Single-node Oracle Base Database Service (VM DB system): production setup

#1. Choose shape, storage and edition

• Flexible AMD or Ampere shapes; size OCPUs to the licence model (BYOL counts OCPUs).
• Storage management: Logical Volume Manager (fast provisioning, smaller DBs) or ASM (production standard, needed for RAC).
• Edition: Enterprise Edition (High Performance / Extreme Performance include options like Diagnostics/Tuning packs, Data Guard is in all EE), or Standard Edition 2 for small workloads.
• Data storage: set initial size with growth in mind; performance scales with size and VPUs.

#2. Network and access

• Private subnet; NSG allowing 1521 only from app NSGs and 22 only from Bastion.
• Connect as opc via Bastion, then sudo su - oracle.
• TLS (TCPS, port 2484) if required by policy; native network encryption is enabled by default in Base DB.

#3. Automatic backups

oci db database update --database-id <db-ocid> \
  --db-backup-config '{"autoBackupEnabled": true, "recoveryWindowInDays": 30, "autoBackupWindow": "SLOT_TWO"}'

• Backups go to Object Storage (managed by Oracle) with archive log backups for point-in-time recovery within the window.
• Or use Autonomous Recovery Service (recommended): zero-data-loss-capable real-time redo protection, policy-based retention, and backups kept in the recovery service.
• Take a manual full backup before patching.

oci db backup create --database-id <db-ocid> --display-name pre-patch-2026-10

#4. Patching

DB system patches (Grid Infrastructure/OS) and database patches are separate. Check, precheck, then apply:

oci db patch list by-database --database-id <db-ocid> --output table
oci db database patch --database-id <db-ocid> --patch-id <patch-ocid> --patch-action PRECHECK
oci db database patch --database-id <db-ocid> --patch-id <patch-ocid> --patch-action APPLY

Single-node means downtime during patching. Schedule it.

#5. Monitoring

• Enable Database Management for performance hub, SQL monitoring, alarms on tablespace usage, sessions and ASM.
• Alarms: CPU, storage utilisation, backup failure events.

#6. Know the limits

For lower RTO, add Data Guard (another AD or region) or move to a 2-node RAC VM DB system.