Learn how you can create, view, move, change backup policies, manage
maintenance schedules, and perform other Oracle Autonomous Container
Database management.
An Autonomous Container Database resource provides a container for your Autonomous Databases. You can create multiple Autonomous Container Database resources in a single Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster resource, but you must create at least one before you can create any Autonomous Databases.
Follow these steps to create an autonomous container database on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
Note
You can create Autonomous Container Databases (ACD) with the 23ai database software version only on Autonomous Exadata VM Clusters (AVMC) created on or after May 28, 2024, with the appropriate Tags. See 23ai Database Software Version Tag Requirements for details.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click
Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
Click Create Autonomous Container Database.
The Create Autonomous Container Database page is displayed.
Provide the following basic information:
Compartment: Choose the compartment in which your autonomous container database will be created.
Display Name: Enter a user-friendly description or other information that helps you easily identify the
autonomous container database. The display name does not have to be unique. Avoid entering confidential information.
Select the Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster you wish to use to create your autonomous container database.
Optionally, you can configure an automatic maintenance
schedule.
Click Modify Maintenance.
To configure the maintenance schedule, select Specify a
schedule.
Choose your preferred month, week, weekday, and start
time for autonomous container database maintenance.
Under Week of the month, specify which week
of the month maintenance will take place. Weeks start on the
1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd days of the month, and have a duration
of 7 days. Weeks start and end based on calendar dates, not days
of the week. Maintenance cannot be scheduled for the fifth week
of months that contain more than 28 days.
Under Day of the week, specify the day of
the week on which the maintenance will occur.
Under Start hour, specify the hour during
which the maintenance run will begin.
Click Save Changes.
Select a Backup Destination Type:
Object Storage: Stores backups in an Oracle-managed object storage
container on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Optionally, you can use this field
to specify your corporate HTTP proxy. Oracle recommends using an HTTP proxy
when possible for enhanced security.
Network File System (NFS): Stores backups in one of your previously
defined backup destinations that use Network File System (NFS) storage.
Select a Backup
Destination.
Recovery Appliance: Stores backups in one of your previously defined
backup destinations that use Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance.
Select a Backup Destination.
Provide a unique name for the database.
Provide a VPC user name and password.
To use ZDLRA as the Backup Destination, before creating the ACD,
add the database to the Recovery Appliance, and assign a protection policy
to the database.
Create a VPC user on the Recovery Appliance or use an
existing user.
Add the database to the Recovery Appliance using the
intended unique name of the database (db_unique_name)
and intended protection
policy.
EXEC dbms_ra.add_db(db_unique_name=>'<DB_UNIQUE_NAME of the database to add>', protection_policy_name=>'<name of the protection policy to assign to the database>', reserved_space=>'<guaranteed disk space available for the protected database>');
Select an NFS Storage resource. Click Change compartment to select a
compartment where your NFS Storage resources reside.
The following Advanced Options are available:
Backup retention period: Customize the retention period for automatic
backups. For Recovery Appliance, you cannot select the retention
period.
Encryption Key: Choose an encryption option,
Encrypt using Oracle-managed keys or Encrypt using
customer-managed keys. The default option is Oracle-managed
keys.
To use customer-managed keys, select the
Encrypt using customer-managed keys option, select the
compartment where you have created the Key Store, and then select
the Key Store. As part of the CDB creation, a new wallet is created
for the CDB in Oracle Key Vault (OKV). Also, a TDE Master Key is
generated for the CDB and added to the wallet in OKV.
Note
Autonomous Container Databases and Autonomous
Databases only support 256-bit Hardware Security Module
(HSM) Vault keys.
Validate OKV Key encryption post restart: OKV
TDE Master Key is validated every time you start or restart
your ACD. Start or restart fails if the key is not
validated. Work requests and life cycle states indicate the
reason for failure.
View OKV keys post database restore: When you
restore a CDB, the master key associated with that backup is
restored as well.
Enable CDB backups to capture wallet name: CDB
backups information about the wallet associated with the
backup.
OKV Wallet or TDE Master Key on CDB deletion:
If you delete a CDB, then the wallet and TDE Master Key
remains in OKV and will not be deleted.
Tags: Optionally, you can apply tags. If you have permission to create a
resource, you also have permission to apply free-form tags to that
resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permission to use the
tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource
Tags. If you are not sure if you should apply tags, skip this
option (you can apply tags later) or ask your administrator. Avoid
entering confidential information.
View the List of Autonomous Container Databases in an Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster π
Follow these steps to view a list of an autonomous container databases in a given autonomous Exadata VM cluster on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Exadata VM Clusters.
Click the display name of the Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster that you interested in.
In the Autonomous Exadata VM Clusters Details page, a list of Autonomous Container Databases is displayed under Resources.
You can also filter out to view Autonomous Container Databases in a particular compartment. Under List Scope, select a compartment from the Compartment drop-down list.
View the List of Autonomous Container Databases in a Compartment π
Follow these steps to view a list of an autonomous container databases in a given compartment on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
Under List Scope, select a compartment from the
Compartment drop-down list.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click
Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the
database you wish to view details.
Click More actions, and then click Edit Maintenance
Preferences.
In the resulting Edit automatic Maintenance panel, enter the following
details:
Configure maintenance method:
Rolling: The Rolling method updates the ACD,
one node at a time, with no downtime for the Autonomous
Databases.
Non-rolling The Non-rolling method shuts down
and updates the ACD in parallel across all nodes. This method
minimizes maintenance time but it requires full downtime for the
ACD and all associated Autonomous Databases.
Optionally, you can also select Enable time-zone update.
Time-zone files can only be updated using the non-rolling
configuration method.
Note
All the RUs that include time-zone updates will be
patched using the non-rolling maintenance method (with
full system downtime) only. So, if you configure your
maintenance to the rolling method and enable time zone
update, all the RUs that include a time-zone update are
applied in the non-rolling method only. Only those RUs
without a time-zone update are applied in the rolling
method.
Configure container database maintenance version: Choose Next
release update (RU) or Latest release update (RU) to
configure the next maintenance version of the Autonomous Container
Database. Accordingly, the autonomous container database will be updated
to the next immediate release or the latest release in the upcoming
maintenance window.
Configure automatic maintenance schedule: You can change the
maintenance schedule settings, as desired:
Select No preference to permit Oracle to schedule
maintenance as needed based on the maintenance schedule of the
Exadata Infrastructure resource hosting the Autonomous Container
Database.
Select Custom schedule to restrict when Oracle can
schedule maintenance. You can choose your preferred month, week,
weekday, start time, and buffer period between primary and
standby maintenance execution for the Autonomous Container
Database maintenance.
You can schedule a one-time maintenance activity to update time zone file for an
Autonomous Container Database. For ACDs with Oracle Home version prior to the latest
release, you can also choose to update to the latest RU along with the time-zone
file update in this schedule.
Note
For on-demand maintenance updates with a time-zone file update, the standby ACD
will be patched 3 days before the primary ACD in autonomous Data Guard-enabled
ACDs.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click
Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the
database you wish to view details.
Click More actions, and then click Schedule maintenance.
In the resulting Schedule Maintenance panel, enter the following
details:
Configure update type
Release Update (RU): Click to schedule a release update
(RU) along with a time zone file update. This option is disabled
if your ACD is already patched to the latest RU.
Time-zone file update: Click to schedule time zone file
update only.
Note
Time zone files can only be updated using the
non-rolling configuration method that involves full system
downtime.
Configure maintenance method:
Rolling: The Rolling method updates the ACD,
one node at a time, with no downtime for the Autonomous
Databases.
Non-rolling: The Non-rolling method shuts
down and updates the ACD in parallel across all nodes. This
method minimizes maintenance time but it requires full downtime
for the ACD and all associated Autonomous Databases.
Enable time-zone update
Optionally, you can also
select Enable time-zone update. Time-zone files can only be
updated using the non-rolling configuration method.
