Docker compose persistence

[slawrence-miso]

When I try to use the docker compose examples I am only able to have persistence between container restarts. If I kill the containers using down I end up with errors such as this:

oracle-1     | ####################################################################
oracle-1     | CONTAINER: The following output is now from the alert_FREE.log file:
oracle-1     | ####################################################################
oracle-1     | ===========================================================
oracle-1     | 2025-01-22T15:04:24.567114+00:00
oracle-1     | Errors in file /opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/free/FREE/trace/FREE_p000_163.trc:
oracle-1     | ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 24 - see DBWR trace file
oracle-1     | ORA-01110: data file 24: '/opt/oracle/product/23ai/dbhomeFree/dbs/DATA'
oracle-1     | 2025-01-22T15:04:24.568492+00:00
oracle-1     | Errors in file /opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/free/FREE/trace/FREE_ora_155.trc:
oracle-1     | ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 24 - see DBWR trace file
oracle-1     | ORA-01110: data file 24: '/opt/oracle/product/23ai/dbhomeFree/dbs/DATA'
oracle-1     | Completed: ALTER DATABASE OPEN
oracle-1     | 2025-01-22T15:04:25.150297+00:00
oracle-1     | Errors in file /opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/free/FREE/trace/FREE_mz00_412.trc:
oracle-1     | ORA-01110: data file 24: '/opt/oracle/product/23ai/dbhomeFree/dbs/DATA'
oracle-1     | ORA-01565: Error identifying file /opt/oracle/product/23ai/dbhomeFree/dbs/DATA.
oracle-1     | ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status
oracle-1     | Linux-x86_64 Error: 2: No such file or directory
oracle-1     | Additional information: 7
oracle-1     | Checker run found 1 new persistent data failures

I am configuring the volume like this:

volumes:
  - oracle-volume:/opt/oracle/oradata

I found some discussions about using a DATAFILE option during the tablespace creation, and maybe that is an option that would work, but I was unable to find where that is happening.

[oraclesean]

The volume configuration you've defined creates an anonymous volume. Running compose down doesn't drop the volume, but it doesn't have a name that subsequent compose up commands recognize, so compose doesn't remount the volume. See https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/compose/down/ for more information.

To solve this, use a named volume bind-mount instead. I recommend this option, since it gives you control over the location of the database datafiles. Anonymous or unbound named volumes are saved under the protected /var/lib/docker directory (or its equivalent) where you have limited visibility. First, create a volume and assign it to a local directory:

docker volume create --opt type=none --opt o=bind --opt device=/some/directory oracledb_data

Then, reference the named volume in your compose specification:

services:
  oracledb:
<snip>
    volumes:
      - oracledb_data:/opt/oracle/oradata
<snip>

volumes:
  oracledb_data:
    external: true

If you prefer to use an unbound volume, the steps are:

docker volume create oracledb_data

The compose yaml file looks nearly identical; just exclude the external: true property within the volume definition:

services:
  oracledb:
<snip>
    volumes:
      - oracledb_data:/opt/oracle/oradata
<snip>

volumes:
  oracledb_data:

If you've run compose up and compose down, you'll likely have orphaned volumes that are taking up space and it's probably wise to clean them up. :) List them with:

docker volume ls

And remove them using:

docker volume rm <volume name>

(Running docker compose down -v removes volumes defined in the compose specification.)

HTH!