Configuring a DB instance for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle - Amazon Relational Database Service
Multitenant architecture considerationsCreating an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instanceRDS Custom service-linked roleConnecting to your RDS Custom DB instance using Session ManagerConnecting to your RDS Custom DB instance using SSHLogging in to your RDS Custom for Oracle database as SYSInstalling additional software components on your RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance

Configuring a DB instance for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle

You can create an RDS Custom DB instance, and then connect to it using Secure Shell (SSH) or AWS Systems Manager.

Multitenant architecture considerations

If you create an Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance with the multitenant architecture (custom-oracle-ee-cdb engine type), your database is a container database (CDB). If you don't specify the multitenant architecture, your database is a traditional non-CDB that uses the custom-oracle-ee engine type. A non-CDB can't contain pluggable databases (PDBs). For more information, see Database architecture for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle.

When you create an RDS Custom for Oracle CDB instance, consider the following:

  • You can create a multitenant database only from an Oracle Database 19c CEV.

  • You can create a CDB instance only if the CEV uses the custom-oracle-ee-cdb engine type.

  • By default, your CDB is named RDSCDB, which is also the name of the Oracle System ID (Oracle SID). You can choose a different name.

  • You CDB contains only one initial PDB. The PDB name defaults to ORCL. You can choose a different name for your initial PDB, but the Oracle SID and the PDB name can’t be the same.

  • RDS Custom for Oracle doesn't supply APIs for PDBs. To create additional PDBs, use the Oracle SQL command CREATE PLUGGABLE DATABASE. RDS Custom for Oracle doesn't restrict the number of PDBs that you can create. In general, you are responsible for creating and managing PDBs, as in an on-premises deployment.

  • You can't use RDS APIs to create, modify, and delete PDBs: you must use Oracle SQL statements. When you create a PDB using Oracle SQL, we recommend that you take a manual snapshot afterward in case you need to perform point-in-time recovery (PITR).

  • You can't rename existing PDBs using Amazon RDS APIs. You also can't rename the CDB using the modify-db-instance command.

  • The open mode for the CDB root is READ WRITE on the primary and MOUNTED on a mounted standby database. RDS Custom for Oracle attempts to open all PDBs when opening the CDB. If RDS Custom for Oracle can’t open all PDBs, it issues the event tenant database shutdown.

Creating an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance

Create an Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance using either the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. The procedure is similar to the procedure for creating an Amazon RDS DB instance. For more information, see Creating an Amazon RDS DB instance.

If you included installation parameters in your CEV manifest, then your DB instance uses the Oracle base, Oracle home, and the ID and name of the UNIX/Linux user and group that you specified. The oratab file, which is created by Oracle Database during installation, points to the real installation location rather than to a symbolic link. When RDS Custom for Oracle runs commands, it runs as the configured OS user rather than the default user rdsdb. For more information, see Step 5: Prepare the CEV manifest.

Before you attempt to create or connect to an RDS Custom DB instance, complete the tasks in Setting up your environment for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle.

To create an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

  3. Choose Create database.

  4. In Choose a database creation method, select Standard create.

  5. In the Engine options section, do the following:

    1. For Engine type, choose Oracle.

    2. For Database management type, choose Amazon RDS Custom.

    3. For Architecture settings, do one of the following:

      • Select Multitenant architecture to create a container database (CDB). At creation, your CDB contains one PDB seed and one initial PDB.

        Note

        The Multitenant architecture setting is supported only for Oracle Database 19c.

      • Clear Multitenant architecture to create a non-CDB. A non-CDB can't contain PDBs.

    4. For Edition, choose Oracle Enterprise Edition.

    5. For Custom engine version, choose an existing RDS Custom custom engine version (CEV). A CEV has the following format: major-engine-version.customized_string. An example identifier is 19.cdb_cev1.

      If you chose Multitenant architecture in the previous step, you can only specify CEV that uses the custom-oracle-ee-cdb engine type. The console filters out CEVs that were created with the custom-oracle-ee engine type.

