PaaS - How to setup an Oracle Integration Cloud instance

What is Oracle Cloud Integration?
As you may be aware, Oracle have released the next installment of their PaaS Integration products: Oracle Integration Cloud. Don't be alarmed, the Oracle Integration Cloud is not a brand new product, but it is rather a bundle of existing PaaS offerings.

A new option has been added under the PaaS Integration options: 'App Integration' (Oracle Integration Cloud).

Oracle Integration Cloud comes with:

• Integrations (ICS)
• Processes (PCS)
• Visual Builder (VBCS, previously known as ABCS)
• Insights / Integration Analytics

Oracle Integration Cloud, Oracle's compelling new cloud offering combines Application Integration, Process Automation, Visual Application Building and Integration Analytics into one unified cloud service. 

It can be confusing when comparing to the previous singular offerings, but here is a good summary of OIC/ICS/SOACS by Phil Wilkins: Blogpost

Oracle Cloud Integration instance
Now let's crack on with creating an Oracle Integration Cloud instance:

There are pre-requisites before setting up Oracle Integration Cloud. You must have the following Oracle Cloud Services already setup:
1. Oracle Storage Container (See blogpost here)
2. Oracle Cloud Database (See blogpost here)



1. Once logged into Oracle Cloud, from the Dashboard menu, click on the 'Integration Cloud' option:

2. On the Oracle Integration Cloud Service page, click 'Create Service':

3. Integration Cloud - Specify details for your Integration Cloud:

4. Integration Cloud Details - Specific details for your Integration Cloud: 

Note: Feature Set by default is 'Integration and Process', this means your OIC instance will consist of both Integration and Process (and the supporting tools). You can decide to select only Integration, this will mean your instance will not include Process. Think of an On-prem set up of the SOA Suite, you could have only the SOA Suite, but you can also have the SOA Suite with BPM.

Note 2: Cloud instances of Storage Container and an Oracle Database were pre-requisites, and the details will be entered here.

5. Integration Cloud Details Confirmation:

6. After clicking create, you will be redirected to the Integration Cloud Services page where you will see your new Integration Cloud instance with a Status of 'Creating Service':

7. Provisioning of your Integration Cloud instance takes just under an hour. Quite a lot going on behind the scenes. I cooked and ate my dinner during the provisioning, and just as I had finished, I received an email from Oracle notifying that my Integration Cloud instance was ready to use. :)


8. Click on your Integration Cloud instance to view an overview of the topology. Click on the services icon to view links to the instance Enterprise Manager, Admin Console or the Integration Cloud Home Page:

9. Click on 'Open Integration Cloud Home Page' and you will be taken to where all the magic will happen!

In further blogposts, I will cover some examples of Integrations, Processes and Visual Builder (Zero code apps). Stay tuned!

Oracle Integration Cloud - Technical Tutorials for the various Oracle Cloud offerings - Saas, Paas, IaaS

Welcome to my central hub for links to my blogposts that offer tutorials and technical guides for all things Oracle Cloud related.

This post will be kept updated as I post more. Enjoy!

PaaS - Platform as a Service

Oracle Integration Cloud
PaaS - How to setup an Oracle Integration Cloud instance

Oracle API Platform Cloud Service 

PaaS - How to setup the Oracle API Platform Cloud Service (Part 1)

PaaS - How to install Oracle API Gateway and register with Oracle API Platform Cloud Service (Part 2)

PaaS - How to Manage and Access an API with Oracle API Platform Cloud (Part 3)

IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service

Oracle Cloud Database Cloud (DBaaS)

DBaaS - How to create an Oracle Database in the Cloud 

Oracle Cloud Storage

IaaS - Oracle Cloud Storage - How to create an Oracle Storage Container in the Cloud

PaaS - How to Manage and Access an API with Oracle API Platform Cloud (Part 3)

In previous posts, we learnt how to set up an Oracle API Platform Cloud Service, then Install the Oracle API Gateway and register it with the API Platform Cloud instance:

• PaaS - How to setup the Oracle API Platform Cloud Service (Part 1)
• PaaS - How to install Oracle API Gateway and register with Oracle API Platform Cloud Service (Part 2)

In this post, I will cover the following:

• Create a simple REST based service.
• Deploy the service to a separate WebLogic Managed server instance (used to host deployed applications).
• Create the API entry within the Oracle API Platform Cloud instance and point to the service on the application WebLogic Managed server.
• Allow the Oracle API Gateway to poll the Logical Gateway / 'phone home' and fetch the API, Policies etc.
• Attempt to access the service via the Oracle API Gateway Node.
• If all goes well, we will be routed to the deployed service and will use the Analytics tool on the API Management Portal to confirm the end-to-end activity.

Notes: 

• I am covering a simple end to end. No additional Policies are applied to the API.
• I am using the main Administrator user (weblogic) for all activities. Ideally, we would have users assigned to x and y roles to perform respective tasks. 
• The IP addresses of the Application managed server and Gateway Node are being used rather than Load Balancer URL's - Ideally, the servers will be placed behind an LB and the LB URL will be utilised in the API Management implementation.

