Custom Domain for your Oracle 23ai Free APEX & ORDS all in one Docker Container with Apache HTTP

Matt MulvaneyMatt Mulvaney
4 min read

Following the prerequisites, its a fairly easy guide to get up and running, this time on Apache HTTP. OMG this is a super fast web-server.

Following this guide you’ll have a Vanity URL, proxied through Apache HTTP to your APEX instance.

Prerequisites

  1. You’ve installed Docker-CE

  2. You’ve installed Oracle 23ai Free Docker, APEX & ORDS all in one using my guide

  3. You’ve got a (sub) Domain & Certificates

  4. (Optional) You’ve configured ORDS for SSL on 9043 or otherwise use 8080

  5. You’ve opened ports 80 & 443 for Apache

Steps

  1. Connect to your instance

  2. In bash run the following

     nano setup-apache-ords.sh

  3. Paste in the following

     #!/bin/bash

 # Validate input arguments
 if [[ $# -ne 2 ]]; then
   echo "Usage: $0 <server.domain> <backend-address:port>"
   echo "Example: $0 example.com 192.168.1.100:8023"
   exit 1
 fi

 SERVER_DOMAIN=$1
 BACKEND_ADDRESS=$2

 # Define project directory
 PROJECT_DIR="apache-ords"

 # Create the folder structure
 echo "Creating project directory structure..."
 mkdir -p $PROJECT_DIR/{conf,ssl}

 # Create `docker-compose.yml`
 DOCKER_COMPOSE_FILE=$PROJECT_DIR/docker-compose.yml
 cat <<EOL > $DOCKER_COMPOSE_FILE
 version: '3.9'
 services:
   apache:
     build:
       context: .
     container_name: apache-proxy
     ports:
       - "443:443"
     volumes:
       - ./ssl/cert.pem:/usr/local/apache2/ssl/cert.pem:ro
       - ./ssl/key.pem:/usr/local/apache2/ssl/key.pem:ro
 EOL

 echo "Created docker-compose.yml"

 # Create Dockerfile
 DOCKERFILE=$PROJECT_DIR/Dockerfile
 cat <<EOL > $DOCKERFILE
 FROM httpd:2.4

 # Install net-tools to enable netstat and other network utilities
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y net-tools nano

 # Enable SSL and proxy modules
 RUN sed -i '/Listen 80/a Listen 443' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     sed -i '/LoadModule ssl_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     sed -i '/LoadModule rewrite_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     sed -i '/LoadModule proxy_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     sed -i '/LoadModule proxy_http_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     sed -i '/LoadModule socache_shmcb_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf && \
     echo "Include /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/ssl-proxy.conf" >> /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

 # Set ServerName globally to avoid warning about FQDN
 RUN echo "ServerName localhost" >> /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

 # Create log directory and set permissions
 RUN mkdir -p /var/log/apache2 && \
     chmod -R 755 /var/log/apache2

 # Copy the custom SSL proxy configuration
 COPY conf/ssl-proxy.conf /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/ssl-proxy.conf

 EOL

 echo "Created Dockerfile"

 # Create Apache configuration file
 APACHE_CONF_FILE=$PROJECT_DIR/conf/ssl-proxy.conf
 cat <<EOL > $APACHE_CONF_FILE
 <VirtualHost *:443>
     ServerName $SERVER_DOMAIN

     SSLEngine On
     SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/apache2/ssl/cert.pem
     SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/apache2/ssl/key.pem

     # Enable proxying of HTTPS
     SSLProxyEngine On

     # Proxy settings
     ProxyPreserveHost On

     # Internal rewrite: requests to "/" are rewritten to "/ords/apex"
     RewriteEngine On
     # RewriteRule ^/$ /ords/ [R,L]
     RewriteRule ^/$ /ords/apex [R,L]
     # RewriteRule ^/$ /ords/r/workspace/landing [R,L]  # Redirect to the specific landing page

     ProxyPass "/ords" $BACKEND_ADDRESS/ords
     ProxyPassReverse "/ords" $BACKEND_ADDRESS/ords

     ProxyPass "/i/" $BACKEND_ADDRESS/i/
     ProxyPassReverse "/i/" $BACKEND_ADDRESS/i/

