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Pulling logs from oracle with node-oracledb in thick mode

  • June 10, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 3 views
Alain Plante

Is it possible to install cribl stream and use node-oracledb in thick mode or there is no way to let cribl stream know that there is an oracle instant client package installed available in the podman container?

 

thanks

    1 reply

    D
    • Dan Schmitz
    • Employee
    • June 10, 2026

    Short answer: You don't need to — and currently can't — configure Cribl Stream's Database Collector to use node-oracledb in Thick mode. Cribl Stream uses node-oracledb in Thin mode only, which doesn't require Oracle Instant Client at all.

    Details:

    Cribl Stream's Database Collector for Oracle uses the node-oracledb library in Thin mode. This is called out in the Database Collector docs:

    "Cribl Stream supports Oracle database version 12.1 and newer. Queries can retrieve up to 1 GB of large objects (CLOBS, LOBS, and NCLOBS) per field and use the node-oracledb library in Thin mode."

    What Thin mode means for you:

    • No Oracle Instant Client needed — Thin mode connects directly to Oracle Database using pure JavaScript (no native C libraries required)
    • No LD_LIBRARY_PATH, ORACLE_HOME, or client library configuration needed in your Podman container
    • Supports Oracle 12.1+ with standard Easy Connect or Oracle Net connection strings
    • Supports connection pooling (homogeneous), TLS connections, and most common Oracle features

    What Thin mode does NOT support (compared to Thick mode):

    • Kerberos/RADIUS/PKI authentication services
    • Oracle Native Network Encryption and Checksumming
    • External authentication
    • Heterogeneous connection pooling (homogeneous only in Thin mode)
    • LDAP connections via tnsnames.ora/sqlnet.ora configuration files

    If you need Thick-mode-only features (like Kerberos auth or Native Network Encryption), this isn't currently supported by Cribl's built-in Database Collector. You could explore:

    1. A custom REST Collector — build a sidecar service that uses node-oracledb Thick mode (or any Oracle client) and exposes data via an HTTP endpoint that Cribl can collect from
    2. File-based approach — have an external script dump Oracle query results to files, then use Cribl's File Collectors to pick them up

    For most standard Oracle log/audit data collection scenarios, Thin mode works great — just configure your Database Connection with the appropriate connection string and credentials.

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