Oracle 26ai Container

Overview

Use this skill to choose the right Oracle 26ai image and run repeatable Podman workflows for dev/test environments.

Choose Image Flavor

• Use Full image (container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest) when advanced features are required.
• Use Lite image (container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest-lite) when faster pull/start and smaller footprint are preferred (for example CI smoke tests).
• Expect Lite to exclude a set of advanced features; do not assume feature parity with Full.

Start Containers

# Full image
podman run -d --name oracle26 container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest

# Lite image
podman run -d --name oracle26lite container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest-lite

• Wait for podman ps to report status healthy before connecting clients.
• Expect random SYS/SYSTEM/PDBADMIN passwords when no password input is provided.
• For reproducible CI, pin explicit image tags or digests instead of relying only on mutable latest tags.

Configure Passwords

• Prefer --secret inputs on Podman for sensitive credentials.
• Use -e ORACLE_PWD=<password> only for local, low-risk workflows.
• Rotate account passwords after startup when needed:

podman exec <container_name> ./setPassword.sh <new_password>

Configure Persistence

• Mount data at /opt/oracle/oradata to persist DB state across container recreation.
• Prefer named Podman volumes for fast startup from prebuilt datafiles.
• Expect first-time initialization to take significantly longer when mounting an empty host directory.
• Ensure mounted host paths are writable by container uid 54321 (oracle user in container).

Connect and Verify

• Publish listener port 1521 with -p <host_port>:1521 or -P.
• Use service FREE for CDB root and FREEPDB1 for default PDB.
• Connect from inside container:

podman exec -it <container_name> sqlplus system/<password>@FREE
podman exec -it <container_name> sqlplus pdbadmin/<password>@FREEPDB1

Run Post-Setup and Startup Scripts

• Mount setup scripts to /opt/oracle/scripts/setup.
• Mount startup scripts to /opt/oracle/scripts/startup.
• Use .sql or .sh files and prefix with numeric ordering (01_, 02_, ...).
• Expect setup scripts to run only during fresh database creation; prebuilt DB startup alone does not re-run setup scripts.

Handle Full vs Lite Differences

• ORACLE_PWD is available across Full and Lite images.
• Use Full-specific env toggles (ORACLE_CHARACTERSET, ENABLE_ARCHIVELOG, ENABLE_FORCE_LOGGING) only when Full image behavior is required.
• Use Lite-specific options (for example ORACLE_PDB) only when running Lite image workflows.
• Avoid Lite for scenarios that need Oracle True Cache or other excluded advanced components.

Use Recommended Defaults

• Use Lite + ephemeral storage for CI validation and adapter smoke tests.
• Use Full + persisted volume + explicit port mapping for feature validation and deeper local debugging.
• Gate tests that depend on advanced Oracle features so Lite-based CI jobs skip them explicitly.

Official References

• https://container-registry.oracle.com/ords/ocr/ba/database/free
• https://www.oracle.com/database/free/
• https://www.oracle.com/database/free/get-started/
• https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/property-graph/25.3/spgdg/quick-start-graph-server-26ai-lite-container.html
• https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-run.1.html
• https://docs.podman.io/en/latest/markdown/podman-secret-create.1.html

Shared Styleguide Baseline

• Use shared styleguides for generic language/framework rules to reduce duplication in this skill.
• General Principles
• Oracle SQL*Plus
• Bash
• Keep this skill focused on tool-specific workflows, edge cases, and integration details.