  6. In Templates, choose Production.

  7. In the Settings section, do the following:

    1. For DB instance identifier, enter a unique name for your DB instance.

    2. For Master username, enter a username. You can retrieve this value from the console later.

      When you connect to a non-CDB, the master user is the user for the non-CDB. When you connect to a CDB, the master user is the user for the PDB. To connect to the CDB root, log in to the host, start a SQL client, and create an administrative user with SQL commands.

    3. Clear Auto generate a password.

  8. Choose a DB instance class.

    For supported classes, see DB instance class support for RDS Custom for Oracle.

  9. In the Storage section, do the following:

    1. For Storage type, choose an SSD type: io1, gp2, or gp3. You have the following additional options:

      • For io1 or gp3, choose a rate for Provisioned IOPS. The default is 1000 for io1 and 12000 for gp3.

      • For gp3, choose a rate for Storage throughput. The default is 500 MiBps.

    2. For Allocated storage, choose a storage size. The default is 40 GiB.

  10. For Connectivity, specify your Virtual private cloud (VPC), DB subnet group, and VPC security group (firewall).

  11. For RDS Custom security, do the following:

    1. For IAM instance profile, choose the instance profile for your RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance.

      The IAM instance profile must begin with AWSRDSCustom, for example AWSRDSCustomInstanceProfileForRdsCustomInstance.

    2. For Encryption, choose Enter a key ARN to list the available AWS KMS keys. Then choose your key from the list.

      An AWS KMS key is required for RDS Custom. For more information, see Step 1: Create or reuse a symmetric encryption AWS KMS key.

  12. For Database options, do the following:

    1. (Optional) For System ID (SID), enter a value for the Oracle SID, which is also the name of your CDB. The SID is the name of the Oracle database instance that manages your database files. In this context, the term "Oracle database instance" refers exclusively to the system global area (SGA) and Oracle background processes. If you don't specify a SID, the value defaults to RDSCDB.

    2. (Optional) For Initial database name, enter a name. The default value is ORCL. In the multitenant architecture, the initial database name is the PDB name.

      Note

      The SID and PDB name must be different.

    3. For Option group, choose an option group or accept the default.

      Note

      The only supported option for RDS Custom for Oracle is Timezone. For more information, see Oracle time zone.

    4. For Backup retention period choose a value. You can't choose 0 days.

    5. For the remaining sections, specify your preferred RDS Custom DB instance settings. For information about each setting, see Settings for DB instances. The following settings don't appear in the console and aren't supported:

      • Processor features

      • Storage autoscaling

      • Availability & durability

      • Password and Kerberos authentication option in Database authentication (only Password authentication is supported)

      • Performance Insights

      • Log exports

      • Enable auto minor version upgrade

      • Deletion protection

  13. Choose Create database.

    Important

    When you create an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance, you might receive the following error: The service-linked role is in the process of being created. Try again later. If you do, wait a few minutes and then try again to create the DB instance.

    The View credential details button appears on the Databases page.

    To view the master user name and password for the RDS Custom DB instance, choose View credential details.

    To connect to the DB instance as the master user, use the user name and password that appear.

    Important

    You can't view the master user password again in the console. If you don't record it, you might have to change it. To change the master user password after the RDS Custom DB instance is available, log in to the database and run an ALTER USER command. You can't reset the password using the Modify option in the console.

  14. Choose Databases to view the list of RDS Custom DB instances.

  15. Choose the RDS Custom DB instance that you just created.

    On the RDS console, the details for the new RDS Custom DB instance appear:

    • The DB instance has a status of creating until the RDS Custom DB instance is created and ready for use. When the state changes to available, you can connect to the DB instance. Depending on the instance class and storage allocated, it can take several minutes for the new DB instance to be available.

    • Role has the value Instance (RDS Custom).

    • RDS Custom automation mode has the value Full automation. This setting means that the DB instance provides automatic monitoring and instance recovery.

You create an RDS Custom DB instance by using the create-db-instance AWS CLI command.

