---
title: About the oracledb_session Resource
platform: os
---

# oracledb_session

Use the `oracledb_session` Chef InSpec audit resource to test SQL commands run against a Oracle database.

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## Availability

### Installation

This resource is distributed along with Chef InSpec itself. You can use it automatically.

### Version

This resource first became available in v1.0.0 of InSpec.

## Syntax

A `oracledb_session` resource block declares the username and password to use for the session with an optional service to connect to, and then the command to be run:

    describe oracledb_session(user: 'username', password: 'password', service: 'ORCL.localdomain').query('QUERY').row(0).column('result') do
      its('value') { should eq('') }
    end

where

* `oracledb_session` declares a username and password with permission to run the query (required), and an optional parameters for host (default: `localhost`), SID (default: `nil`, which uses the default SID, and path to the sqlplus binary (default: `sqlplus`).
* it is possible to run queries as sysdba/sysoper by using `as_db_role option`, see examples
* SQLcl can be used in place of sqlplus. Use the `sqlcl_bin` option to set the sqlcl binary path instead of `sqlplus_bin`.
* `query('QUERY')` contains the query to be run
* `its('value') { should eq('') }` compares the results of the query against the expected result in the test

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## oracledb_session(...).query method Properties
* rows the query result as array of hashes
* row(number)  selected row from query result, where number is just a row number in the query result
* column(name) array with values from selected column
 
## Examples

The following examples show how to use this Chef InSpec audit resource.

### Test for matching databases

    sql = oracledb_session(user: 'my_user', pass: 'password')

    describe sql.query('SELECT NAME AS VALUE FROM v$database;').row(0).column('value') do
      its('value') { should cmp 'ORCL' }
    end

### Test for matching databases with custom host, SID and sqlplus binary location

    sql = oracledb_session(user: 'my_user', pass: 'password', host: 'oraclehost', sid: 'mysid', sqlplus_bin: '/u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/bin/sqlplus')

    describe sql.query('SELECT NAME FROM v$database;').row(0).column('name') do
      its('value') { should cmp 'ORCL' }
    end

### Test for table contains a specified value in any row for the given column name

    sql = oracledb_session(user: 'my_user', pass: 'password', service: 'MYSID')

    describe sql.query('SELECT * FROM my_table;').column('my_column') do
      it { should include 'my_value' }
    end

### Test tablespace exists as sysdba
    The check will change user (with su) to specified user and run 'sqlplus / as sysdba' (sysoper, sysasm) 

    sql = oracledb_session(as_os_user: 'oracle', as_db_role: 'sysdba', service: 'MYSID')

    describe sql.query('SELECT tablespace_name AS name FROM dba_tablespaces;').column('name') do
      it { should include 'MYTABLESPACE' }
    end
    NOTE: option `as_os_user` available only on unix-like systems and not supported on Windows. Also this option requires that you are running inspec as `root` or with `--sudo`

### Test number of rows in the query result

    sql = oracledb_session(user: 'my_user', pass: 'password')

    describe sql.query('SELECT * FROM my_table;').rows do
      its('count') { should eq 20 }
    end

### Use data out of (remote) DB query to build other tests

    sql = oracledb_session(user: 'my_user', pass: 'password', host: 'my.remote.db', service: 'MYSID')

    sql.query('SELECT * FROM files;').rows.each do |file_row|
      describe file(file_row['path']) do
        its('owner') { should eq file_row['owner']}
      end
    end
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## Matchers

For a full list of available matchers, please visit our [matchers page](https://www.inspec.io/docs/reference/matchers/).