Firstly, create and deploy an API service to an Application server

1. I have created a REST service - I won't go in-depth too much in terms of the coding, but I have used JDeveloper to create a simple service and when invoked, will return a JSON response:

2. The REST Service has been deployed to a WebLogic Managed server:

3. Now, I call the REST service directly from the Managed Server it has been deployed on. URL:

http://wcp12cr2:7001/apiblog/resources/helloworldpath

Next is where the fun starts: Let's manage the above service with Oracle API Platform Cloud

4. Log into your API Management Portal (https://CLOUD_IP/apiplatform):

5. By default, you will land on the APIs page:

6. Now, let's continue to create our first API entry. The 'View Documentation' directs you to the following Oracle Documentation. Click 'Create API':

7. Populate the Name, Version and Description of your API:

8. An API Container will be created:

9. Click on the new API so we can continue to populate the implemenation details:

10. Hover over 'API Request' and click 'Edit':

11. In the 'Edit Policy' dialog, populate the API Endpoint URL of your deployed service:

12. Click Apply. The 'API Request' box will be updated with the URL. In the top right, click 'Save Changes':

13. Hover over 'Service Request' and click 'Edit':

14. In the Edit Policy dialog, select 'Enter a URL' and enter the URL to the REST service created above. In this case, it is http://wcp12cr2:7001/apiblog/resources/helloworldpath

15. Click Apply. The 'Service Request' box will be updated with the URL. In the top right, click 'Save Changes':

Next, we will begin the process of Deploying the API to our Gateway Node

16. Confirm our Gateway Node is running by using the status command to ensure the Gateway will fetch the deployed API:

17. If for any reason, the Gateway Node is not running, we can still continue with the API Deployment. The Gateway Node will perform a fetch when it comes back online.

18. Before we deploy the API, I want to show an unresolved request of accessing the service through the Gateway managed server. We will then access the same request again after the deployment to show that the Gateway has pulled down our deployed API correctly:

19. Back on the Management Portal, click on the 'Deployments' icon from the left:

20. Click on 'Deploy API':

21. Select our Gateway Node instance that was previously configured and then click 'Deploy':

22. Now, a request for Deployment will be Submitted. Click on the 'Waiting' tab to see the request:

23. Let's move onto approving the Request.

24. Click on 'Gateways' > Click on the Logical Gateway we have selected to deploy to > Click on the 'Deployments' icon. Our request has automatically moved to 'Waiting'. Typically, the Request would appear under 'Requesting' but this step has been skipped because I have used the Administrator user (weblogic) to create the Deployment Request. If the request appears under 'Requesting', then a Gateway Manager user must Approve the request first. Then the Request will move to 'Waiting':

25. Note: Once Deployments have been Requested and Approved, they will automatically appear under the 'Waiting' tab. This means that Requests will be processed once the Gateway Node polls the Logical Gateway or 'phones home'. (Clever eh!)

26. Once the Gateway Node has polled our Deployment(s), the Request should move from 'Waiting' to 'Deployed' automatically:

27. Now for the big finale! We are ready to access our service via the Gateway URL:

http://10.0.2.15:8000/apiblog/resources/helloworldpath

28. Success! JSON Response has been returned. 

Next, let's take a look at the Analytics within the API Management Portal

29. In the Logical Gateway instance, click on the 'Analytics' icon:

30. We can assess several types of statistics for the requests we have made:

That's it! Our simple end-to-end has been implemented and tested. In my next blogposts, I will focus on integrating our API Platform with Apiary for a focus on API First design. I will explore applying Policies such as Authentication etc. on the above solution.

- OS.

DBaaS - How to create an Oracle Database in the Cloud

Creating an Oracle Database in the Cloud is relatively straight forward! You provide it with pre-requisite details, and then backend Oracle services do all the hard work for you.

Follow the steps below to create your first Oracle Database in the Cloud.

1. Once logged into Oracle Cloud, from the Dashboard menu, select the 'Database' option:

2. On the Database Services page, click 'Create Service':

3. Service - Provide basic service instance information:

Enter the basic details about the Database, such as its Name and Description.
The email address entered for Notification Email will send emails related to the operation of the Database.
The Software Release is the version of the Database to be created. In this example, I selected the lastest version: 12c Release 2.

Once all details are entered, click Next.

4. Service Details - Provide details for this Oracle Database Cloud Service instance:

Enter the configuration details for the new Database.
The Administrator password will be used for user sys or sysdba. Make sure you make a note of this as you will need these details to connect/integrate with your Database instance going forward.

SSH Public Key
This functionality ensures you are able to connect to the DB externally using a private key. Click Edit:

You can either:
a) Browse and upload a public key file - ensure you have the respective private key already
b) Enter the text of the public key - ensure you have the respective private key already
c) 'Create a New Key' - The Oracle functionality generates a public and private key for you. In my example, I allow the page to create my Public key and I save the Private key locally:

Backup and Recovery Configuration
You can either set up your Database to allow Backing up to a Storage Container or choose not to via the Backup Destination dropdown. In my example, I have already created a Storage Container separately (IaaS - Oracle Cloud Storage - How to create an Oracle Storage Container in the Cloud).

For the Cloud Storage Container attribute, you must enter the URL to the specific Storage Container. The format for the URL is as follows:
https://DOMAIN_NAME.storage.oraclecloud.com/v1/Storage-DOMAIN_NAME/CONTAINER_NAME

In my example, my URL is: https://onkaroracle.storage.oraclecloud.com/v1/Storage-onkaroracle/cloudStorage 

The username and password are the credentials of the user for that domain.

Initialize Data From Backup
You can also create a Database instance from an existing backup instance. This can also be done at a later date once your Database is already set up through the Database configuration. I have not tried this yet and assume it will use a backup from within a Storage Container. Maybe a blogpost for another day.

Once all configuration details are entered, click Next.


5. Confirmation - Once you are satisfied after reviewing all the configuration, click Create.

Back on the Oracle Database Cloud Service page, you will see your instance of the Database with a Status of Creating Service... Now go grab a snack or take a break as the creation of the Database will take around 30 minutes! Oracle will send an email to the email address used for the Notification Email attribute once the Database is set up and running.

On another blogpost, I will show how we can connect to the Database in the Cloud using tools such as SQL Developer etc.