Autonomous Database Serverless removes every DBA task except the ones that require business context: deciding which data to store, writing SQL, and choosing the right tier. Oracle manages patching, backup, tuning, scaling, and HA automatically. This post covers Terraform provisioning with ECPU auto-scaling, cloning for development, and exposing tables as REST APIs with ORDS.

Step 1: Terraform Provisioning

resource "oci_database_autonomous_database" "orders_adb" {
  compartment_id           = var.compartment_id
  db_name                  = "ORDERSDB"
  display_name             = "orders-autonomous-database"
  db_workload              = "OLTP"
  db_version               = "23ai"
  compute_model            = "ECPU"
  compute_count            = 4
  data_storage_size_in_tbs = 1

  is_auto_scaling_enabled             = true
  is_auto_scaling_for_storage_enabled = true

  is_access_control_enabled   = true
  whitelisted_ips             = [var.app_subnet_cidr]
  subnet_id                   = var.private_subnet_id
  nsg_ids                     = [var.adb_nsg_id]
  is_mtls_connection_required = true
  is_data_guard_enabled       = true

  admin_password = var.adb_admin_password
  kms_key_id     = var.vault_key_id
  vault_id       = var.vault_id

  defined_tags = {
    "Operations.Environment" = "production"
    "Operations.ManagedBy"   = "terraform"
  }
}

output "adb_ocid" { value = oci_database_autonomous_database.orders_adb.id }

Step 2: Refreshable Development Clone

resource "oci_database_autonomous_database" "orders_dev" {
  compartment_id = var.compartment_id
  db_name        = "ORDERSDEV"
  display_name   = "orders-adb-dev-clone"
  db_workload    = "OLTP"

  source           = "CLONE_TO_REFRESHABLE"
  source_id        = oci_database_autonomous_database.orders_adb.id
  clone_type       = "FULL"
  refreshable_mode = "MANUAL"

  compute_model            = "ECPU"
  compute_count            = 2
  data_storage_size_in_tbs = 1

  is_access_control_enabled   = true
  whitelisted_ips             = [var.dev_subnet_cidr]
  is_mtls_connection_required = true
  admin_password              = var.dev_adb_password

  defined_tags = { "Operations.Environment" = "development", "Operations.ManagedBy" = "terraform" }
}

Step 3: ORDS REST Endpoints

-- Enable ORDS for the ORDERS schema
BEGIN
  ORDS.ENABLE_SCHEMA(
    p_enabled             => TRUE,
    p_schema              => 'ORDERS',
    p_url_mapping_type    => 'BASE_PATH',
    p_url_mapping_pattern => 'orders',
    p_auto_rest_auth      => TRUE
  );
  COMMIT;
END;

-- Auto-REST enable ORDER_HEADER table
BEGIN
  ORDS.ENABLE_OBJECT(
    p_enabled        => TRUE,
    p_schema         => 'ORDERS',
    p_object         => 'ORDER_HEADER',
    p_object_type    => 'TABLE',
    p_object_alias   => 'order-headers',
    p_auto_rest_auth => TRUE
  );
  COMMIT;
END;

-- Endpoints become available at:
-- GET POST https://ADB_HOST/ords/orders/order-headers/
-- GET PUT DELETE https://ADB_HOST/ords/orders/order-headers/ID

Step 4: Monitoring Alarms

resource "oci_monitoring_alarm" "adb_cpu" {
  compartment_id        = var.compartment_id
  display_name          = "adb-cpu-high"
  is_enabled            = true
  metric_compartment_id = var.compartment_id
  namespace             = "oci_autonomous_database"
  query                 = "CpuUtilization[5m]{databaseId = 'ADB_OCID'}.mean() > 80"
  severity              = "WARNING"
  pending_duration      = "PT10M"
  destinations          = [var.ops_notification_topic_id]
  body                  = "ADB CPU above 80% for 10 minutes. Auto-scaling may be active."
}

resource "oci_monitoring_alarm" "adb_storage" {
  compartment_id        = var.compartment_id
  display_name          = "adb-storage-high"
  is_enabled            = true
  metric_compartment_id = var.compartment_id
  namespace             = "oci_autonomous_database"
  query                 = "StorageUtilization[1h]{databaseId = 'ADB_OCID'}.mean() > 75"
  severity              = "WARNING"
  pending_duration      = "PT1H"
  destinations          = [var.ops_notification_topic_id]
  body                  = "ADB storage above 75%. Review growth and consider increasing storage quota."
}

Operational Notes

Refreshable clones in MANUAL mode stay frozen at the last refresh point until you explicitly refresh them. This gives developers a stable, realistic dataset that does not change mid-sprint. Refresh before each sprint start, before load tests, or after production migrations. The refresh takes minutes, not hours, because it leverages snapshot-based cloning at the storage layer.

Auto-scaling expands compute up to three times the base ECPU count during sustained high utilization and scales down when demand drops. You pay only for ECPUs consumed, not the maximum. Set your base count at the average expected load and let auto-scaling absorb peaks without any manual intervention or capacity planning.

Regards,
Osama

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