Unfortunately Oracle databases aren’t compatible with the new Apple Silicon CPU architecture. Due to this fact you’re not able to run an Oracle XE database on your brand-new MacBook, but there’s a workaround!

TLDR;

The workaround

To overcome this issue, you need to run your Oracle XE database on an x86_64 virtual machine. There are several tools you can choose from, like UTM, lima or colima.

I’ve tried all three and in the end using colima is the easy way to get this working. Colima is a tool to have container runtimes on macOS with minimal setup. As we’ll be running the Oracle XE database on colima, we’ll also be using an Oracle XE docker image, maintained by Gerald Venzl

Install and Run

  • Install colima with your favorite package manager for Mac.

  • Run colima start --arch x86_64 --memory 4, the --arch x64_86 is the important part here to match the CPU architecture to be compatible with the Oracle XE docker images, the additional memory-flag is for performance reasons.

  • Run the Oracle XE container docker run -d -p 1521:1521 -e ORACLE_PASSWORD=<your password> gvenzl/oracle-xe, the Docker Hub page shows all the options available

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