Quickly installing APEX 22 and ORDS 22

Ahmed Aboulnaga -

Here are my quick notes on installing Oracle APEX Release 22.1 and Oracle REST Data Services 22.2.

Extract Software

1. Set path. Use this path when installing APEX, ORDS, and Tomcat. Customize as necessary.

export JAVA_HOME=/u01/oracle/jdk-18.0.1
export JAVA_OPTS="-Dconfig.url=${ORDS_CONFIG}"
export APEX_HOME=/u01/oracle/apex
export ORDS_HOME=/u01/oracle/ords
export ORDS_CONFIG=/u01/oracle/ords
export TOMCAT_HOME=/u01/oracle/apache-tomcat-8.5.78
export PATH=$ORDS_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export SOFTWARE_BINARIES=/u01/software

2. Download Java, APEX, ORDS, and Tomcat software.

cd ${SOFTWARE_BINARIES}
wget --no-check-certificate https://download.oracle.com/java/18/latest/jdk-18_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz
wget --no-check-certificate https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/apex/apex-latest.zip
wget --no-check-certificate https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/java/ords/ords-latest.zip
wget --no-check-certificate https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.78/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.78.tar.gz

3. Extract Java.

cd /u01/oracle
gtar -xzvf ${SOFTWARE_BINARIES}/jdk-18_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz

4. Extract APEX.

cd /u01/oracle
unzip ${SOFTWARE_BINARIES}/apex-latest.zip

5. Extract ORDS.

mkdir -p ${ORDS_HOME}
cd ${ORDS_HOME}
unzip ${SOFTWARE_BINARIES}/ords-latest.zip

6. Extract Tomcat.

cd /u01/oracle
tar xvf ${SOFTWARE_BINARIES}/apache-tomcat-8.5.78.tar.gz

7. Copy images from APEX extracted folder to Tomcat webapps, and rename the folder from "images" to "i".

cp -Rp ${APEX_HOME}/images ${TOMCAT_HOME}/webapps
mv ${TOMCAT_HOME}/webapps/images ${TOMCAT_HOME}/webapps/i

8. Change Tomcat configuration to allow the Tomcat Manager console to be accessed outside of localhost.

vi ${TOMCAT_HOME}/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml
Comment out the <Valve> entry.

9. Change Tomcat configuration to create a user to access the Tomcat Manager console.

vi ${TOMCAT_HOME}/conf/tomcat-users.xml
Add the following entry:
  <role rolename="manager-gui"/>
  <user username="admin" password="welcome1" roles="manager-gui"/>

Install APEX Schemas

1. Copy ${APEX_HOME} to your database server.

2. Change to the APEX folder (on your database server).

cd ${APEX_HOME}

3. Connect to the database as SYS. 

sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

4. Run various APEX SQL scripts. If each script exits the sqlplus prompt, then simply reconnect and run the next script.

SQL> @apexins APEX APEX TEMP /i/
SQL> @apxchpwd.sql
SQL> ALTER USER apex_public_user IDENTIFIED BY "welcome1" ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
SQL> @apex_rest_config.sql

Install ORDS

1. Go back to the middleware host.

2. Install ORDS.

cd ${ORDS_HOME}
ords install

3. You will be prompted with the following:

oracle@hostname:/u01/oracle/ords> ords install
2022-05-20T12:34:07.142Z INFO
Your configuration folder /u01/oracle/ords is located in ORDS product folder.
Oracle recommends to use a different configuration folder.
 
ORDS: Release 22.1 Production on Fri May 20 12:34:07 2022
 
Copyright (c) 2010, 2022, Oracle.
 
Configuration:
  /u01/oracle/ords/
 
The configuration folder /u01/oracle/ords does not contain any configuration files.
 
Oracle REST Data Services - Interactive Install
 
  Enter a number to select the type of installation
    [1] Install or upgrade ORDS in the database only
    [2] Create or update a database pool and install/upgrade ORDS in the database
    [3] Create or update a database pool only
  Choose [2]:

3. Select Create or update a database pool and install/upgrade ORDS in the database.

4. Select Basic (host name, port, service name).

5. Enter your database information:

  • Host name: dbhost
  • Port: 1521
  • Service name: servicename

6. Enter the SYSTEM password.

7. Select Install ORDS in the database, which uses the SYSAUX and TEMP tablespaces (you can change the schemas if you want).

8. Select Database Actions (all features).

9. Select Configure and start ORDS in standalone mode.

10. Select HTTP protocol.

  • HTTP port: 8080
  • APEX static resources: /u01/oracle/apache-tomcat-8.5.78/webapps/i

11. Create a database account for initial development and grant permissions:

CREATE USER apex_mycustom IDENTIFIED BY "welcome1";
GRANT resource, connect TO apex_mycustom;
GRANT create dimension TO apex_mycustom;
GRANT create job TO apex_mycustom;
GRANT create materialized view TO apex_mycustom;
GRANT create synonym TO apex_mycustom;
GRANT create view TO apex_mycustom;

Startup Tomcat

1. Copy the ORDS WAR file to Tomcat webapps.

cp ${ORDS_HOME}/ords.war ${TOMCAT_HOME}/webapps

2. Startup Tomcat.

cd ${TOMCAT_HOME}/bin
./startup.sh

3. Login to the APEX console as the INTERNAL workspace and user ADMIN.

  • http://hostname:8080/ords/