     ErrorLog /usr/local/apache2/logs/error.log
     CustomLog /usr/local/apache2/logs/access.log combined
 </VirtualHost>
 EOL

 echo "Created Apache configuration file (ssl-proxy.conf)"

 # Placeholder SSL certificate and key files
 SSL_CERT_FILE=$PROJECT_DIR/ssl/cert.pem
 SSL_KEY_FILE=$PROJECT_DIR/ssl/key.pem
 echo "Creating placeholder SSL certificate and key files..."
 echo "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
 YOUR_CERTIFICATE_CONTENT_HERE
 -----END CERTIFICATE-----" > $SSL_CERT_FILE

 echo "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
 YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY_CONTENT_HERE
 -----END PRIVATE KEY-----" > $SSL_KEY_FILE

 # Set permissions for SSL files
 chmod 600 $SSL_CERT_FILE $SSL_KEY_FILE

 echo "Setup complete! Your project is ready in the '$PROJECT_DIR' directory."

 # Instructions to build and run
 echo "To build and run your setup, execute the following commands:"
 echo "cd $PROJECT_DIR"
 echo "docker-compose up --build -d"

  4. Make it executable

     chmod +x setup-apache-ords.sh

  5. Customize it before running it with your domain name & your IP address of your APEX box

     ./setup-apache-ords.sh example.com https://19.19.19.19:9043

    this provides

     Creating project directory structure...
 Created docker-compose.yml
 Created Dockerfile
 Created Apache configuration file (ssl-proxy.conf)
 Creating placeholder SSL certificate and key files...
 Setup complete! Your project is ready in the 'apache-ords' directory.
 To build and run your setup, execute the following commands:
 cd apache-ords
 docker-compose up --build -d

  6. Copy your certificates to the folder

     cp cert.pem apache-ords/ssl/cert.pem
 cp key.pem apache-ords/ssl/key.pem

  7. Navigate to the apache-ords directory:

     cd apache-ords

  8. Start docker-compose

     docker-compose up --build -d

    this produces

     [+] Building 2.7s (11/11) FINISHED                                                                                                                             docker:default
  => [apache internal] load build definition from Dockerfile                                                                                                              0.0s
  => => transferring dockerfile: 1.28kB                                                                                                                                   0.0s
  => [apache internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/httpd:2.4                                                                                                      0.0s
  => [apache internal] load .dockerignore                                                                                                                                 0.0s
  => => transferring context: 2B                                                                                                                                          0.0s
  => [apache 1/6] FROM docker.io/library/httpd:2.4                                                                                                                        0.0s
  => [apache internal] load build context                                                                                                                                 0.0s
  => => transferring context: 183B                                                                                                                                        0.0s
  => CACHED [apache 2/6] RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y net-tools nano                                                                                          0.0s
  => CACHED [apache 3/6] RUN sed -i '/Listen 80/a Listen 443' /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf &&     sed -i '/LoadModule ssl_module/s/^#//g' /usr/local/apache2/conf/  0.0s
  => CACHED [apache 4/6] RUN echo "ServerName localhost" >> /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf                                                                            0.0s
  => [apache 5/6] RUN mkdir -p /var/log/apache2 &&     chmod -R 755 /var/log/apache2                                                                                      0.7s
  => [apache 6/6] COPY conf/ssl-proxy.conf /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/ssl-proxy.conf                                                                                   0.1s
  => [apache] exporting to image                                                                                                                                          1.7s
  => => exporting layers                                                                                                                                                  1.7s
  => => writing image sha256:b028c8ea5bedf22b87c32a8f8d8e602439f2972e89468c320966909cf1ca5600                                                                             0.0s
  => => naming to docker.io/library/apache-ords-apache                                                                                                                    0.0s
 [+] Running 2/2
  ✔ Network apache-ords_default  Created                                                                                                                                  0.5s
  ✔ Container apache-proxy       Started

  9. Test out your URL

  10. ENJOY!

Whats the picture? Leeds train Station on a snowy day. Visit Yorkshire!

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Written by

Matt Mulvaney
Matt Mulvaney

With around 20 years on the job, Matt is one of the most experienced software developers at Pretius. He likes meeting new people, traveling to conferences, and working on different projects. He’s also a big sports fan (regularly watches Leeds United, Formula 1, and boxing), and not just as a spectator – he often starts his days on a mountain bike, to tune his mind.