Spinning up a database used to mean planning hardware, installing software, and configuring backups. With Oracle Autonomous AI Database on OCI, you can have a working database in minutes. The step that trips most people up isn't creating it, though. It's connecting to it securely from a client tool.
In this walkthrough, I provision a Serverless Autonomous AI Database, connect to it from SQL Developer using a Cloud Wallet, and then stop and terminate it so it doesn't keep consuming resources.
What you'll need
- An OCI account or a LiveLabs sandbox
- SQL Developer installed on your machine
Step 1: Start the create wizard
In the OCI Console, open Oracle Database → Autonomous AI Database and click Create. Choose the Serverless deployment and give the database a display name and a database name.
Step 2: Choose workload type and size
Pick the workload type that matches your use case (data warehouse, transaction processing, JSON, or APEX). Then set the compute (ECPU count) and storage. Autonomous Database handles patching, tuning and scaling for you, so sizing is the main decision.
Step 3: Set the ADMIN password
The wizard creates an ADMIN user. Choose a strong password and store it somewhere safe. You will need it when you connect from SQL Developer.
Step 4: Set network access and backups
For a learning environment, I used Secure access from everywhere. For anything real, use allowed IPs and VCNs or a private endpoint instead. I also reviewed the backup retention setting here, since it is chosen at creation time.
Add a contact email for operational notifications, then click Create.
Step 5: Wait for Available
The database moves from Provisioning to Available. This usually takes a few minutes.
Step 6: Download the Cloud Wallet
From the database details page, open Database connection and download the wallet. The wallet is a zip file with the credentials and connection details your client needs. Set a wallet password when prompted.
Step 7: Connect from SQL Developer
Create a new connection and enter:
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Username:
admin - Password: your ADMIN password
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Connection Type:
Cloud Wallet - Configuration File: your downloaded wallet zip
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Service:
<dbname>_high
Click Test. You should see Status: Success.
Which service name?
Each database exposes several services. As a rule of thumb:
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_high: highest priority and resources, fewest concurrent sessions -
_medium: a balance of the two -
_low: lowest priority, most concurrency
Step 8: Stop the database
When you're done, open More actions → Stop. Stopping pauses compute billing while keeping the database definition.
Step 9: Terminate it
For a lab database you no longer need, choose More actions → Terminate and type the database name to confirm. The name confirmation exists to prevent accidental deletion.
What I learned
- The wallet is the key concept. A client connects with the wallet and a service name, not a host and port.
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Service names are a workload choice.
_high,_mediumand_lowlet you trade throughput against concurrency. - Network access is easy to leave too open. "Secure access from everywhere" is fine in a sandbox, but restrict it for real workloads.
- Stop and terminate idle databases. Cleanup is part of the workflow, not an afterthought.
If you're preparing for the OCI Autonomous Database certification, this is a good exercise to run end to end at least once.
What do you use to connect to Autonomous Database: SQL Developer, Database Actions, or something else?
Kumaran Murugan is an Oracle Apps DBA and OCI Cloud Administrator with 5+ years of experience in Oracle E-Business Suite, database migrations, and OCI infrastructure. Connect on LinkedIn.
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