The following options are required:

  • --db-instance-identifier

  • --db-instance-class (for a list of supported instance classes, see DB instance class support for RDS Custom for Oracle)

  • --engine engine-type (where engine-type is custom-oracle-ee-cdb for a CDB and custom-oracle-ee for a non-CDB)

  • --engine-version cev (where cev is the name of the custom engine version that you specified in Creating a CEV)

  • --kms-key-id my-kms-key

  • --backup-retention-period days (where days is a value greater than 0)

  • --no-auto-minor-version-upgrade

  • --custom-iam-instance-profile AWSRDSCustomInstanceRole-us-east-1 (where region is the AWS Region where you are creating your DB instance)

The following example creates an RDS Custom DB instance named my-cfo-cdb-instance. The database is a CDB with the nondefault name MYCDB. The nondefault PDB name is MYPDB. The backup retention period is three days.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds create-db-instance \
    --engine custom-oracle-ee-cdb \
    --db-instance-identifier my-cfo-cdb-instance \
    --engine-version 19.cdb_cev1 \
    --db-name MYPDB \
    --db-system-id MYCDB \
    --allocated-storage 250 \
    --db-instance-class db.m5.xlarge \
    --db-subnet-group mydbsubnetgroup \
    --master-username myuser \
    --master-user-password mypassword \
    --backup-retention-period 3 \
    --port 8200 \
    --kms-key-id my-kms-key \
    --no-auto-minor-version-upgrade \
    --custom-iam-instance-profile AWSRDSCustomInstanceRole-us-east-1

For Windows:

aws rds create-db-instance ^
    --engine custom-oracle-ee-cdb ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-cfo-cdb-instance ^
    --engine-version 19.cdb_cev1 ^
    --db-name MYPDB ^
    --db-system-id MYCDB ^
    --allocated-storage 250 ^
    --db-instance-class db.m5.xlarge ^
    --db-subnet-group mydbsubnetgroup ^
    --master-username myuser ^
    --master-user-password mypassword ^
    --backup-retention-period 3 ^
    --port 8200 ^
    --kms-key-id my-kms-key ^
    --no-auto-minor-version-upgrade ^
    --custom-iam-instance-profile AWSRDSCustomInstanceRole-us-east-1
Note

Specify a password other than the prompt shown here as a security best practice.

Get details about your instance by using the describe-db-instances command.

aws rds describe-db-instances --db-instance-identifier my-cfo-cdb-instance

The following partial output shows the engine, parameter groups, and other information.

        {   
            "DBInstanceIdentifier": "my-cfo-cdb-instance",
            "DBInstanceClass": "db.m5.xlarge",
            "Engine": "custom-oracle-ee-cdb",
            "DBInstanceStatus": "available",
            "MasterUsername": "admin",
            "DBName": "MYPDB",
            "DBSystemID": "MYCDB",
            "Endpoint": {
                "Address": "my-cfo-cdb-instance.abcdefghijkl.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
                "Port": 1521,
                "HostedZoneId": "A1B2CDEFGH34IJ"
            },
            "AllocatedStorage": 100,
            "InstanceCreateTime": "2023-04-12T18:52:16.353000+00:00",
            "PreferredBackupWindow": "08:46-09:16",
            "BackupRetentionPeriod": 7,
            "DBSecurityGroups": [],
            "VpcSecurityGroups": [
                {
                    "VpcSecurityGroupId": "sg-0a1bcd2e",
                    "Status": "active"
                }
            ],
            "DBParameterGroups": [
                {
                    "DBParameterGroupName": "default.custom-oracle-ee-cdb-19",
                    "ParameterApplyStatus": "in-sync"
                }
            ],
...

RDS Custom service-linked role

A service-linked role gives Amazon RDS Custom access to resources in your AWS account. It makes using RDS Custom easier because you don't have to manually add the necessary permissions. RDS Custom defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only RDS Custom can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, and that permissions policy can't be attached to any other IAM entity.

