Start KVLite in a Container

This section explains how to start KVLite in a container.

Pull the Oracle NoSQL Database Container Image

The steps outlined below use the Oracle NoSQL Database Community Edition. You can pull the image directly from the GitHub Container Registry. Here, we are pulling the non-secure image.
```
docker pull ghcr.io/oracle/nosql:latest-ce
docker tag ghcr.io/oracle/nosql:latest-ce oracle/nosql:ce
```
Run Oracle NoSQL Database in a Container

You must provide a name and a hostname.
```
docker run -d --name=kvlite --hostname=kvlite --env KV_PROXY_PORT=8080 -p 8080:8080 oracle/nosql:ce
```
Output:

KVLite is started in a container and the ID of the container is displayed.
```
19001d44b56aa9a53c75cf0904298c4e0e3013df287e4a8f83ebff2e1b0ac172
```
By default, the KVLite store that is created has a size of 10 GB. You can use --env KV_STORAGESIZE=N to set a new value, where N is in gigabytes and must have a value greater than 1.

Check the Status of the Container

To check the status of the container, run the following command:

docker ps

Output:

The details of the container are displayed.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE              COMMAND                  CREATED           STATUS            PORTS                              NAMES
19001d44b56a   oracle/nosql:ce    "bash -c ./start-kvl..."  6 minutes ago   Up 6 minutes 0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp, :::8080->8080/tcp  kvlite

Validate your Deployment

You can ping the KVLite store instance using the following command

docker exec -ti kvlite java -jar lib/kvstore.jar ping -host kvlite -port 5000

Output:

Pinging components of store kvstore based upon topology sequence #14
10 partitions and 1 storage nodes
Time: 2026-05-01 09:57:53 UTC   Version: 26.1.14
Shard Status: healthy: 1 writable-degraded: 0 read-only: 0 offline: 0 total: 1
Admin Status: healthy
Zone [name=KVLite id=zn1 type=PRIMARY allowArbiters=false masterAffinity=false]   RN Status: online: 1 read-only: 0 offline: 0
Storage Node [sn1] on kvlite: 5000    Zone: [name=KVLite id=zn1 type=PRIMARY allowArbiters=false masterAffinity=false]    Status: RUNNING   Ver: 26.1.14 2026-05-01 17:06:06 UTC  Build id: 95fa28ea4441 Edition: Community    isMasterBalanced: true      serviceStartTime: 2026-05-01 09:43:36 UTC
        Admin [admin1]          Status: RUNNING,MASTER  serviceStartTime: 2026-05-01 09:43:38 UTC       stateChangeTime: 2026-05-01 09:43:38 UTC        availableStorageSize: 2 GB
        Rep Node [rg1-rn1]      Status: RUNNING,MASTER sequenceNumber: 84 haPort: 5011 availableStorageSize: 9 GB storageType: HD       serviceStartTime: 2026-05-01 09:43:39 UTC stateChangeTime: 2026-05-01 09:43:39 UTC

Query the Database

You can start the SQL shell to query the database and create few tables.

docker exec -ti kvlite  java -jar lib/sql.jar -helper-hosts kvlite:5000 -store kvstore

The SQL prompt is displayed.

sql->

Enter the SQL query to create a table named ticket.

sql->create table if not exists ticket(ticketNo LONG, confNo STRING, PRIMARY KEY(ticketNo))

Output:

The table is created successfully

Statement completed successfully

Enter the query to show the list of tables

sql->show tables

Output:

The table ticket that you just created is listed.

tables
  SYS$IndexStatsLease
  SYS$MRTableAgentStat
  SYS$MRTableInfo
  SYS$MRTableInitCheckpoint
  SYS$PartitionStatsLease
  SYS$SGAttributesTable
  SYS$StreamRequest
  SYS$StreamResponse
  SYS$TableMetadata
  SYS$TableStatsIndex
  SYS$TableStatsPartition
  SYS$TopologyHistory
  ticket