Using Liquibase with Oracle
Oracle Database is an object-relational database that offers market-leading performance, scalability, reliability, and security, both on-premises and in the cloud. For more information, see the Oracle documentation page.
Supported versions
- 21.3.0
- 19.9.0
- 18.4.0
- 18.3.0
- 12c
- 11g
Prerequisites
- Install Liquibase.
- Create a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files. You can do this manually or with the init project command.
- Create a new Liquibase properties file or use the
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Create and Configure a liquibase.properties File.
Install Drivers
To use Liquibase and Oracle, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven download).
liquibase/internal/lib
directory.
If you use Maven, pom.xml
file.
<dependency>
<groupId>com.oracle.database.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>ojdbc8</artifactId>
<version>21.5.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Test your connection
- Ensure Oracle is configured
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:
- Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset. - Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:
- Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
- From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the
test_table
you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR(256), PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
Note: You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
Oracle Server
- Check the status by using SRVCTL, SQL*Plus, or Oracle Enterprise Manager. Also, you can run the following query:
SELECT INSTANCE_NAME, STATUS, DATABASE_STATUS FROM V$INSTANCE;
url: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<host>:<port>/<service_name>
Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>
Oracle on AWS RDS
Check the connection by using any standard SQL client application, including SQL*Plus, and running the following:
Linux, macOS, or Unix
sqlplus 'user_name@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=dns_name)(PORT=port))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=database_name)))'
Windows
sqlplus user_name@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=dns_name)(PORT=port))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=database_name)))
Note: user_name
represents your DB instance administrator, and dns_name
stands for your DB instance. Also, replace the port number and the Oracle SID with your values. The Oracle SID is the name of the DB instance's database that you specified when you created the DB instance.
Tip: The alternative way is to connect with Oracle SQL Developer.
You can find the connection information in the AWS Management Console:
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console.
- In the upper-right corner of the console, choose the AWS Region of your DB instance.
- Find the DNS name and port number for your DB Instance:
- Select Databases and choose the needed Oracle DB instance to display the instance details.
- Select Connectivity & security. You will see all information under Endpoint & Port.
Note: To find the connection information using the AWS CLI, call the describe-db-instances command, as follows: aws rds describe-db-instances
. In the output, you will see the Port
line and the Address
line containing the DNS name.
Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:
url: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<endpoint>:<port>:<sid>
Example: url: jdbc:oracle:thin:@myrds.cz1j1vh9uvuo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:3306:orcl