When you create an RDS Custom DB instance, both the Amazon RDS and RDS Custom service-linked roles are created (if they don't already exist) and used. For more information, see Using service-linked roles for Amazon RDS.

The first time that you create an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance, you might receive the following error: The service-linked role is in the process of being created. Try again later. If you do, wait a few minutes and then try again to create the DB instance.

Connecting to your RDS Custom DB instance using Session Manager

After you create your RDS Custom DB instance, you can connect to it using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. This is the preferred technique when your DB instance isn't publicly accessible.

Session Manager allows you to access Amazon EC2 instances through a browser-based shell or through the AWS CLI. For more information, see AWS Systems Manager Session Manager.

To connect to your DB instance using Session Manager

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the RDS Custom DB instance to which you want to connect.

  3. Choose Configuration.

  4. Note the Resource ID for your DB instance. For example, the resource ID might be db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456.

  5. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  6. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

  7. Look for the name of your EC2 instance, and then click the instance ID associated with it. For example, the instance ID might be i-abcdefghijklm01234.

  8. Choose Connect.

  9. Choose Session Manager.

  10. Choose Connect.

    A window opens for your session.

You can connect to your RDS Custom DB instance using the AWS CLI. This technique requires the Session Manager plugin for the AWS CLI. To learn how to install the plugin, see Install the Session Manager plugin for the AWS CLI.

To find the DB resource ID of your RDS Custom DB instance, use aws rds describe-db-instances.

aws rds describe-db-instances \
    --query 'DBInstances[*].[DBInstanceIdentifier,DbiResourceId]' \
    --output text

The following sample output shows the resource ID for your RDS Custom instance. The prefix is db-.

db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456

To find the EC2 instance ID of your DB instance, use aws ec2 describe-instances. The following example uses db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456 for the resource ID.

aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456" \
    --output text \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].InstanceId'

The following sample output shows the EC2 instance ID.

i-abcdefghijklm01234

Use the aws ssm start-session command, supplying the EC2 instance ID in the --target parameter.

aws ssm start-session --target "i-abcdefghijklm01234"

A successful connection looks like the following.

Starting session with SessionId: yourid-abcdefghijklm1234
[ssm-user@ip-123-45-67-89 bin]$

Connecting to your RDS Custom DB instance using SSH

The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a network protocol that supports encrypted communication over an unsecured network. After you create your RDS Custom DB instance, you can connect to it using an ssh client. For more information, see Connecting to your Linux instance using SSH.

Your SSH connection technique depends on whether your DB instance is private, meaning that it doesn't accept connections from the public internet. In this case, you must use SSH tunneling to connect the ssh utility to your instance. This technique transports data with a dedicated data stream (tunnel) inside an existing SSH session. You can configure SSH tunneling using AWS Systems Manager.

Note

Various strategies are supported for accessing private instances. To learn how to connect an ssh client to private instances using bastion hosts, see Linux Bastion Hosts on AWS. To learn how to configure port forwarding, see Port Forwarding Using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager.

If your DB instance is in a public subnet and has the publicly available setting, then no SSH tunneling is required. You can connect with SSH just as would to a public Amazon EC2 instance.

To connect an ssh client to your DB instance, complete the following steps:

  1. Step 1: Configure your DB instance to allow SSH connections

  2. Step 2: Retrieve your SSH secret key and EC2 instance ID

  3. Step 3: Connect to your EC2 instance using the ssh utility

Step 1: Configure your DB instance to allow SSH connections

To make sure that your DB instance can accept SSH connections, do the following:

  • Make sure that your DB instance security group permits inbound connections on port 22 for TCP.

    To learn how to configure the security group for your DB instance, see Controlling access with security groups.

  • If you don't plan to use SSH tunneling, make sure your DB instance resides in a public subnet and is publicly accessible.