If you
configure your maintenance to the rolling method and
enable time-zone update, all the RUs that include a
time-zone update are applied in the non-rolling method only. Only
those RUs without a time-zone update are applied in the rolling
method.
Schedule start time
Using the calendar tool, choose a date and
time for the maintenance update.
Click Schedule maintenance.
Note
The maintenance settings selected from the Schedule maintenance dialog
apply to the maintenance update scheduled from this dialog only. These
changes do not apply to the maintenance preferences defined at the ACD
level.
Follow these steps to rotate the TDE Master key. On key rotation, the ACD life cycle
goes through the regular updating state and returns to available.
You can rotate the TDE Master key as many times as you want. The new TDE
Master Key is stored in the same wallet in which the previous key was stored.
Rotating the TDE Master Key leads to the new key being generated in OKV and assigned
to this database. You can view all of the keys in OKV.
Note
You can rotate both Oracle-managed and customer-managed encryption keys.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata
Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the
database you wish to view details.
On the Autonomous Container Database Details page, click
Rotate Encryption Key.
On the Rotate Encryption Key dialog, click Rotate
Encryption Key.
Change the Backup Retention Policy of an
Autonomous Container Database π
Follow these steps to update the backup retention policy of an
autonomous container database on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
Note
By default, database backups are retained for 30 days if you have
chosen Object Storage or NFS as a backup destination. You have the option of
retaining backups for 7, 15, 30, or 60 days. If you have chosen Local storage as
a backup destination, then by default, database backups are retained for a
maximum of 7 days. If you have chosen Recovery Appliance as a backup
destination, then you cannot update the backup retention policy.
The current backup retention policy for an Autonomous Container
Database is displayed on the Autonomous Container Database details page.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the
container database you are interested in.
On the Autonomous Container Database details
page, under Backup, click the Edit link in the Backup retention
policy field.
Specify a backup retention period from the list of choices.
Change the Maintenance Schedule of an Autonomous Container Database π
Follow these steps to change the maintenance schedule of an autonomous container database on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the container database you are interested in.
On the Autonomous Container Database details page, under
Maintenance, click the edit link in the
Maintenance Details field.
In the Edit Automatic Maintenance dialog that opens,
configure automatic maintenance schedule.
No preference: The system assigns a date and
start time for container database maintenance.
Specify a schedule: Choose your preferred month,
week, weekday, and start time for container database maintenance.
Follow these steps to restart an autonomous container database on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system.
The restart of an autonomous container database occurs in a rolling fashion, first
stopping and starting one of the container database's database instances and then
stopping and starting its other database instance.
Note
You cannot restart an autonomous container database if a backup is in progress on any of its autonomous databases.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the container database you are interested in.
Autonomous Container Database details page is displayed.
Autonomous Container Database details page displays details that include
total OCPU, available OCPU, reclaimable OCPU, and database memory per OCPU
in GB.
On the Autonomous Container Database details page, click
Restart.
In the confirmation dialog, type the name of the Autonomous Container
Database.
Click Restart.
(or)
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata
Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the Actions
icon (three dots) for the container database you are interested in, and
then select Restart.
In the confirmation dialog, type the name of the Autonomous Container
Database.
Move an Autonomous Container Database to Another Compartment π
Follow these steps to move an autonomous container database on an Oracle Exadata Database Service on
Cloud@Customer system from one compartment to another compartment.
Note
To move an autonomous container database you must have the right to manage it in its current compartment and in the compartment you are moving it to.
As soon as you move an autonomous container database to a different compartment, the policies that govern the new compartment apply immediately and affect access to the autonomous container database. Therefore, both your and other Oracle Cloud users' access to it may change, depending on the policies governing the user account's access to resources. For example, a user may lose the ability to create autonomous databases in the autonomous container database, given its new compartment.
Open the navigation menu. Under Oracle Database, click Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.
Click Autonomous Container Databases.
In the list of Autonomous Container Databases, click the display name of the container database you wish to move.