Get Oracle Database 23c for free on your Mac M1

Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release is all over since Oracle released it yesterday. See the Official Oracle pages Oracle Database Free or the blog post by Gerald Venzl Introducing Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release. Connor McDonald even got a special delivery from Oracle.

A few important web pages related to Oracle Database 23c Free.

Landing page for Oracle Database Free
Download page for Oracle Database Free
Documentation Library Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release
Oracle® Database – Database Release Notes 23c
Oracle® Database – Oracle Database New Features Release 23c

Ok, so what do we do now in order to be able to use Oracle Database 23c Free on a Mac with Apple Silicon? Setup a Vagrant VM, Docker Container or rather use a cloud based solution? Below I show you how to do this relatively easily using a Docker container that runs reasonably well.

Requirements

Basically, x86-64 based Docker containers also run on Apple Silicon / ARM. ~~However, these are emulated with Rosetta2 and are not as stable / performant.~~ But the whole thing is a bit more complex than described there. Docker and colima can both use Rosetta 2, although Rosetta 2 is always slower than native ARM code but faster than QEMU. Because Rosetta 2 does not know or provide all instructions, it can lead to problems depending on the container. Therefore certain containers are less stable. QEMU on the other hand interprets every instruction. Thus it is more stable but slower. Therefore things are somewhat better when using colima with x86-64. In the end, the performance is not that great. However, it is sufficient for simple tests on the road. Maybe I will find some time to go deeper into the topics of ARM/x86-64 with Rosetta 2, QEMU etc.

Homebrew package manager for MacOS. Not mandatory, but makes life much easier
Docker Desktop for MacOS
Colima a container runtimes for macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup
Oracle Database 23c Free Docker image from the Oracle Container Registry
Oracle SQL Developer or SQLCli to access the database

Setup and Run

You can either configure all the stuff mentioned above manual or use brew. I do prever brew whenever possible. So let’s install brew first

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Update and upgrade your brew installation

brew update
brew upgrade

Install colima and Docker for MacOS

brew install colima docker

We are now ready to start colima. See GitHub repository abiosoft/colima for full usage

colima start --arch x86_64 --memory 4

Start up the Oracle Database 23c Free Docker container. As Docker has to pull about 3GB, it will take a while depending on the networkspeed.

docker run -d --name db23c -P container-registry.oracle.com/database/free

As usual, you have to wait a month for an Oracle database to be created. With Docker logs you can check when the database is available.

docker logs -f db23c

Starting Oracle Net Listener.
Oracle Net Listener started.
Starting Oracle Database instance FREE.
Oracle Database instance FREE started.

The Oracle base remains unchanged with value /opt/oracle
#########################
DATABASE IS READY TO USE!
#########################
The following output is now a tail of the alert.log:
===========================================================
Dumping current patch information
===========================================================
No patches have been applied
===========================================================
2023-04-05T06:35:33.856200+00:00
FREEPDB1(3):Opening pdb with Resource Manager plan: DEFAULT_PLAN
2023-04-05T06:35:40.175165+00:00
Completed: Pluggable database FREEPDB1 opened read write 
Completed: ALTER DATABASE OPEN

Set a new SYS password using setPassword.sh

docker exec db23c ./setPassword.sh <PASSWORD>

And here we go let’s connect via sqlplus as SYSDBA

docker exec -it db23c sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Developer-Release on Wed Apr 5 09:11:04 2023
Version 23.2.0.0.0

Copyright (c) 1982, 2023, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 23c Free, Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Developer-Release
Version 23.2.0.0.0

SQL> select sysdate;

SYSDATE
---------
05-APR-23

SQL>

If you prefer, you can also use SQL Developer. Just login to localhost, port and service name. If you started the container with -P like me, docker ps or docker ports shows the corresponding port.

docker port db23c

1521/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:49153
1521/tcp -> :::49153

SQL Developer configuration for the local Docker container. Port must be adjusted accordingly.

And here we go…

First Steops

Installation of the SCOTT schema. But first update the script to connect to the pluggable database.

docker exec db23c sed -i "s|CONNECT SCOTT/tiger$|CONNECT SCOTT/tiger@freepdb1|" \
/opt/oracle/product/23c/dbhomeFree/rdbms/admin/utlsampl.sql

Run SQLPlus to create the SCOTT schema

docker exec -it db23c sqlplus / as sysdba

ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER=freepdb1;
@?/rdbms/admin/utlsampl.sql

Create a new user and grant him read access to the tables of the SCOTT schema.

ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER=freepdb1;
CREATE USER king IDENTIFIED BY tiger;
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO king;
GRANT READ ANY TABLE ON SCHEMA scott TO king;

And test it as KING

CONNECT king/tiger@freepdb1
SET PAGESIZE 200
SET LINESIZE 120
SET PAGESIZE 200
SELECT * FROM scott.emp;

     EMPNO ENAME      JOB	       MGR HIREDATE	    SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
      7369 SMITH      CLERK	      7902 17-DEC-80	    800 		   20
      7499 ALLEN      SALESMAN	      7698 20-FEB-81	   1600        300	   30
      7521 WARD       SALESMAN	      7698 22-FEB-81	   1250        500	   30
      7566 JONES      MANAGER	      7839 02-APR-81	   2975 		   20
      7654 MARTIN     SALESMAN	      7698 28-SEP-81	   1250       1400	   30
      7698 BLAKE      MANAGER	      7839 01-MAY-81	   2850 		   30
      7782 CLARK      MANAGER	      7839 09-JUN-81	   2450 		   10
      7788 SCOTT      ANALYST	      7566 19-APR-87	   3000 		   20
      7839 KING       PRESIDENT 	   17-NOV-81	   5000 		   10
      7844 TURNER     SALESMAN	      7698 08-SEP-81	   1500 	 0	   30
      7876 ADAMS      CLERK	      7788 23-MAY-87	   1100 		   20
      7900 JAMES      CLERK	      7698 03-DEC-81	    950 		   30
      7902 FORD       ANALYST	      7566 03-DEC-81	   3000 		   20
      7934 MILLER     CLERK	      7782 23-JAN-82	   1300 		   10

14 rows selected.

Excellent, full READ access to a schema respectively the tables of a schema with only one statement.

Conclusion

The Developer Release of Oracle Database 23c is great. A unique opportunity to test various Oracle features very early without having to join the Oracle Beta Program. But be aware, do not expect light speed when runing an Oracle Database Container on Apple Silicon. This workaround is ideal when you are on the road and want to test nes stuff. For reliable speed, there is no way around running Oracle Database 23c on an x86-64 system. Either you have an old Mac lying around or you build a small environment in the cloud. But who knows, maybe Oracle will surprise us with an ARM version of Oracle Database 23c…

3 thoughts on “Get Oracle Database 23c for free on your Mac M1”

abdul lotif 5. July 2023 at 08:37

After restarting the pc the docker image is removed. What should I need to do to consist all data??
Luis Sanoja 20. September 2023 at 15:11

Hello thank you very much for sharing, i have a question, how can i het SQL Developer for Mac M1?
Stefan Post author20. September 2023 at 16:26

Hi You find a dedicate version of SQL Developer for Mac M1 on the Oracle download page. See https://www.oracle.com/database/sqldeveloper/technologies/download/ It is the Mac ARM64 with JDK 11 included version, which you have to use. Cheers Stefan

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