    In the console, the relevant field is Publicly accessible on the Connectivity & security tab of the database details page. To check your settings in the CLI, run the following command:

    aws rds describe-db-instances \
--query 'DBInstances[*].{DBInstanceIdentifier:DBInstanceIdentifier,PubliclyAccessible:PubliclyAccessible}' \
--output table

    To change the accessibility settings for your DB instance, see Modifying an Amazon RDS DB instance.

Step 2: Retrieve your SSH secret key and EC2 instance ID

To connect to the DB instance using SSH, you need the SSH key pair associated with the instance. RDS Custom creates the SSH key pair on your behalf, naming it with the prefix do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-. AWS Secrets Manager stores your SSH private key as a secret.

Retrieve your SSH secret key using either AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. If your instance has a public DNS, and you don't intend to use SSH tunneling, then also retrieve the DNS name. You specify the DNS name for public connections.

To retrieve the secret SSH key

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the RDS Custom DB instance to which you want to connect.

  3. Choose Configuration.

  4. Note the Resource ID value. For example, the DB instance resource ID might be db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456.

  5. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  6. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

  7. Find the name of your EC2 instance, and choose the instance ID associated with it. For example, the EC2 instance ID might be i-abcdefghijklm01234.

  8. In Details, find Key pair name. The pair name includes the DB instance resource ID. For example, the pair name might be do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.

  9. If your EC2 instance is public, note the Public IPv4 DNS. For the example, the public Domain Name System (DNS) address might be ec2-12-345-678-901.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com.

  10. Open the AWS Secrets Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/.

  11. Choose the secret that has the same name as your key pair.

  12. Choose Retrieve secret value.

  13. Copy the SSH private key into a text file, and then save the file with the .pem extension. For example, save the file as /tmp/do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.pem.

To retrieve the SSH private key and save it in a .pem file, you can use the AWS CLI.

  1. Find the DB resource ID of your RDS Custom DB instance using aws rds describe-db-instances.

    aws rds describe-db-instances \
    --query 'DBInstances[*].[DBInstanceIdentifier,DbiResourceId]' \
    --output text

    The following sample output shows the resource ID for your RDS Custom instance. The prefix is db-.

    db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456

  2. Find the EC2 instance ID of your DB instance using aws ec2 describe-instances. The following example uses db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456 for the resource ID.

    aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456" \
    --output text \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].InstanceId'

    The following sample output shows the EC2 instance ID.

    i-abcdefghijklm01234

  3. To find the key name, specify the EC2 instance ID. The following example describes EC2 instance i-0bdc4219e66944afa.

    aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --instance-ids i-0bdc4219e66944afa \
    --output text \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].KeyName'

    The following sample output shows the key name, which uses the prefix do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-.

    do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c

  4. Save the private key in a .pem file named after the key using aws secretsmanager. The following example saves the file in your /tmp directory.

    aws secretsmanager get-secret-value \
    --secret-id do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c \
    --query SecretString \
    --output text >/tmp/do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.pem

Step 3: Connect to your EC2 instance using the ssh utility

Your connection technique depends on whether you are connecting to a private DB instance or connecting to a public instance. A private connection requires you to configure SSH tunneling through AWS Systems Manager.

To connect to an EC2 instance using the ssh utility

  1. For private connections, modify your SSH configuration file to proxy commands to AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. For public connections, skip to Step 2.

    Add the following lines to ~/.ssh/config. These lines proxy SSH commands for hosts whose names begin with i- or mi-.

    Host i-* mi-*
    ProxyCommand sh -c "aws ssm start-session --target %h --document-name AWS-StartSSHSession --parameters 'portNumber=%p'"

  2. Change to the directory that contains your .pem file. Using chmod, set the permissions to 400.

    cd /tmp
chmod 400 do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.pem

  3. Run the ssh utility, specifying the .pem file and either the public DNS name (for public connections) or the EC2 instance ID (for private connections). Log in as user ec2-user.

