# Exploring Oracle Cloud Free Tier

Oracle Cloud is trying to break into the cloud infrastructure market.  One such way is by betting developers familiar with the products through free tier offerings.

> Want to follow along?  Start by setting up a free Oracle Cloud account  at https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
>
> NOTE: The Oracle Cloud setup process has quite a few steps and requires a valid CC (Discover did not work in my case, but my Visa was accepted).

For this example, I am creating a free tier ARM _4_ core, _24GB_ ram, _100GB_ boot VM (the free tier limit on compute and half the free tier limit on storage).

**Step by step:**
1. On the _Get Started_ homepage, in the _Launch Resources_ section, select the _Create a VM instance_ box.
2. Input a custom, memorable name for your VM.
3. In the _Image and Shape_ box click the _Edit_ hyperlink.
4. In the expanded image and shape options box, click _Change image_.
5. Recommend selecting the latest _Canonical Ubuntu_ image or at least updating the _Oracle Linux_ image to the latest version.  Then click _select image_ to save the changes.
6. Back in the expanded image and shape options box, click _Change shape_.
7. For this example, select the _Ampere_ box, and check the _VM.Standard.A1.Flex_ option.  Then in the expanded shape options drag the _Number of OCPUs_ slider to _4_ and the memory should also slide in kind to _24_ on the _Amount of memory (GB)_ slider.  Remember to click _Select shape_ to save the changes.
8. Optional: In the expanded section after clicking _Show advanced options_  in the Networking box, you may want to enter a _hostname_ for easier domain name connectivity.
9. The rest of the Networking options are left as is to create a Publicly accessible VM in a new VCN and subnet.
10. **Important**: Save the _Private_ and _Public_ SSH keys now from the _Add SSH Keys_ section.
11. Optional: In the _Boot Volume_ section, you may want to disable the _Use in-transit encryption_ option to improve performance if your use case does not involve sensitive data.
12. Recommend: Leave the rest of the options at default values for now.  NOTE: The boot size can be expanded later if needed, but not shrunk.
13. Finally, click the _Create_ button at the bottom and wait a couple minutes for your VM to be ready.


Once ready, we can perform our first SSH connection.
```bash
chmod 600 my-secret-key.key
ssh -i my-secret-key.key ubuntu@10.0.0.0
```

> Remember to updated your `iptables` for your services and open the ports needed in the subnet's security list!
 
Check out many guides for setting up services on Oracle Cloud at
https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/developer-tutorials/tutorials/apache-on-ubuntu/01oci-ubuntu-apache-summary.htm