3 Creating Instances

You can create Compute Classic instances in several ways.

Topics

• About Instances
• Workflow for Creating Your First Instance
• Selecting a Method of Creating Instances
• Creating an Instance Using QuickStarts
• Creating an Instance from the Instances Page
• Creating an Instance Using a Private Image
• Creating Instances Using Orchestrations
• Creating an Instance Using a Blank Orchestration v2
• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans
• Creating an Instance Using Visual Object Editor
• Cloning an Instance by Using Instance Snapshots
• Logging In to an Instance

About Instances

A Compute Classic instance is a virtual machine running a specific operating system and with CPU and memory resources that you specify.

Defining Instances

An instance is defined by its machine image and shape. A machine image is a template of a virtual hard disk that has a specific operating system installed. See Managing Machine Images. A shape defines the number of CPUs and RAM available to an instance. See About Shapes.

Identifying Instances

You can specify a name as well as a label to identify your instance. The instance name that you specify becomes a prefix for an ID that’s generated automatically. If you’ve specified a label, then the label is displayed in the web console. Otherwise, the system-generated ID is displayed.

You can assign tags to your instances to make it easy to sort and find instances.

Adding Storage

You can attach up to 20 TB of block storage to each of your instances for storing data and applications, by creating multiple persistent storage volumes and attaching them to the instances. Even after you delete instances, the data stored in the storage volumes remains intact until you delete the volumes.

Instances boot from a persistent disk, ensuring that any changes that you make at the operating system-level persist when the instance is re-created.

See Managing Storage Volumes.

Configuring Network Settings

You can implement fine-grained control over network access to your instances, both from other Compute Classic instances as well as from external hosts.

When you create an instance, by default, it doesn’t allow access from any other instance or external host. To enable unrestricted communication among some of your instances, you can create a security list and add all the instances to that security list. When you add an instance to a security list, the instance can communicate with all the other instances in the same list.

By default, the instances in a security list are isolated from hosts outside the list. You can override this default setting by creating security rules. Each security rule defines a specific communication path, which consists of a source, a destination, and a protocol-port combination over which communication is allowed.

You can also add your instance to IP networks that you’ve created. An IP network allows you to define an IP subnet in your account. The address range of the IP network is determined by the IP address prefix that you specify while creating the IP network. These IP addresses aren’t part of the common pool of Oracle-provided IP addresses used by the shared network. When you add an instance to an IP network, the instance is assigned an IP address in that subnet. You can assign IP addresses to instances either statically or dynamically, depending on your business needs. So you have complete control over the IP addresses assigned to your instances.

See Configuring the Shared Network and Configuring IP Networks.

About Shapes

A shape is a resource profile that specifies the number of OCPUs and the amount of memory to be allocated to an instance in Compute Classic. The shape determines the type of disk drive that your instance uses. If you select a general purpose or high-memory shape, a hard-disk drive is used. If you select a high I/O shape, an NVM Express SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance. For general purpose and high-memory shapes, you can select the block storage disk size, but for high I/O shapes, the size of the disk is determined by the shape.

When you select a shape, your instance is created with the corresponding number of Oracle Compute Units (OCPUs). An OCPU provides CPU capacity equivalent to one physical core of a processor with hyper threading enabled. Each OCPU corresponds to two hardware execution threads, known as vCPUs, as shown in the following figure.

A wide range of shapes is available to help you select a combination of processing power and memory for your instances that best suits your business requirement. The smallest general purpose shape provides 7.5 GB memory with a single OCPU. Larger shapes provide more OCPUs with correspondingly higher memory. If you need more memory per OCPU, select a high-memory shape.

If you require fast I/O access, select one of the high I/O shapes. An NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance with the device name /dev/xvdz. This is a local, nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk, which provides high I/O access rates. After your instance is created, you can mount this disk and format it as required. The size of this NVMe SSD disk is fixed depending on the selected shape.

Note:

Remember, when you select a high I/O shape, the NVMe SSD disk that is attached automatically is a nonpersistent disk. If you delete, shut down, or restart the instance or stop the instance orchestration, data stored on this disk is deleted.

• While selecting the shape for an instance, consider the nature of the applications that you plan to deploy on the instance, the number of users that you expect to use the applications, and also how you expect the load to scale in the future. Remember to also factor in the CPU and memory resources that are necessary for the operating system.

• Select a shape that meets the requirements of your workload with a sufficient buffer for intermittent spikes in the load. If you’re not sure what shape is appropriate for an instance, then start small, experiment with a representative workload, and then settle on a shape. This approach may help you achieve an optimal trade-off between resource allocation and performance.

The following tables list the shapes that are currently available in Compute Classic.

General Purpose Shapes

Shape	OCPUs	vCPUs	Memory (GB)
OC3	1	2	7.5
OC4	2	4	15
OC5	4	8	30
OC6	8	16	60
OC7	16	32	120
OC8	24	48	180
OC9	32	64	240

Note:

Not all Compute Classic sites include all shapes. To check which shapes are available on your site, start the Create Instance wizard and view the list of shapes on the Shape page. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page. Alternatively, to get a list of shapes using the API, use the GET /shape/ method. For more information, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

High-Memory Shapes

Shape	OCPUs	vCPUs	Memory (GB)
OC1M	1	2	15
OC2M	2	4	30
OC3M	4	8	60
OC4M	8	16	120
OC5M	16	32	240
OC8M	24	48	360
OC9M	32	64	480

Note:

Not all Compute Classic sites include all shapes. To check which shapes are available on your site, start the Create Instance wizard and view the list of shapes on the Shape page. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page. Alternatively, to get a list of shapes using the API, use the GET /shape/ method. For more information, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

High I/O Shapes

When you select a high I/O shape, an NVM Express solid-state drive (SSD) disk is attached to your instance. The size of the disk is determined by the shape you select.

Note:

Remember, when you select a high I/O shape, the NVMe SSD disk that is attached automatically is a nonpersistent disk. If you delete, shut down, or restart the instance or stop the instance orchestration, data stored on this disk is deleted.

Shape	OCPUs	vCPUs	Memory (GB)	Size of SSD Disk (GB)
OCIO1M	1	2	15	400
OCIO2M	2	4	30	800
OCIO3M	4	8	60	1600
OCIO4M	8	16	120	3200
OCIO5M	16	32	240	6400

Note:

Not all Compute Classic sites include high I/O shapes. To check whether your site offers high I/O shapes, start the Create Instance wizard and view the list of shapes on the Shape page. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page. Alternatively, to get a list of shapes using the API, use the GET /shape/ method. For more information, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

GPU Optimized Shapes

Shape	OCPUs	vCPUs	Memory (GB)	gpuS
OCSG1–K80	3	6	60	1
OCSG1–M80	3	6	60	1
OCSG2–K80	6	12	120	2
OCSG2–M80	6	12	120	2
OCSG3–K80	12	24	240	4
OCSG3–M80	12	24	240	4

Note:

Not all Compute Classic sites include all shapes. To check which shapes are available on your site, start the Create Instance wizard and view the list of shapes on the Shape page. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page. Alternatively, to get a list of shapes using the API, use the GET /shape/ method. For more information, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

Instance Life Cycle

A Compute Classic instance can have one of the following statuses:

• When you create an instance, the initial status is Preparing. Compute Classic allocates resources and prepares to create the instance.

• While the specified image is being installed, the state changes to Initializing.

• After the image is installed and the instance is starting, the status changes to Starting.

• When the instance is ready, the status changes to Running. When an instance is in the Running state, you can connect to it. You can also attach or detach storage volumes and security lists.

• When an instance is running, you can shut down the instance. Its status changes to Stopping. When the operation is completed, its status changes to Stopped. When an instance is shut down or stopped, you can either start the instance, or delete it.

• When an instance is running or shut down, you can delete the instance. Its status changes to Deleting. When the operation is completed, the instance is deleted.

• At times, an instance can have the Error status.

  For example, when you create or re-create an instance by starting its orchestration, if some of the resources required to create the instance aren’t available, then the status of the instance changes to Error.

WARNING:

When you shut down or reboot an instance, you might lose data on any nonpersistent boot disks, including NVMe SSD disks, that are attached automatically as part of the high I/O shapes.

Workflow for Creating Your First Instance

Compute Classic supports several workflows for creating instances and the associated networking and storage resources.

For example, you can create the required storage volumes first and then create the instances to which the storage volumes should be attached. Alternatively, you can create instances first and then create and attach the required storage volumes to the instances. Similarly, you can create security lists first and then create instances and add them to the security lists, or you can create the instances first and then create security lists and add instances to them.

The workflow for creating an instance also varies depending on the type of instance you want to create. Use the appropriate recommended workflow for creating an Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, or Windows instance.

Topics

• Workflow for Creating Your First Oracle Linux Instance
• Workflow for Creating Your First Oracle Solaris Instance (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)
• Workflow for Creating Your First Windows Instance (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

Workflow for Creating Your First Oracle Linux Instance

Here’s a simple workflow that you can use to create your first instance.

1. Generate SSH key pairs. See Generating an SSH Key Pair.
2. Sign in to Compute Classic. See Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console.
3. Add the SSH public keys. See Adding an SSH Public Key.
4. Create an instance using the web console. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page.

After creating the instance, you can do the following:

• Create and attach storage volumes. See Creating a Storage Volume and Attaching a Storage Volume to an Instance.
• Add your instance to a security rule to control network access to the instance. See Managing Security Rules for IP Networks.
• Access your instance securely by using SSH. See Accessing an Oracle Linux Instance Using SSH.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Workflow for Creating Your First Oracle Solaris Instance

This topic does not apply to Oracle Cloud at Customer.

Here’s a simple workflow that you can use to create your first Oracle Solaris instance.

1. Generate SSH key pairs. See Generating an SSH Key Pair.
2. Sign in to Compute Classic. See Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console.
3. Add the SSH public keys. See Adding an SSH Public Key.
4. Create an instance using the web console. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page.

After creating the instance, you can do the following:

• Create and attach storage volumes. See Creating a Storage Volume and Attaching a Storage Volume to an Instance.
• Add your instance to a security rule to control network access to the instance. See Managing Security Rules for IP Networks.
• Access your instance securely by using SSH. See Accessing an Oracle Solaris Instance Using SSH.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Workflow for Creating Your First Windows Instance

This topic does not apply to Oracle Cloud at Customer.

Here’s a simple workflow that you can use to create your first Windows instance.

1. Sign in to Oracle Cloud Marketplace at https://cloud.oracle.com/marketplace/faces/homePage.jspx and select the Windows image that you want.
2. Think of a strong password for the Administrator of your Windows instance and keep the password handy. Ensure that the password meets the Windows password complexity requirements. Refer to the Windows server documentation. You’ll need to set this password when you select a Windows image in Oracle Cloud Marketplace.
3. Click Get App and follow the process to create an instance using the web console. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page.

   Note:

   The custom attributes required to specify RDP and the Administrator password that you provided earlier are pre-populated in the Create Instance wizard. You can specify a different password in the Custom Attributes field while creating the instance. If you want to add other users to your Windows instance and enable RDP access for them, then enter the list of users and passwords. See User Data Attributes Used on Windows Instances.

After creating the instance, you can do the following:

• You should change the Administrator password when you log in to your instance the first time. You can also add additional administrators and users who are enabled for remote access, so that even if you lose or forget the Administrator password, you don’t get locked out of your instance. If your instance uses a persistent boot disk, any instance configuration, including tasks such as adding users or changing passwords, will be retained as long as the boot disk isn’t deleted. However, if you’re using a nonpersistent boot disk with your Windows instance, then if you terminate the orchestration and start it again later, the Administrator password will be reset to the password that you specified in the orchestration. This is true for any user password that you specify in an orchestration.

• Configure the security policy on your instance as required. For information about Windows security policies, see the Microsoft Windows Server documentation: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn452420%28v=ws.11%29.aspx

• Create and attach storage volumes. See Creating a Storage Volume and Attaching a Storage Volume to an Instance.
• Add your instance to a security rule to control network access to the instance. See Managing Security Rules for IP Networks.
• Create a security rule to enable RDP access and access your instance securely. See Accessing a Windows Instance Using RDP.
• Create other Windows instances. After you’ve selected a Windows image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace and added it to your account, the Windows machine image is added to the list of images available while creating an instance or while creating a bootable storage volume. You can then directly select this image to create another Windows instance or a bootable storage volume. See Creating an Instance from the Instances Page and Creating a Bootable Storage Volume.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Selecting a Method of Creating Instances

You can create Compute Classic instances in the following ways.

Task	Information
Quickly create an instance with a default configuration using the web console.	Creating an Instance Using QuickStarts
Create an instance using the Create Instance wizard from the Instances page of the web console, using one of the following: An Oracle-provided machine image A custom machine image A machine image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)	Creating an Instance from the Instances Page
Create an instance using a non-persistent boot disk, configure the instance, and take a snapshot of the instance. Register this snapshot as a private machine image and use it to create instances.	Cloning an Instance by Using Instance Snapshots
Select a custom machine image that you’ve already created, uploaded, and registered with Compute Classic from the Images page of the web console and use it to launch the Create Instance wizard.	Creating an Instance Using a Private Image
Define one or more instances and other objects offline in a JSON-formatted file, upload the orchestration to Compute Classic, and then start the orchestration using the web console.	Creating Instances Using Orchestrations
Instead of defining the orchestration in a JSON-formatted file and then uploading the orchestration to Compute Classic, you can create a blank orchestration, and then add objects to it by updating the orchestration. While updating the orchestration, you can define attributes for a single instance or create complex topologies that consist of multiple instances and multiple networks.	Creating an Instance Using a Blank Orchestration v2
Create an instance using Visual Object Editor by using Oracle-provided images or private images.	Creating an Instance Using Visual Object Editor
Specify one or more instances by starting an orchestration using the CLI.	See the workflow Preparing to Use the Compute Classic CLI in CLI Reference for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic
Specify one or more instances by creating and managing orchestrations using the REST API.	Creating Instances Using an Orchestration in REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic
Create one or more instances by specifying instance creation parameters in a launch plan using the REST API.	Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

Creating an Instance Using QuickStarts

You can use QuickStarts to quickly create an instance using a default configuration.

Prerequisites

• If you want to access this instance from a Windows host using PuTTY, you must generate an SSH key pair and upload the SSH public key to your Compute Classic account. To generate an SSH key pair using PuTTY, see the section Generating an SSH Key Pair in Tutorial: Creating an Oracle Linux Instance Using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic Web Console. To upload the SSH public key to your account, see Adding an SSH Public Key.

• To complete this task, you must have the Compute_Operations role. If this role isn’t assigned to you or you’re not sure, then ask your system administrator to ensure that the role is assigned to you in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. See Modifying User Roles in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud.

• Create an IP network to which you want to attach your instance or you can use the default IP network. See Creating an IP Network.

Procedure

1. Sign in to the Compute Classic console. If your domain spans multiple sites, select the appropriate site. To change the site, click the Site menu near the top of the page.
2. On the Instances page, click Create Instance.
   The QuickStarts page appears.
3. Specify a name for the instance or use the default value. Names can contain only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. The first and last characters cannot be hyphen or underscore.
4. Select the appropriate image. If you select an image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace, accept the terms and wait for the app to be installed before continuing.
5. Select the IP network that you want to add your instance to.
6. Select an existing SSH public key, or create an SSH key pair and download the SSH private key. Save the private key on your local system and make a note of the path where you’ve saved it. You’ll need the private key later, when you log in to the instance.

   Note:

   If you download the SSH key, you can use it to access your instance from UNIX and UNIX-like systems. If you want to access your instance by using PuTTY on Windows, generate the SSH key using PuTTY and add the SSH public key to your Compute Classic account.

   Note:

   If you select a Windows image, you don’t need an SSH key. Enter the administrator password instead. You’ll use this password to access the Windows instance using RDP later.

7. Click Create.
   The QuickStarts instance is created. While the instance is being created, you can monitor the corresponding orchestration on the Orchestrations page. When the instance is created, it is listed on the Instances page.

A QuickStarts instance is created with the following general configuration:

• Uses a persistent boot disk. You won’t be able to create an instance snapshot of this instance.

• In sites which support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks:

  • Doesn’t have an interface on the shared network.

  • (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Has one interface on an IP network with the same name and is added to a vNICset of the same name.

  • (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Has one interface on the default IP network and is added to a vNICset of the name which is same as the name of the instance.

  • Has one IP address from the /oracle/public/cloud-ippool IP address pool and another IP address from the /oracle/public/public-ippool IP address pool.

  • Has the required security rules and ACL set up to enable SSH or RDP access to the instance and all egress traffic.

• In sites which don’t support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks:

  • Has an interface on the shared network.

  • Is added to the default security list.

  • Has a temporary public IP address.

  • Has the required security rule set up to enable SSH or RDP access.

• Is nonpersistent. This allows you to update the instance by suspending the corresponding orchestration v2. When the orchestration is suspended, the instance status changes to Inactive and you can update any attribute of the instance.

• Has persistence specified as true for all other objects.

After your instance is created, you can log in to your instance. See Logging In to an Instance.

Tip:

To ensure that Compute Classic instances provide a resilient platform for your workloads, make sure that the latest security patches are applied to the operating system running on the instances. In addition, before deploying applications on an instance, review the security configuration of the operating system and verify that it complies with your security policies and standards.

