Clone a pluggable Database with APEX and connect to ORDS

Update: this is still valid for ORDS-versions up to 21.x. With ORDS 22.x, this got a bit easier. I created a newer cookbook under Clone a pluggable Database with APEX and connect to ORDS 22.x.

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Sometimes I quickly need another test/dev environment for Apex. There are several ways to get one: snapshot or clone the VM, create one with Liquibase or clone the PDB and link the ORDS to it as described below. This is meant as a short cookbook, find more detailed information on the sites from Jeff Smith or Oracle-Base.

Start by connecting to your CDB and create a clone of the PDB where Apex is installed.

create pluggable database orclpdb2 from orclpdb
file_name_convert = ('/orclpdb/', '/orclpdb2/');

alter pluggable database orclpdb2 open;

sho pdbs

alter session set container=orclpdb2;

select * from apex_release;

Double check, that the new PDB has a valid APEX version installed. So much for for the database, we are already done here.

Now all we have to do is to tell ORDS about the 2nd PDB. First we need to configure the DB with

java -jar ords.war setup --database orclpdb2

Finally we need to define an URL mapping where to find the newly added PDB:

java -jar ords.war map-url --type base-path /orclpdb2 orclpdb2

And that is all, restart your ORDS

ORDS should log the new connection. Open the new URL with your browser, in my case:

vm:8080/ords/orclpdb2/apex

The difference between the first and all other databases for an ORDS is, that the first one is always accessible without an additional base-path (like vm:8080/ords/apex) whereas the others always need that base-path. If you want a base-path also for the first database, see this posting from Jeff Smith. 

Apex for the second PDB should be available under that new URL.

And there is also a second Database Actions / SQLDeveloper Web under that new URL pattern.

This is done in less than 5 minutes and depending on your environment, this might be faster than cloning the complete VM. And dropping it only takes seconds, what also might be faster than restoring a snapshot of your VM.