs is usually done to shortcut additional setup steps, such as creating an APP_USER, installing a schema and filling it with sample data.
Note, the APP_USER will still be created after the plug-in operation, just as it is done with newly created PDBs. So, make sure not to list users that are already within the .pdb file in the APP_USER environment variable, as this would create a conflict.
A special thanks and shout-out goes to Klaus Tannenberg, who provided the idea and code for this feature in PR #62.
More granular healthcheck status codes
This update comes with more granular healthcheck status codes. Before this update, the healthcheck only provided 0 (=SUCCESS) and 1 (=FAILURE). This version now provides four additional status codes that can be checked:
- The database is ready for use.
- The database is not yet ready for use.
- The container is still starting up.
- PDBs are still being created/plugged in.
- The container is still executing user-defined setup scripts.
- The container is still executing user-defined startup scripts.
This will help users who want to inquire about the state of the database and perhaps not wait for all the setup phases to complete.
What’s in Oracle Database 23.8 Free?
As to what new features came in 23.8, you can check out the Oracle Database New Features Guide documentation, with some personal highlights: