Oracle Unified Directory on Docker

A bit a while ago I’ve started to use Docker for miscellaneous purposes. Not really an early adopter, but I still hope I caught the train just in time. 🙂 In one of my customer project, I did have to set up a couple of OUD instance to develop and test the transition from Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition (ODSEE) to Oracle Unified Directory (OUD). This did include more engineering and troubleshooting work as initially planned. So I eventually got to set up my OUD instances in docker containers rather than in dedicated Virtualbox VM. Unfortunately Oracle does not provide any Docker images or build templates for Oracle Unified Directory. Indeed they do have a bunch of official Docker configurations, images, and examples on GitHub for a couple of Oracle products. But just not for Oracle unified Directory. Ok, there is a issue requesting such a Docker image see Issue #656. Well… challenge accepted. I did build my own OUD GitHub Repository for OUD Docker deployments.

My GitHub repository oehrlis/docker-oud does contain the Docker build files to facilitate installation, configuration, and environment setup for Docker DevOps users. The project allows you to create two different types of docker images.

  • Standalone Oracle Unified Directory 12.2.1.3.0 to setup and run Oracle Unified Directory. This is the smaller image with only the OUD binaries used to set up and run an OUD directory or proxy server. Administration has to be done via dsconfig, ldapmodify or any other regular LDAP command line or GUI tools.
  • Collocated Oracle Unified Directory 12.2.1.3.0 and Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure 12.2.1.3.0. A rather big docker image to setup and run an Oracle Unified Directory Server Manager (OUDSM). My intention was to use this docker image primarily for OUDSM. Nevertheless, it can also be used to build an OUD directory or proxy server which is operated in a WLS domain. So in Collocated Mode (Under Same Domain) or Non-Collocated Mode (Under Separate Domains).

To setup my Docker OUD images, I’ve tried to follow a few best practice, rules (Oracle’s golden rules for contributing to oracle/docker-images) as well hints by my workmates (Philipp Salvisberg and others).

  • Always aim to produce the smallest possible image. I did not push this to the maximum and start to remove unused components in the Oracle binaries. Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure is currently outrageous large to only running OUDSM.
  • Separate persistent data from the image / container and put it on a volume. Or at least let the user decide, if he want to put it on a volume or not.
  • No public distribution of Docker images containing Oracle software. That’s a legal requirement. My docker build scripts do provide a couple of possibilities to install the software.
  • Allow flexible configuration via –build-arg or -e but provide useful default values.
  • Use Oracle Linux as the base image and install only as much as you need.
  • And much more…

Build Docker Images

The Docker images have to be build manually based on oehrlis/docker-oud from GitHub. To assist in building the images, you can use the scripts/buildDockerImage.sh script. See below for instructions and usage. The buildDockerImage.sh script is just a utility shell script to setup the docker build command and is an easy way for beginners to get started. Expert users are welcome to directly call docker build with their preferred set of parameters.

Usage of buildDockerImage.sh:

buildDockerImage.sh [-hv] [-t TYPE] [-o DOCKER_BUILD_OPTION]
-h Usage (this message)
-v Enable verbose mode
-t TYPE OUD image and installation type to build.
Possible types are:
OUD : Standalone Oracle Unified Directory Server
OUDSM : Collocated Oracle Unified Directory Server.
Default is type is OUD.
-o DOCKER_BUILD_OPTION Passes on Docker build option

Logfile : buildDockerImage.log

Due to license restrictions from Oracle, the Docker images containing Oracle software can not provided on a public Docker repository (see [OTN Developer License Terms](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/licenses/standard-license-152015.html)). This is the reason why you have to build the images yourself and downloaded the required software prior image build. Alternatively it is possible to specify MOS credentials in scripts/.netrc or via build arguments. Using MOS download during image build will lead into smaller images, since the software will not be part of an intermediate container.

Obtaining Product Distributions

The software can either be downloaded from My Oracle Support, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) or Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (OSDC). The following steps will refer to the MOS software download to simplify the build process.

