Installing Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) on Tomcat

Question

I have installed JDK and Tomcat 8 on the server. Now I need to install ORDS and connect it to Tomcat. I went through various documentation and downloaded ORDS on the server. Now I have a couple of questions as all this stuff is new to me and documentation is not very clear most of the time.

There is java.exe in the directory to which I installed JDK and there is java.exe in the directory where all the ORDS files are unzipped. Does it matter which one I use to run the installation?

java -jar ords.war standalone --port 8090

Now my second question is do I run standalone ORDS installation and specify port 8090 and then copy ords.war file into Tomcat diirectory Tomcat/webapp and make sure Tomcat is running and it will install ords on its own? That's where I am confused...

My third question is how do I check if ORDS has been installed correctly? Would going to http://localhost:8090/ords suffice?

P.S. Oracle database installed on another server, I have all the passwords, hostname, port, and service name. APEX is also installed on another server.

Answer 1

Appex is the old name for ORDS. After the ORDS version 3.x you don't need to install apex.

ORDS 3.0 is able to deploy WITHOUT Application Express. It has its own database schema now.

Answers for your questions:

1. It doesn't matter. But make sure it is java 7+. You can instead install java globally and just run: java -jar ords.war command. You can follow this tutorial to install java on your machine: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/install/install_overview.html

2. When you run java -jar ords.war command then at this stage it starts installation of ORDS on your system. Before installation it asks for the oracle server hostname, oracle port, SID, and sysdba username and password to connect. Once you provide all the details and the type of installation you want, then it starts installation to the specific database server. Your tomcat/WLS/glassfish server will act as a rest endpoint between the database server and the clients.

3. Once installed ORDS on your database, if you right click on your connection in SQL Developer then you can see the Rest Service options. And yes the other way is like you mentioned: http:<host-name>:<port-name>/<schema-alias>/<object-alias>/ and see the result.

If you want to know the detail architecture, I would suggest to follow this oracle document: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/rest-data-services/overview/index.html

I have recently installed the ORDS in production environment successfully. Actually there are two ways you can install ORDS:

• Standalone mode: Using sql developer you can easily configure the standalone mode: http://www.thatjeffsmith.com/archive/2015/04/deploying-oracle-rest-data-services-from-oracle-sql-developer/
  But if you would like to use the terminal you can use the following steps: https://oracle-base.com/articles/misc/oracle-rest-data-services-ords-standalone-mode
• Advanced mode: https://oracle-base.com/articles/misc/oracle-rest-data-services-ords-3-installation-on-tomcat-7. In the advanced mode ORDS supports Tomcat, WebLogic, and Glassfish application servers

When to use which:
Use Advanced Mode for production Use Standalone Mode for Development and Testing. You can use Advanced Mode for development and testing but since the standalone mode is quite easy for installation, it is recommended one.

For querying:

http://www.toadworld.com/platforms/oracle/w/wiki/11471.more-oracle-rest-data-services-features https://svgonugu.com/2015/11/21/adf-bc-rest-services-i/

Note: If your database is PDB you could have some problem installing it and there are some tricks to solve it depending on the problem. Please let me know I would love to answer.