For security and patching-related guidelines, see the documentation for your operating system.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Creating an Instance from the Instances Page

You can create a single instance using the Compute Classic web console. While creating an instance, you can specify persistent storage volumes to be associated with your instance. You can also enable access to your instance using SSH, or add your instance to a security list. If you add your instance to a security list, you can use that security list in security rules to control access to your instance.

When you create an instance using the Create Instance wizard, a single orchestration v2 is created automatically to manage the instance and its associated resources. Storage volumes and networking objects used by the instance are created in the same orchestration. Instances are nonpersistent by default. However, storage volumes and other objects are created with persistence set to true, so that if you suspend the orchestration, instances are shut down, but storage volumes aren’t deleted. Terminating the orchestration, however, will cause all objects to be deleted and any data on storage volumes will be lost.

For more information about using orchestrations to manage your instances and other resources, see Managing Resources Using Orchestrations v2.

Prerequisites

• To complete this task, you must have the Compute_Operations role. If this role isn’t assigned to you or you’re not sure, then ask your system administrator to ensure that the role is assigned to you in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. See Modifying User Roles in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud.

Procedure

1. Sign in to the Compute Classic console.
2. (Optional) If your domain spans multiple sites, then check that the site you’ve selected has sufficient capacity to create the required resources. Click Site near the top of the page to view the aggregate resource usage by all tenants on the currently selected site. If resource usage on the selected site is close to maximum, pick another site.

   If you’re using the REST API to create resources, note the API end point of the site that you want to use.

3. On the Instances page, click Create Instance.
   The QuickStarts page appears.
4. On the QuickStarts page:
   • To quickly create an instance using the default configuration, select an image on the QuickStarts page, select or create an SSH key (or, for a Windows instance, specify the administrator password), select the IP network that you want to add your instance to, and then click Create. The instance is created.
   • To select a different image, click Show All Images. The Images page of the Create Instance wizard is displayed.
   • To customize one of the QuickStart images with a specific configuration, click Customize. The image is selected and the Shapes page of the Create Instance wizard is displayed.
5. On the Image page, select the image you want to use. The image specifies the operating system and disk size of the instance. If there are multiple entries in an image list, the latest entry is selected by default. You can select an earlier entry from the drop-down list. For information about machine images, see Managing Machine Images.

   • To use an Oracle-provided image, select it from the Oracle Images tab. Where there are multiple image entries in an image list, the most recent entry is selected by default. You can select an older machine image from the drop-down list, if required. Machine images added from the 16.3.6 release onwards include the release version in the image list entry. If you want to add your instance to an IP network, select a machine image with version 16.3.6 or later.

   • To use a custom image, click the Private Images tab in the left pane and select the required image. The private images listed here include your custom images as well as images that you’ve previously selected from Oracle Cloud Marketplace and associated with your account.

   • To use an image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace, click the Marketplace tab in the left pane and select the required image. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) You can filter the Oracle Cloud Marketplace images by name, price, or category using the appropriate menu. Select an image and read and accept the terms of use to continue. Also enter any additional information or custom attributes for the image, if required.

   After selecting an image, you can click Review and Create to accept the default settings and create your instance.

   Note:

   If you select an image and then accept the default settings, your instance is created with the following configuration:

   • Uses the smallest applicable shape.

   • Uses the default name and label.

   • Uses a persistent boot disk. You won’t be able to create an instance snapshot of this instance.

   • In sites which support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks, the instance is added to the default IP network:

     • Doesn’t have an interface on the shared network.

     • (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Has one interface on an IP network with the same name and is added to a vNICset of the same name.

     • (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Has one interface on the default IP network and is added to a vNICset of the name which is same as the name of the instance.

     • Has one IP address from the /oracle/public/cloud-ippool IP address pool and another IP address from the /oracle/public/public-ippool IP address pool.

     • Has the required security rules and ACL set up to enable SSH or RDP access to the instance and all egress traffic.

   • In sites which don’t support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks:

     • Has an interface on the shared network.

     • Is added to the default security list.

     • Has a temporary public IP address.

     • Has the required security rule set up to enable SSH or RDP access.

   • Is nonpersistent. This allows you to update the instance by suspending the corresponding orchestration v2. When the orchestration is suspended, the instance status changes to Inactive and you can update any attribute of the instance.

   • Has persistence specified as true for all other objects.

   • Doesn’t have a description, tags, a DNS host name prefix, or custom attributes (unless specified in the image).

   • Doesn’t have any SSH keys associated with it.

   Caution:

   If you accept the default settings and click Review and Create, your instance won’t have any SSH keys associated with it. This means that you won’t be able to access the instance using SSH. An SSH key is required when you create an Oracle Linux or an Oracle Solaris instance, because you must use SSH to access these instances. Go to the Instance page of the Create Instance wizard to specify an SSH public key to be associated with your instance.

   If you want to customize your instance configuration after selecting an image, click the button to go to the next page.
6. On the Shape page, select the shape that you want to use. The shape specifies the OCPU and memory resources to be allocated to the instance. If you select a high I/O shape, an NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance. This is a local, nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk, which provides high I/O access rates. This disk is attached to your instance with the device name /dev/xvdz. After your instance is created, you can mount this disk and format it as required. The size of this NVMe SSD disk is fixed depending on the selected shape.

   Note:

   High I/O shapes aren’t available in all regions.

   For more information about shapes, see About Shapes.

   After selecting a shape, click the button to go to the next page.

7. On the Instance page, select or enter the following, and then click the button to go to the next page:

   • Persistent: (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

     Because instances are nonpersistent by default, the instance is deleted when you suspend the relevant orchestration. This allows you to update the properties of the instance by suspending the orchestration. If a persistent boot disk is attached to the instance, no data or configuration is lost. After updating the properties of the instance, you can recreate it by starting the orchestration.

     If you use this option to specify that the instance must be persistent, then, if you want to update the instance later on without stopping any of the other objects created by this orchestration, remember to update the instance to be nonpersistent at that time.

   • Placement: As there is a single domain, the instance is created in this domain when you select Auto or Specific Domain.

   • Name: Enter a name for your instance, or accept the default.

     Note that the full name of an instance has the following format: /Compute-identity_domain/user/name/id. Here id is an autogenerated ID.

     Examples of Instance Names:

     • If you accept the default value suggested in the Create Instance wizard (for example, 20160422104055):

       /Compute-myDomain/jack/20160422104055/300a7479-ec90-4826-98b9-a725662628f1

     • If you specify a name in the Create Instance wizard (for example, vm1 ) :

       /Compute-myDomain/jack/vm1/300a7479-ec90-4826-98b9-a725662628f1

   • Label: Enter a label for the instance or accept the default. A label can contain only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It can’t contain unicode characters.

     Enter a label that’s meaningful and that you can use to identify the instance easily later. Try to assign a unique label for each instance. This label is displayed on the instance details page.

   • Description: (Optional) Enter a description.

   • Tags: (Optional) Specify one or more tags to help you identify and categorize the instance.

   • SSH Keys: (Optional) Specify the SSH keys that you want to associate with this instance. Click this field or start typing to see a list of available SSH public keys.

     Note:

     You don’t need to do this if you’re creating a Windows instance, because you can’t log in to a Windows instance using SSH.

     To add a new SSH public key:

     1. Click Add SSH Public Key.

     2. Enter a name for the SSH public key.

     3. In the Value field, click Select File. Navigate to the path where your SSH key is saved, and select the SSH public key file that you want to add. The value of the SSH key appears in the field.

        Alternatively, you can paste the value of the SSH public key that you want to add.

        Important:

        Paste the key value exactly as it was generated. Don’t append or insert any spaces, characters, or line breaks.

     4. Click Add.

        The SSH public key is added and appears in the list of SSH keys that you want to associate with the instance.

     Tip:

     The keys that you specify are stored as metadata on the instance. This metadata can be accessed from within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/{version}/meta-data/public-keys/{index}/openssh-key.

     • Oracle-provided images include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the keys, and adds them to the authorized_keys file of the opc user.

     • In images that you build, you can write and include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the SSH public keys, and adds the keys to the authorized_keys file of the appropriate users.

   • RDP: This field is displayed when you select a Windows image. Retain the default, Enabled, if you want to use RDP to access your Windows instance. If you select Disabled, you won’t be able to access your Windows instance using RDP.

   • Administrator Password: This field is displayed when you select a Windows image. The password displayed here is the password that you specified while getting the Windows image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. You can retain this password, or specify a different password. You’ll use this password to log in to your Windows instance as the Administrator. Ensure that the password meets the Windows password complexity requirements. See the Windows Server documentation.

   • Custom Attributes: Enter any additional attributes that you want to store on the instance. This field allows you to customize your instance by providing additional information specific to each instance. You can enter arbitrary key-value pairs in plain text. The text you enter here must be in JSON format. This information is stored as user data on your instance.

     If you’re creating a Windows instance, the following required attributes are pre-populated for you.

     {
               "enable_rdp": true,
               "administrator_password": "Specify_password_here"
       }
     

     The Administrator password that appears here by default is the password that you specified when you selected the Windows image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. You can specify a different Administrator password for your instance, if required. You can edit these attributes either directly in this field, or by modifying the RDP and Administrator Password fields above.

     On Oracle Linux instances created using Oracle-provided images with the release version 16.4.6 or later, the OPC Agent is installed and enabled by default. This agent collects and reports memory utilization metrics on your instance. If you want to disable this agent, enter the opc_guest_agent_enabled attribute set to false.

     For information about user-defined attributes that can be used to automate instance configuration, see Automating Instance Initialization Using opc-init.

     Note:

     Solaris machine images don’t include the opc-init scripts. So you can’t use opc-init to automate instance configuration of Solaris instances. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

     After the instance is created, the attributes that you specify here are available within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/latest/user-data. For information about retrieving user data, see Retrieving User-Defined Instance Attributes.

8. On the Network page, select or enter the required network settings, and then click the button to go to the next page:

   • DNS Hostname Prefix: (Optional) Specify a DNS host name prefix. The host name is visible internally within your DNS space. It is referenced by other instances in the domain, as well as by the OS and applications running on your instance. The host name that you specify is suffixed by the domain name. If you don’t specify a host name, then a host name is generated automatically.

   • Network Options: (Optional) From the 16.3.6 release onwards, Oracle-provided Oracle Linux and Windows machine images support up to eight interfaces (eth0 to eth7). If you use a private image, you can set up the image to support multiple interfaces. When you create an instance using these images, you can add each instance to up to eight different networks, including the shared network. To configure the shared network or IP networks, select the appropriate option.

     • (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer) If you select the IP Network option, you must click Configure Interface to configure IP network interfaces to enable access to your instance and specify one of the IP network interfaces as the default gateway for the instance. If you don’t click Configure Interface to specify an IP network, then the instance is added to the default security list in the shared network.

     • (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) If you select the IP Network option, then the eth0 interface of the instance is added to the default IP network. You can accept the default values or if you want to specify the IP network options, from the menu, select Update.

       Click Configure Interface to configure the other network interfaces of the instance.

     • If you don't want to access the instance on the shared network, ensure that the Shared Network option is deselected. If you don’t select the Shared Network option, your instance isn’t added to the shared network.

     • If you don’t select the IP Network option, your instance isn’t added to any IP network. If you don’t select either option, your instance isn’t added to any IP network but it is added to the shared network. It is added to the default security list. This enables you to access the instance on the shared network after the instance is created. However, no public IP address is associated with it, so if you want to access the instance from the public Internet, you must first associate a public IP address with it. The shared network interface is automatically configured as the default gateway for the instance.

9. IP Network Options
   Click Configure Interface. In the Configure IP Network Interface dialog box, enter the following information and then click Save.

   • Interface: Select the interface that you want to add to the IP network. After you select all the interfaces that you want to add to IP networks, the first available interface is assigned to the shared network. You can’t add, delete, or modify interface allocations after an instance is created.

   • vNIC Name: Retain the default vNIC name or enter another name. The three-part vNIC name is generated using this name. It has the format /Compute-identity_domain/username/instanceName_vnicName.

     If you enter a vNIC name, ensure that the name is unique to the site.

   • IP Network: Specify the IP network that you want to add this interface to. When you add an instance to an IP network, the specified interface of the instance is assigned an IP address on the specified IP network. After the instance is created, you can view information about each interface on the Instance Details page.

     If you haven’t created the IP network that you want to add your instance to, you can do so now. Click Create IP Network. Enter a name and the IP address prefix for the IP network, select an IP network exchange that you want to add the IP network to, if any. Then click Create. The IP network is created and selected in the list of IP networks that you want to add your instance to.

     If an IP network belongs to an IP network exchange and if you have specified a host name, then that host name is resolvable by all IP networks connected to the IP network exchange.

     The same DNS server will be used that is part of the IP network and will be setup by DHCP automatically.

   • Static IP Address: Specify a private IP address for this interface. The private IP address must be unused and it must belong to the subnet of the selected IP network. Remember, too, that certain IP addresses in a subnet are reserved. For example, the first unicast IP address of any IP network is reserved for the default gateway, the DHCP server, and the DNS server of that IP network.

     If no static IP address is specified, an IP address from the specified IP network is allocated dynamically, when the instance is created. Dynamically allocated IP addresses might change if the instance is deleted and re-created.

     Dynamic IP addresses are allocated from the lowest IP address in the range upwards. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, dynamic allocation of IP addresses would start with 192.168.1.2 (as the first two IP addresses in the range, 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.1, are reserved).

     To ensure that a static IP address that you’ve specified isn’t already dynamically allocated, it is recommended that you specify static IP addresses from the end of your subnet range. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, start allocating static IP addresses from 192.168.1.126 downwards (as the last IP address in the range, 192.168.1.127, is reserved).

   • Public IP Address: Select an available IP reservation for IP networks. When the instance is created, you can configure security rules and access control lists for your IP network to enable access to this IP address over the public Internet. If you don’t select an IP reservation now, you can associate a public IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

   • Cloud IP Address: Select an available IP reservation from the cloud IP pool. When the instance is created, this IP address can be accessed by other Oracle Cloud services without being accessible over the public Internet. If you don’t select a cloud IP address now, you can associate a cloud IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

   • MAC Address: Specify the MAC address of the interface, in hexadecimal format, where each digit is separated by colon. For example, you can enter 01:02:03:04:ab:cd as the MAC address but not 01-02-03-04-ab-cd. Ensure that the MAC addresses that you specify are unique within each IP network exchange and each IP network. If you specify a duplicate MAC address, each vNIC with that MAC address is disabled.

   • Virtual NIC Sets: Select the vNICsets that you want to add this interface to. Each interface is added to the default vNICset by default. If you select other vNICsets to add this interface to, you can remove it from the default vNICset. However, ensure that you add each interface to at least one vNICset, to enable communication to that interface. After the instance is created, communication with each vNIC depends on the vNICsets it belongs to and the access control lists that apply to each vNICset. While creating an instance, you can add a vNIC to up to 4 vNICsets. To add a vNIC to more than 4 vNICsets, update the required vNICsets after the instance is created. You can also remove vNICs from a vNICset after the instance is created.

   • DNS: Enter the DNS A record names for the instance. You can specify up to eight DNS A record names for each interface on an IP network. These names can be queried by instances on any IP network in the same IP network exchange. If no static IP address is specified for the interface, an IP address on the specified IP network is assigned automatically. After the instance is launched, the defined names are associated with the IP address that was automatically allocated to the interface.

   • Name Servers: Enter the name servers that are sent through DHCP as option 6. You can specify a maximum of eight name server IP addresses per interface.

   • Search Domains: Enter the search domains that should be sent through DHCP as option 119. You can enter a maximum of eight search domain zones per interface.

   • Default Gateway: Select this option if you want to use this interface as the default gateway. All network traffic uses the specified default gateway, unless a different interface is explicitly configured for an application within the instance.

10. Shared Network Options
    • Public IP Address:

      • If you want to connect to this instance over the Internet, then select either Auto Generated or Persistent Public IP Reservation.

      • If you select an autogenerated public IP address, the IP address persists while the instance is running, but will change if you delete the instance and create it again later.

      • To associate a permanent public IP address with the instance, select Persistent Public IP Reservation.

      • If you’ve already created an IP address reservation, select it from the list. Otherwise, to create one now, click Create IP Reservation. In the Create Public IP Reservation dialog box, enter a name for the IP reservation and then click Create. The IP reservation is created. Select this IP reservation from the list of persistent public IP reservations.

      • If you don’t want your instance to be accessed over the Internet, then you don’t need to associate a public IP address with it. In the Public IP Address list, select None.

      For more information about public IP addresses, see About Public IP Addresses.

    • Security Lists:

      • (Optional) Specify the security lists that you want to add the instance to. Click this field or start typing to see a list of available security lists. When you add an instance to a security list, you can control access to or from this instance by creating security rules that use the specified security list as a source or destination.

      • (Optional) If you haven’t created the security lists that you want to use, you can do so now. Click Create Security List. Enter a name for the security list and optionally enter a description, and then click Create. The security list is created and appears in the list of security lists that you want to add your instance to.

      If you don’t specify any security list, the instance is added to the default security list, default/default. You can use this security list as a source or destination in security rules that you create. If any existing security rules already specify this security list as a source or destination, those rules will apply to this instance when the instance is created. If you don’t want to use those security rules with this instance, or if you want to configure access to this instance separately later on, remember to remove the instance from the default/default security list after it is created. See Removing an Instance from a Security List.

      For more information about security lists, see About Security Lists.

11. The Storage page shows the persistent boot disk that will be created and used to boot your instance. You can retain this setting and attach additional storage volumes later, when the instance is running. Alternatively, you can update or remove the persistent boot disk that is created by default or attach additional boot or data disks now.

    You can attach existing storage volumes to your instance, if required, or create storage volumes and attach them to the instance.

    • To attach storage volumes that you’ve already created:

      Click Attach Existing Volume.

      Note:

      You can’t detach storage volumes that are attached during instance creation.

      In the Attach Existing Storage Volume dialog box, select or enter the following and then click Add:

      • Attach Storage Volume: Select the storage volume that you want to attach.

        Note:

        A storage volume must be in the online state before it can be attached to an instance. If a storage volume is already attached to another instance or if it is in an error state, it’s not displayed in the Attach Storage Volume list.

      • Attach as Disk #: Enter a disk index number. The disk number that you specify here determines the device name. The disk attached at index 1 is named /dev/xvdb, the disk at index 2 is /dev/xvdc, the disk at index 3 is /dev/xvdd, and so on. Make a note of the disk number. You’ll need it later when you mount the storage volume on the instance.

      • Boot Drive: Select this option to use the specified storage volume as the boot disk. The storage volume you select here must have the same image as the image that you selected on the Image page of the Create Instance wizard.

    • To create a storage volume and attach it to the instance:

      Click Add New Volume.

      In the Add New Storage Volume dialog box, select or enter the following and then click Add:

      • Name: Enter a name for this storage volume.

      • Size: The size is set automatically to accommodate the disk size that’s specified in the image that you selected earlier. If you want a larger boot disk than that specified in the image, then enter a larger size.

        Note:

        You can increase the size of a storage volume after creating it, even if the storage volume is attached to an instance. See Increasing the Size of a Storage Volume. However, you can’t reduce the size of a storage volume after you’ve created it. So ensure that you don’t overestimate your storage requirement.

      • Storage Property: Select a storage property.

        Based on your latency and IOPS requirements, select one of the following storage properties.

        Storage Property	Latency	Throughput
        storage/default	Standard	Standard
        storage/latency	Low	High
        storage/ssd/gpl	Lowest	Highest

        Note:

        SSD storage volumes aren’t available in all sites.

        The web console might show other storage properties. Don’t select any of them.

      • Description: (Optional) Enter a description.

      • Attach as Disk #: Accept the default disk number or enter a higher number. The disk number that you specify here determines the device name. The disk attached at index 1 is named /dev/xvdb, the disk at index 2 is /dev/xvdc, the disk at index 3 is /dev/xvdd, and so on.Make a note of the disk number. You’ll need it later when you mount the storage volume on the instance.

      • Boot Drive: Select this option to use the specified storage volume as the boot disk. When you select this option, the disk number is automatically set to 1.

    • To customize the persistent boot disk that is created by default:

      From the menu, select Update. In the Update Storage Volume dialog box, you can modify the disk size, storage property, or the description. You can also uncheck the Boot Drive option. The persistent storage volume will still be created when the instance is created, but it won’t be used to boot the instance. Instead, a nonpersistent boot disk will be created and used to boot the instance.

    • To create an instance that uses a nonpersistent boot disk:

      Remove the default boot disk. From the menu, select Remove. When you do this and you don’t specify another persistent storage volume as the boot drive, a nonpersistent boot disk is used to boot your instance.

      Note:

      If you want to create an instance snapshot to use this instance as a template for creating other instances, remove the persistent boot disk while creating this instance and use a nonpersistent boot disk instead. You can’t create an instance snapshot of an instance that uses a persistent boot disk.

      However, if you want to use a persistent boot disk to boot your instance, you can still use this boot disk as a template to create other instances by creating a storage volume snapshot of the boot disk and using that snapshot to create a new bootable storage volume. See Backing Up and Restoring Storage Volumes Using Snapshots.

    When you’re done, click the button to go to the next page.
12. On the Review page, verify the information that you’ve entered, and then click Create.
13. Monitor the status of the instance.

    • When you create an instance, the initial status is Preparing. Compute Classic allocates resources and prepares to create the instance.

    • While the specified image is being installed, the state changes to Initializing.

    • After the image is installed and the instance is starting, the status changes to Starting.

    • When the instance is ready, the status changes to Running. When an instance is in the Running state, you can connect to it. You can also attach or detach storage volumes and security lists.

    • When an instance is running, you can shut down the instance. Its status changes to Stopping. When the operation is completed, its status changes to Stopped. When an instance is shut down or stopped, you can either start the instance, or delete it.

    • When an instance is running or shut down, you can delete the instance. Its status changes to Deleting. When the operation is completed, the instance is deleted.

    • At times, an instance can have the Error status.

      For example, when you create or re-create an instance by starting its orchestration, if some of the resources required to create the instance aren’t available, then the status of the instance changes to Error.

    Note:

    If you get an error message Unable to place instance... it indicates that the site you’ve selected doesn’t have sufficient resources to create this instance. If your domain spans multiple sites, then use the Site menu near the top of the page to select another site and run the Create Instance wizard again.

After your instance is created, you can log in to your instance. See Logging In to an Instance.

Tip:

To ensure that Compute Classic instances provide a resilient platform for your workloads, make sure that the latest security patches are applied to the operating system running on the instances. In addition, before deploying applications on an instance, review the security configuration of the operating system and verify that it complies with your security policies and standards.

For Oracle-provided images, apply the necessary security patches and review the security configuration right after you create the instances, before deploying any applications.

For security and patching-related guidelines, see the documentation for your operating system.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Creating an Instance Using a Private Image

You can build a custom image and use it to create Compute Classic instances.

When you create an instance using the Create Instance wizard, a single orchestration v2 is created automatically to manage the instance and its associated resources. Storage volumes and networking objects used by the instance are created in the same orchestration. Instances are nonpersistent by default. However, storage volumes and other objects are created with persistence set to true, so that if you suspend the orchestration, instances are shut down, but storage volumes aren’t deleted. Terminating the orchestration, however, will cause all objects to be deleted and any data on storage volumes will be lost.

