Create Oracle Database as a Service (DBaaS) in Oracle Cloud

Oracle Cloud is making a lot of news these days. With companies moving to cloud, it looks like Cloud is here to stay. Oracle provides a wide range of Cloud services in the areas of SaaS/DaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Oracle is also providing a 30 days trial (can be extended to 60 days) to try out a host of its cloud offerings.

I have recently subscribed to this trial and have been playing around with the Oracle database cloud offerings since then. In this post, I will discuss how we can create a Oracle Database as a Service (DBaaS) as part of its Oracle Database Cloud Service offering.

Meet the prerequisites

Before, we begin with creating the database service in Oracle cloud, we need to have a pair of private/public SSH key, which would be used to authenticate to the cloud database service.

Generate SSH Key pair in Unix based systems

If we are using a Linux system, they key pair can be generated using “ssh-keygen” as shown below.

##---
##--- generate ssh private/public key pair using "ssh-keygen" ---##
##---
[oracle@labserver1 ~]$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -f rsa_key_mycloud
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in rsa_key_mycloud.
Your public key has been saved in rsa_key_mycloud.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
ca:76:44:13:0c:bb:76:0f:58:3d:df:93:4d:d0:ca:56 oracle@labserver1.oraclebuffer.com

The public key (rsa_key_mycloud.pub) would be required while creating database cloud service in Oracle cloud and the private key (rsa_key_mycloud) would be required to access the created service.

Generate SSH Key pair in Windows system

If you are using a Windows system, you can use puttygen utility to generate a SSH private/public key pair as outlined in the following steps.

1. Set the Key generation options in puttygen as shown below
2. At this point, the key is generated. We can add a optional passphrase and key comments as show below
3. Once the passphrase and key comments are added, save the private key (for later use) as shown below.
4. Optionally, we can save the Private key in Open SSH format as shown below.
5. Now, let’s save the Public key (these would be required during cloud service creation) as show below.
6. Once the Public key is copied, save it by using a text editor as shown below.

At this point, we have the SSH private/public key pair is ready and we are good to start with database creation in Oracle cloud.

Sign in to Oracle cloud

To be able to create the database in Oracle cloud, we need to access the Oracle Database Cloud Service console by sign in to My Services section using link https://cloud.oracle.com/sign-in.

We need to select the appropriate Data Center/Region (This is allocated, when the service is first initialized). If you do not know the region to sign in, you can alternatively login to My Account section of Oracle cloud and find out the details.

In the sign in page, we need to select the (identity) domain (the one selected/created during cloud subscription) and enter Oracle cloud username/password. You can refer here to know more about Identity domain. Remember My Services password is different from the “single sign on” Oracle password and is sent to you by Oracle through the Welcome email.

Cloud Database Service Console

Once, we are signed in to the My Services section of Oracle cloud, we need to access the Oracle Database Cloud Service console to be able create cloud services (database). The service console can be accessed using the Navigation Menu or from the Dashboard as shown below.

1. Using Navigation Menu
2. Using My Service Dashboard

   In the My Services dashboard page, we can either click on the service name header (Oracle Database Cloud Service) or on the Service Console section to access the cloud database service console as shown below.

Create database cloud service

Once, we access the cloud database service console, We will be navigated to following cloud database service console page

As we can see there is no services exist at this moment. We need to ensure that the prerequisites (SSH key pair generated/available) are met, before we can create a service using this service console. Since, we have already generated the SSH key pair; lets start creating a database cloud service by clicking the Create Service button.

Once we click the Create Service button, we need to fill certain service related details as outlined below, before the database service can be created.

1. Choose the subscription type for the database service to be created

We have the option of choosing between two types of service level namely Oracle Database Cloud Service and Oracle Database Cloud Service – Virtual Image. In the first option, the database would be created automatically during the service creation whereas in the second option (Virtual Image), only the database
software would be installed and we need to create the database ourselves by accessing the virtual cloud Server. I have selected the first option for this demonstration.

Further, we need to select the Billing Frequency as Hourly or Monthly. This is particularly related to paid subscription. Since, I am using a Trial subscription, I can choose any of the billing frequency.

2. Select the Database release (version) to be used for the database cloud service
3. Select the Database edition required for the database cloud service

The Standard and Enterprise editions looks familiar here. However, the Enterprise Edition – High Performance and Enterprise Edition – Extreme Performance are new additions in the cloud offering and provides certain additional features to improve database performance. Please click on the “Details” button to find out more information related to these new editions.

4. Fill in all the details related to the cloud database service as shown below
5. Review and confirm your database cloud service selection

Once, we submit the service creation; Oracle will initiate the service creation and it will take some time before we can access the cloud database service. During the service instantiation Oracle will provision a virtual server (service) as well as provision the selected database release and edition. Oracle will further create the database using the details submitted during the service creation.

Wait till the database cloud service is created. We can monitor the service creation from the service console. Once the service creation is completed, we can view the status from service console as shown below.

We have successfully created our Oracle Database Cloud Service. Just few simple clicks and the database service is created for us securely in the Oracle cloud. The next step is to access the cloud database service and validate if the service is created as per the requirement. Since this post has become too lengthy (Thanks to the Screenshots), I am going to end this post here. In the next post, I will discuss the methods of accessing the cloud database service. Till then stay tuned..

Related Post

http://www.oraclebuffer.com/oracle/oracle-cloud-accessing-the-database-services/