ORDS upgrade to 23.2. C’mon folks it’s easy!

July 6, 2023

3–4 minutes

Ever since the new config/layout of ORDS came along a couple of releases back, the upgrade process for ORDS is extraORDinarily simple. #DadJokes.

This was a 5 minute affair for me to get from ORDS 22 to the latest version

1) Download the software. No licenses, no checkboxes, just WGET (or CURL) and go!


U:\software> wget https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/java/ords/ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip
--2023-07-04 13:17:38--  https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/java/ords/ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip
Resolving download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)... 23.194.132.13
Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|23.194.132.13|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 101343108 (97M) [application/zip]
Saving to: 'ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip'

ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip                100%[=============================================================================>]  96.65M  13.4MB/s    in 7.3s

2023-07-04 13:17:46 (13.3 MB/s) - 'ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip' saved [101343108/101343108]

2) Unzip into wherever you want it


c:\oracle>mkdir ords.232

c:\oracle>cd ords.232

c:\oracle\ords.232>unzip "U:\software\ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip"
Archive:  U:/software/ords-23.2.0.177.0931.zip
   creating: bin/
   creating: linux-support/
   creating: linux-support/man/
   creating: examples/
   creating: examples/application-container/
   creating: examples/db_auth/
   creating: examples/db_auth/sql/
   creating: examples/plugins/
   creating: examples/plugins/plugin-demo/
   creating: examples/plugins/plugin-demo/src/
...
...
  inflating: ords.war
  inflating: examples/plugins/lib/ords-plugin-api-23.2.0.177.0931.jar
  inflating: examples/plugins/lib/jakarta.servlet-api-4.0.3.jar
  inflating: examples/plugins/lib/ords-plugin-apt-23.2.0.177.0931.jar
  inflating: examples/plugins/lib/jakarta.inject-api-2.0.0.jar
  inflating: examples/plugins/lib/ords-plugin-api-23.2.0.177.0931-javadoc.jar

3) Run the installer from the ‘bin’ directory


c:\oracle\ords.232>cd bin

c:\oracle\ords.232\bin>ords.exe --config c:\oracle\ords.conf install

ORDS: Release 23.2 Production on Tue. Jul. 04 05:11:03 2023

Copyright (c) 2010, 2023, Oracle.

Configuration:
  /C:/oracle/ords.conf/

Oracle REST Data Services - Interactive Install

  Enter a number to select the type of installation
    [1] Install or upgrade ORDS in the database only
    [2] Create or update a database pool and install/upgrade ORDS in the database
    [3] Create or update a database pool only
  Choose [1]:
  Enter a number to select the database pool to use or specify the database connection
    [1] default      jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1530/pdb21a
    [2] Specify the database connection
  Choose [1]:
  Provide database user name with administrator privileges.
    Enter the administrator username: sys
  Enter the database password for SYS AS SYSDBA:
Connecting to database user: SYS AS SYSDBA url: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1530/pdb21a

Retrieving information.
Connecting to database user: ORDS_PUBLIC_USER url: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1530/pdb21a
2023-07-04T05:11:21.115Z INFO        Upgrading Oracle REST Data Services schema 22.4.0.r3401044 to version 23.2.0.r1770931 in PDB21A
------------------------------------------------------------
Date       : 04 Jul. 2023 05:11:21
Release    : Oracle REST Data Services 23.2.0.r1770931
Type       : ORDS Upgrade from 22.4.0.r3401044 to 23.2.0.r1770931
Database   : Oracle Database 21c Enterprise Edition
DB Version : 21.8.0.0.0
------------------------------------------------------------
Container Name: PDB21A
------------------------------------------------------------

[*** Info: Upgrade intialize ]
[*** script: ords_alter_session_script.sql]

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

[*** script: ords_init_upgrade.sql]

Session altered.


PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

[*** script: ords_schema_version.sql]

Session altered.


PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.


Commit complete.

...
...
...


Commit complete.

[*** script: ords_alter_session_script.sql]

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

2023-07-04T05:11:32.080Z INFO        Completed upgrade for Oracle REST Data Services version 23.2.0.r1770931. Elapsed time: 00:00:10.905

[*** Info: Upgrade complete ]
[*** Info: Completed upgrade for Oracle REST Data Services version 23.2.0.r1770931. Elapsed time: 00:00:10.905 ]

And voila! You are good to go.


c:\oracle\ords.232\bin>ords.exe --config c:\oracle\ords.conf serve

ORDS: Release 23.2 Production on Tue. Jul. 04 05:13:08 2023

Copyright (c) 2010, 2023, Oracle.

Configuration:
  /C:/oracle/ords.conf/

2023-07-04T05:13:08.544Z INFO        HTTP and HTTP/2 cleartext listening on host: 0.0.0.0 port: 8089
2023-07-04T05:13:08.589Z INFO        The document root is serving static resources located in: C:\oracle\ords.conf\doc_root
2023-07-04T05:13:11.429Z INFO        Configuration properties for: |default|lo|
jdbc.auth.enabled=true
sun.desktop=windows
db.servicename=pdb21a
awt.toolkit=sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
db.invalidPoolTimeout=1m
...
...
java.vm.info=mixed mode
java.vm.version=11.0.14+8-LTS-263
sun.io.unicode.encoding=UnicodeLittle
jdbc.InitialLimit=5
java.class.version=55.0

2023-07-04T05:13:11.432Z WARNING     *** jdbc.MaxLimit in configuration |default|lo| is using a value of 20, this setting may not be sized adequately for a pr
oduction environment ***
2023-07-04T05:13:16.601Z INFO

Mapped local pools from C:\oracle\ords.conf\databases:
  /ords/                              => default                        => VALID


2023-07-04T05:13:16.734Z INFO        Oracle REST Data Services initialized
Oracle REST Data Services version : 23.2.0.r1770931
Oracle REST Data Services server info: jetty/10.0.15
Oracle REST Data Services java info: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 11.0.14+8-LTS-263

And I get my nice new home page

As always, consult the official docs before upgrading in case there is anything specific to your configuration/environment, but for most people it is going to be as easy as what you see above. A quick bit of regression testing and you’re good to go, so there’s no excuse to be languishing on old releases. Newer releases have more functionality but more importantly, they’ll always be picking up the latest security patches.

Don’t be that person that gets hacked because you let software get out of date.

Check Jeff’s blog post for more details and links to key ORDS resources..

4 responses to “ORDS upgrade to 23.2. C’mon folks it’s easy!”

Simon Pane

July 7, 2023 at 12:50 am

Nice post. But two quick additional points:

1) If installing not using SYS (as some orgs minimize the use of it), re-run the ords_installer_privileges.sql script first (otherwise the upgrade will fail and you must uninstall before reinstalling).

2) If not using Jetty (i.e. if using Tomcat), remember to also copy the new ords.war file – it is also updated.

Reply
1. Matija Papec
  
  May 6, 2025 at 9:05 pm
  
  It turns out installing on Tomcat isn’t straightforward, or at least that wasn’t my experience.
  
  After copying the new ords.war, webappsordsWEB-INFweb.xml requires section for config folder
  
  <context-param> <param-name>config.dir</param-name> <param-value>E:ordsconf</param-value> </context-param>
  
  and ords will be looking into E:ordsconfords, so there should be databases and global folders.
  
  Reply
Connor McDonald

July 7, 2023 at 7:52 am

Thanks for stopping by Simon

Reply
David Mann

August 18, 2023 at 11:57 pm

You are right… very easy! Thanks for the guidance.

Reply