    The following example connects to a public instance using the DNS name ec2-12-345-678-901.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com.

    ssh -i \
    "do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.pem" \
    ec2-user@ec2-12-345-678-901.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com

    The following example connects to a private instance using the EC2 instance ID i-0bdc4219e66944afa. 

    ssh -i \
    "do-not-delete-rds-custom-ssh-privatekey-db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS0123456-0d726c.pem" \
    ec2-user@i-0bdc4219e66944afa

Logging in to your RDS Custom for Oracle database as SYS

After you create your RDS Custom DB instance, you can log in to your Oracle database as user SYS, which gives you SYSDBA privileges. You have the following login options:

  • Get the SYS password from Secrets Manager, and specify this password in your SQL client.

  • Use OS authentication to log in to your database. In this case, you don't need a password.

Finding the SYS password for your RDS Custom for Oracle database

Your can log in to your Oracle database as SYS or SYSTEM or by specifying the master user name in an API call. The password for SYS and SYSTEM is stored in Secrets Manager. The secret uses the naming format do-not-delete-rds-custom-resource_id-uuid. You can find the password using the AWS Management Console.

To find the SYS password for your database in Secrets Manager

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the RDS console, complete the following steps:

    1. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

    2. Choose the name of your RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance.

    3. Choose Configuration.

    4. Copy the value underneath Resource ID. For example, you resource ID might be db-ABC12CDE3FGH4I5JKLMNO6PQR7.

  3. Open the Secrets Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/.

  4. In the Secrets Manager console, complete the following steps:

    1. In the left navigation pane, choose Secrets.

    2. Filter the secrets by the resource ID that you copied in step 5.

    3. Choose the secret named do-not-delete-rds-custom-resource_id-uuid, where resource_id is the resource ID that you copied in step 5. For example, if your resource ID is db-ABC12CDE3FGH4I5JKLMNO6PQR7, your secret will be named do-not-delete-rds-custom-db-ABC12CDE3FGH4I5JKLMNO6PQR7.

    4. In Secret value, choose Retrieve secret value.

    5. In Key/value, copy the value for password.

  5. Install SQL*Plus on your DB instance and log in to your database as SYS. For more information, see Step 3: Connect your SQL client to an Oracle DB instance.

Logging in to your RDS Custom for Oracle database using OS authentication

The OS user rdsdb owns the Oracle database binaries. You can switch to the rdsdb user and log in to your RDS Custom for Oracle database without a password.

  1. Connect to your DB instance with AWS Systems Manager. For more information, see Connecting to your RDS Custom DB instance using Session Manager.

  2. In a web browser, go to https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/linux-x86-64-downloads.html.

  3. For the latest database version that appears on the web page, copy the .rpm links (not the .zip links) for the Instant Client Basic Package and SQL*Plus Package. For example, the following links are for Oracle Database version 21.9:

    • https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/linux/instantclient/219000/oracle-instantclient-basic-21.9.0.0.0-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

    • https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/linux/instantclient/219000/oracle-instantclient-sqlplus-21.9.0.0.0-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

  4. In your SSH session, run the wget command to the download the .rpm files from the links that you obtained in the previous step. The following example downloads the .rpm files for Oracle Database version 21.9:

    wget https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/linux/instantclient/219000/oracle-instantclient-basic-21.9.0.0.0-1.el8.x86_64.rpm
wget https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/linux/instantclient/219000/oracle-instantclient-sqlplus-21.9.0.0.0-1.el8.x86_64.rpm

  5. Install the packages by running the yum command as follows:

    sudo yum install oracle-instantclient-*.rpm

  6. Switch to the rdsdb user.

    sudo su - rdsdb

  7. Log in to your database using OS authentication.

    $ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production on Wed Apr 12 20:11:08 2023
Version 21.9.0.0.0

Copyright (c) 1982, 2020, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 19.10.0.0.0

Installing additional software components on your RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance

In a newly created DB instance, your database environment includes Oracle binaries, a database, and a database listener. You might want to install additional software on the host operating system of the DB instance. For example, you might want to install Oracle Application Express (APEX), the Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) agent, or the Guardium S-TAP agent. For guidelines and high-level instructions, see the detailed AWS blog post Install additional software components on Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle.