MacLochlainns Weblog

I’ve been trying to sort out what’s up on Oracle’s support of Apple’s M1 (arm64) chip. It really is a niche area. It only applies to those of us who work on a macOS machines with Oracle Database technology; and then only when we want to install a version of Oracle Database 21c or newer in Windows OS for testing. Since bootcamp is now gone, these are only virtualized solutions through a full virtualization product or containerized with Docker of Kubernetes.

The Best Virtual Machine Software for Mac 2022 (4/11/2022) article lets us know that only Parallels fully supports Windows virtualization on the ARM64 chip. Then, there’s the restriction that you must use Monterey or Big Sur (macOS) and Windows 11 arm64.

Instructions were published on On how to run Windows 11 on an Apple M1 a couple weeks ago. They use the free UTM App from the Apple Store and provide the download site for the Windows Insider Program. You can’t get a copy of Windows 11 arm64 without becoming part of the Windows Insider Program.

The next step would be to try and install Oracle Database 21c on Windows 11 arm64, which may or may not work. At least, I haven’t tested it yet and can’t make the promise that it works. After all, I doubt it will work because the Oracle Database 21c documentation says it only supports x64 (or Intel) architecture.

If anybody knows what Oracle has decided, will decide or even their current thinking on the issue, please make a comment.