Auto Shutdown and Restart of Oracle DB Systems in OCI Using Functions

 

🔹 Introduction

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Database Systems incur compute costs even when idle. If you're running non-production or development environments, one simple cost-saving strategy is to automate their shutdown at night and restart in the morning.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through setting up an automated stop/start schedule for your DB Systems using OCI Functions (or OCI CLI if preferred). This is a practical cost control technique every Oracle DBA should know.

🔹 Use Case

✔️ You have a DB System (Bare Metal or VM) running in OCI
✔️ It is used only during business hours
✔️ You want to stop it at 7 PM and start it at 7 AM automatically
✔️ You want a serverless and secure way to do this

🔹 Option 1: OCI CLI + Cron (Simpler for DBAs)

If you're using a Linux jump server or Bastion host:

✅ Create a Shell Script to Stop DB

#!/bin/bash
DB_OCID="<your_db_system_ocid>"
oci db system stop --db-system-id $DB_OCID --wait-for-state STOPPED

✅ Create a Script to Start DB

#!/bin/bash
DB_OCID="<your_db_system_ocid>"
oci db system start --db-system-id $DB_OCID --wait-for-state AVAILABLE

✅ Add to Crontab

Edit crontab:

crontab -e

Add:

0 19 * * * /home/opc/stop_db.sh
0 7 * * * /home/opc/start_db.sh

That's it. Your DB system now auto-starts and stops every day!

🔹 Option 2: OCI Functions + Event Schedule (Serverless Approach)

This is a more cloud-native, scalable approach.

✅ Step 1: Create OCI Function Application

• Go to Developer Services → Functions

• Create an Application in your preferred compartment and subnet

✅ Step 2: Create a Python Function

Use this Python function to stop/start a DB system:

import io
import json
import oci

def handler(ctx, data: io.BytesIO = None):
    signer = oci.auth.signers.get_resource_principals_signer()
    db_client = oci.database.DatabaseClient(config={}, signer=signer)

    body = json.loads(data.getvalue())
    action = body.get("action")  # 'start' or 'stop'
    db_system_id = body.get("db_system_id")

    if action == "stop":
        response = db_client.stop_db_system(db_system_id)
    elif action == "start":
        response = db_client.start_db_system(db_system_id)
    else:
        return json.dumps({"status": "invalid action"})

    return json.dumps({"status": "submitted", "action": action})

✅ Step 3: Deploy and Test Function

Use fn CLI to deploy the function and test it with:

fn invoke myapp stop_db --content '{"action": "stop", "db_system_id": "<ocid>"}'

✅ Step 4: Create Scheduled Rule

• Go to Observability & Management → Events

• Create a Scheduled Rule

  • Time: Daily at 07:00 and 19:00

  • Action: Invoke Function with payload (start/stop + OCID)

💡 Vignesh’s Tip

If your DB system is critical, always check its current lifecycle state before issuing start/stop commands. Add checks like:

STATE=$(oci db system get --db-system-id $DB_OCID --query 'data."lifecycle-state"' --raw-output)

This avoids redundant API calls or errors.

🔹 Benefits

• ⏱️ Zero manual intervention

• 💰 Significant cost savings for idle environments

• 🔒 Secure and auditable (Functions run with resource principals)

• ⚙️ Easy to scale across multiple DB systems

🔹 Conclusion

Automating the start and stop of Oracle DB Systems using OCI CLI or Functions is a smart way to save costs without compromising control. Whether you're a DBA, cloud engineer, or DevOps team, this approach helps keep your cloud bill in check while maintaining full flexibility.