For a long time, already Enterprise Modules provided the ora_secured module. A Puppet module that allowed you to ensure that your database is compliant with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark. But this module was original designed for use with Oracle 12c in in the mean time we have Oracle 19c. We now have multiple versions of Oracle and numerous versions of the CIS benchmarks for Oracle. Thus, time to review our current design and provide you with a new and enhanced module.

Ok, so you have set up your database servers using our Oracle modules and can apply changes to them consistently and controlled. You even support the development teams by enabling them to spin up their own Oracle database using vagrant and VirtualBox. Everything seems to be under control. Is it really….? It’s January 15th, and Oracle just released its quarterly Critical Patch Update for January 2020. You should really apply this because it’s been a while since you last patched your Oracle software. The security department found out it contains a patch that is critical for the security of your business application. So they are pushing you to patch fast. Oh, and by the way, business urges you to keep downtime to a minimum because downtime costs an increasing amount of money and extra calls to the helpdesk.

Updating to a newer Oracle version is a constant challenge for IT managers. Every time support ends on the current used Oracle version, A lot of installation and tests have to be done by the DBAs and the test teams to achieve a smooth transition. One of the main problems The DBAs face is that it is very time consuming and error-prone to provide all the development and test teams a set of provisioned systems. This leads to delays in these migration projects and sometimes increased risks because of using unsupported Oracle versions.

The 2019 State of DevOps report focusses on how to integrate security into the software development cycle. This blog post show you how te extend these practices into Oracle database security.

No database is equal. So after a basic installation, you need some way to customize the database setup. Our ora_profile module allows you to do this by just adding some hiera values.