• You must have an OCI account and credentials.
• You must also have the VM IP address to access the simulator VM and setup the environment for the Oracle Database Appliance hands-on labs.

If you use Putty to create a key, you must create a key with PuTTYgen:

1. Generate key of type RSA.
2. Save the private key.
3. Under Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file: copy all contents in the box and paste into a text file and save as a .pub file. This is the key you use when you setup the Oracle Database Appliance simulator instance.

Note that if you are running the simulator standalone on a Linux system, then you must run the following steps.

1. Run the following command to make sure podman is running and to view which containers are running:

   # podman ps

2. If you see any unwanted container running, run the cleanup script to start fresh:

   # ./cleanup_odasimulator_sw.sh

3. Run the simulator setup script:

   # ./setup_odasimulator_sw.sh noportainer 

   For always free OCI account with 1GB memory, it is recommended that you set up the simulator with one user and the single node option.

4. If a default container is not running, you can manually create a single node container for a user.

   # ./createOdaSimulatorContainer.sh -d oda -t single -o noportainer 

5. A single container called oda-1 is created. To view the options, use the following command:

   # ./createOdaSimulatorContainer.sh -help 

6. For standard OCI account with minimum 2GB memory, it is recommended that you set up the simulator with the high-availability option:

   # ./createOdaSimulatorContainer.sh -d oda -t ha -o noportainer

7. For each Oracle Database Appliance X8-2-HA simulator user, two containers, oda-1-node0 and oda-1-node1, are created. Ignore any warning messages about Agent or Zookeeper. Ensure that you can connect to the container. Note the assigned port numbers in the following output. The port numbers are necessary for logging into the simulator Browser User Interface (BUI).

   ODA Simulator system info:
   Executed on: 2023_06_11_03_23_PM
   Executed by:
   num= 1         
   dept= oda      
   hostpubip= ip_of_simulator_machine  
   
   USERS:
   Container : oda-1-node0
   ODA Console: https://ip_of_simulator_machine:7095/mgmt/index.html
   ODA cli access: Connect to the host and run following command:
   sh connectContainer.sh -n oda-1-node0
   Container : oda-1-node1
   ODA Console: https://ip_of_simulator_machine:7097/mgmt/index.html 
   ODA cli access: Connect to the host and run following command:
   sh connectContainer.sh -n oda-1-node1

After you have completed the labs, you must clean up the environment by deleting the user containers. The following command deletes instances oda-1-node0 and oda-1-node1:

#  ./deleteOdaSimulatorContainer.sh -t ha -i 1 -n 1 -d oda 

Clean up your log files from the lab by deleting your logs in the /simulator_19.26.0.0.0/log directory. To completely reset the lab, run the following command:

# ./cleanup_odasimulator_sw.sh 

For CLI access, connect by SSH to the simulator VM, connect by sudo to root, and connect to the container, for example, odasim-1. No password is required.

# ./connectContainer.sh -n odasim-1 

For a high-availability system, you can access both nodes, for example, oda-1-node0 , oda-1-node1.

# ./connectContainer.sh -n oda-1-node1 

For BUI access, use the VM IP address and port number, for example, 7095, 7097.

# https://server_IP:xxxx/mgmt/index.html 

For example, once you complete Lab 3, you create a restore point at the beginning of Lab 4. During Lab 4, if there is any error, then you can go back to the restore point at the beginning of Lab 4 instead of starting from Lab 1 again.  To create a snapshot, run the following command from the simulator directory:

# ./snapshot.sh  
Usage: snapshot.sh [-c | -r  | -l]  [] | -h                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Options:                                                                                                                                                                                            
  create  [ha|single]         Create a new snapshot of the simulator                                                                                                            
  restore   [ha|single]       Restore the simulator to a previous snapshot
  list  [ha|single]           List all snapshots created with their IDs
  help, -h                    Display this help and exit is mandatory. You only need the name of the environment without 'node0' or 'node1' in case the simulator environment is HA is either 'ha' or 'single'. Default is 'single'

Use this script to create and restore snapshots of the Oracle Database Appliance simulator. This is useful when trying different scenarios or for creating backups.   

# ./snapshot.sh create oda-1 
/scratch/user/simulator_19.26_ade/simulator_19.26.0.0.0/snapshots.dat doesn't exist. Creating a new one...
Snapshot with ID: 1 has been created successfully. Timestamp: Wed Jun 22 14:01:24 PDT 2023
# ./snapshot.sh list oda-1
ID      CONTAINER NAME             DEPLOYMENT TYPE  TIMESTAMP
1       oda-1                      single           Wed Jun 22 14:01:24 PDT 2023
#  ./snapshot.sh restore 1 oda-1
Snapshot with ID: 1 has been restored successfully!

You may encounter a BUI Agent Certificate Issue. See the following example:

https://server IP:7095/mgmt/index.html    
Your assigned port number maybe different

To fix it, you must add a certificate exception to the BUI agent port, with is your assigned port number -1. In this case, the port number is 7094.

https://server IP:7094
( Your port number maybe different)

Go through the certificate exception process and add the exception. Then go back to your assigned port.

https://server IP:7095/mgmt/index.html 

Run the following command to check the status of the simulator:

# /opt/oracle/dcs/bin/statusOdaStack.sh

If the simulator is not running, then start the simulator as follows:

# /opt/oracle/dcs/bin/startOdaStack.sh