The following software is required for the Oracle Unified Directory Docker image:

  • Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.8 (1.8u152) Patch 26595894 for the OUD and OUDSM image
  • Oracle Unified Directory 12.2.1.3.0 Patch 26270957 for the OUD and OUDSM image
  • Oracle Fusion Middleware Infrastructure 12.2.1.3.0 Patch 26269885 just for OUDSM image

Manual Download Software

Simplest method to build the OUD or OUDSM image is to manually download the required software. However this will lead to bigger docker images, since the software is copied during build, which temporary blow up the container file-system. But its more safe because you do not have to store any MOS credentials. If you’ve enabled Docker experimental features, you could work around this and squash Squash newly built layers with docker build parameter --squash.

The corresponding links and checksum can be found in *.download files in the software folder. Alternatively the direct Oracle Support Download Links:

Copy all files to the software folder.

cp p26595894_180152_Linux-x86-64.zip docker-oud/software
cp p26270957_122130_Generic.zip docker-oud/software
cp p26269885_122130_Generic.zip docker-oud/software

Build the docker image either by using docker build or buildDockerImage.sh.


docker build -t oehrlis/oud -f Dockerfile.oud .
docker build -t oehrlis/oudsm -f Dockerfile.oudsm .

scripts/buildDockerImage.sh -v -t OUD
scripts/buildDockerImage.sh -v -t OUDSM

Automatic download with .netrc

The advantage of an automatic software download during build is the reduced image size. No additional image layers are created for the software and the final docker image is about 3GB smaller. But the setup script’s setup_oud.sh, setup_oud.sh and setup_oudsm.sh requires MOS credentials to download the software with using curl. Curl does read the credentials from the .netrc file in scripts folder. The .netrc file will be copied to /opt/docker/bin/.netrc, but it will be removed at the end of the build.

Create a .netrc file with the credentials for login.oracle.com.

echo "machine login.oracle.com login $MOS_USER password $MOS_PASSWORD" >docker-oud/scripts/.netrc

Build the docker image either by using docker build or buildDockerImage.sh.

docker build -t oehrlis/oud -f Dockerfile.oud .
docker build -t oehrlis/oudsm -f Dockerfile.oudsm .

scripts/buildDockerImage.sh -v -t OUD
scripts/buildDockerImage.sh -v -t OUDSM

Although this method has some security issues. The credentials will always remains in the intermediate layer. It is recommended to use a different approach discussed in the new blog post Smaller Oracle Docker images.

Automatic download with Build Arguments

This method is similar to the automatic download with .netrc file. Instead of manually creating a .netrc file it will created based on build parameters. Also with this method the .netrc file is deleted at the end.

Build the docker image with MOS credentials as arguments using docker build or buildDockerImage.sh.

docker build --build-arg MOS_USER=$MOS_USER \
--build-arg MOS_PASSWORD=$MOS_PASSWORD \
-t oehrlis/oud -f Dockerfile.oud .

scripts/buildDockerImage.sh -v -t OUD \

-o "--build-arg MOS_PASSWORD=$MOS_PASSWORD --build-arg MOS_USER=$MOS_USER"

The time taken to build the OUD or OUDSM image will depend on your internet speed. In any case it shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes. Although this method has as well some security issues. The credentials will always remains in the intermediate layer. It is recommended to use a different approach discussed in the new blog post Smaller Oracle Docker images.

Next Steps

You are now the happy owner of OUD Docker images with a standalone and / or collocated Oracle Directory Server installations. The next step is to start using these Docker images to run your OUD containers and deploy different kind of OUD and OUDSM configurations. I’ll provide how to build the containers as well some “behind the seance” information in my upcoming blog posts about OUD on Docker. Stay tuned.

Files and References

Below you find a few references related to Oracle Unified Directory on Docker:

One thought on “Oracle Unified Directory on Docker”

  1. Stefan Post author

    Just add some comments on security issues related to the download credentials for MOS. The credentials will always remains in the intermediate layer. It is recommended to use a different approach discussed in the new blog post Smaller Oracle Docker images.

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