Run Oracle Database Express Edition using Podman on an Oracle Cloud compute instance

In this article, I will demonstrate how to run Oracle Database Express Edition using Podman on an Oracle Cloud compute instance.

On Oracle Cloud Console

1. create instance, name instance-21c-xe
2. change image to Oracle Linux 8.0
3. New VCN, New Public Subnet, Assign Public IPv4 address

It is not necessary to use a paid instance. The free instance will work as well.

Wait for the instance to be ready. Go to Security List, add Ingress Rule for port 1521

ssh into the new instance

sudo bash
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Eastern /etc/localtime
dnf -y install podman podman-docker buildah skopeo dnf-utils zip unzip tar gzip git sqlcl
dnf -y update
podman pull docker.io/gvenzl/oracle-xe:21-full
podman run -d -p 1521:1521 -e ORACLE_PASSWORD=SysPassword1 --name 21cFull -v oracle-volume:/opt/oracle/XE21CFULL/oradata gvenzl/oracle-xe:21-full
podman ps

Give it 2 minutes to startup

podman logs 21cFull

You should find this in the output
#########################
DATABASE IS READY TO USE!
#########################

Testing via SQLcl

sql system/SysPassword1@//localhost/XEPDB1

Setup archivelog mode via opening a session into the container

podman exec -it --user=oracle 21cFull bash
sqlplus / as sysdba
shutdown immediate;
startup mount;
alter database archivelog;
alter database open;

Setup autostart on reboot

podman generate systemd --name 21cFull > /lib/systemd/system/container-21cFull.service
systemctl enable container-21cFull

All set. Reboot, wait for a few minutes and check again