For more information about using orchestrations to manage your instances and other resources, see Managing Resources Using Orchestrations v2.

Prerequisites

• To complete this task, you must have the Compute_Operations role. If this role isn’t assigned to you or you’re not sure, then ask your system administrator to ensure that the role is assigned to you in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. See Modifying User Roles in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud.

• The custom machine image that you want to use must already be available as a machine image in Compute Classic. See Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image for information about creating, uploading, and registering your custom machine images.

Procedure

1. Sign in to the Compute Classic console.
2. (Optional) If your domain spans multiple sites, then check that the site you’ve selected has sufficient capacity to create the required resources. Click Site near the top of the page to view the aggregate resource usage by all tenants on the currently selected site. If resource usage on the selected site is close to maximum, pick another site.

   If you’re using the REST API to create resources, note the API end point of the site that you want to use.

3. Click the Images tab.
   The Private Images page is displayed.
4. The Private Images page lists images you’ve created as well as images you’ve got from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. Go to the image that you want to use, and from the menu, select Create Instance.
   The Create Instance wizard starts.
5. The Image page of the Create Instance wizard shows the custom image that you selected. After selecting this image, you can click Review and Create to accept the default settings and create your instance.

   Note:

   If you select an image and then accept the default settings, your instance is created with the following configuration:

   • Uses the smallest applicable shape.
   • Has the high-availability (HA) policy set to Active.
   • Uses the default name and label.
   • Uses a persistent boot disk. You won’t be able to create an instance snapshot of this instance.
   • Has an autogenerated public IP address.
   • Is added to the default security list.
   • Isn’t added to any IP networks.
   • Doesn’t have a description, tags, a DNS host name prefix, or custom attributes (unless specified in the image).
   • Doesn’t have any SSH keys associated with it.

   Caution:

   If you accept the default settings and click Review and Create, your instance won’t have any SSH keys associated with it. This means that you won’t be able to access the instance using SSH. An SSH key is required when you create an Oracle Linux or an Oracle Solaris instance, because you must use SSH to access these instances. Go to the Instance page of the Create Instance wizard to specify an SSH public key to be associated with your instance.

6. On the Shape page, select the shape that you want to use. The shape specifies the OCPU and memory resources to be allocated to the instance. If you select a high I/O shape, an NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance. This is a local, nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk, which provides high I/O access rates. This disk is attached to your instance with the device name /dev/xvdz. After your instance is created, you can mount this disk and format it as required. The size of this NVMe SSD disk is fixed depending on the selected shape.

   Note:

   High I/O shapes aren’t available in all regions.

   For more information about shapes, see About Shapes.

   After selecting a shape, click the button to go to the next page.

7. On the Instance page, select or enter the following, and then click the button to go to the next page:

   • Persistent: (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

     Because instances are nonpersistent by default, the instance is deleted when you suspend the relevant orchestration. This allows you to update the properties of the instance by suspending the orchestration. If a persistent boot disk is attached to the instance, no data or configuration is lost. After updating the properties of the instance, you can recreate it by starting the orchestration.

     If you use this option to specify that the instance must be persistent, then, if you want to update the instance later on without stopping any of the other objects created by this orchestration, remember to update the instance to be nonpersistent at that time.

   • Placement: As there is a single domain, the instance is created in this domain when you select Auto or Specific Domain.

   • Name: Enter a name for your instance, or accept the default.

     Note that the full name of an instance has the following format: /Compute-identity_domain/user/name/id. Here id is an autogenerated ID.

     Examples of Instance Names:

     • If you accept the default value suggested in the Create Instance wizard (for example, 20160422104055):

       /Compute-myDomain/jack/20160422104055/300a7479-ec90-4826-98b9-a725662628f1

     • If you specify a name in the Create Instance wizard (for example, vm1 ) :

       /Compute-myDomain/jack/vm1/300a7479-ec90-4826-98b9-a725662628f1

   • Label: Enter a label for the instance or accept the default. A label can contain only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It can’t contain unicode characters.

     Enter a label that’s meaningful and that you can use to identify the instance easily later. Try to assign a unique label for each instance. This label is displayed on the instance details page.

   • Description: (Optional) Enter a description.

   • Tags: (Optional) Specify one or more tags to help you identify and categorize the instance.

   • SSH Keys: (Optional) Specify the SSH keys that you want to associate with this instance. Click this field or start typing to see a list of available SSH public keys.

     Note:

     You don’t need to do this if you’re creating a Windows instance, because you can’t log in to a Windows instance using SSH.

     To add a new SSH public key:

     1. Click Add SSH Public Key.

     2. Enter a name for the SSH public key.

     3. In the Value field, click Select File. Navigate to the path where your SSH key is saved, and select the SSH public key file that you want to add. The value of the SSH key appears in the field.

        Alternatively, you can paste the value of the SSH public key that you want to add.

        Important:

        Paste the key value exactly as it was generated. Don’t append or insert any spaces, characters, or line breaks.

     4. Click Add.

        The SSH public key is added and appears in the list of SSH keys that you want to associate with the instance.

     Tip:

     The keys that you specify are stored as metadata on the instance. This metadata can be accessed from within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/{version}/meta-data/public-keys/{index}/openssh-key.

     • Oracle-provided images include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the keys, and adds them to the authorized_keys file of the opc user.

     • In images that you build, you can write and include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the SSH public keys, and adds the keys to the authorized_keys file of the appropriate users.

   • RDP: This field is displayed when you select a Windows image. Retain the default, Enabled, if you want to use RDP to access your Windows instance. If you select Disabled, you won’t be able to access your Windows instance using RDP.

   • Administrator Password: This field is displayed when you select a Windows image. The password displayed here is the password that you specified while getting the Windows image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. You can retain this password, or specify a different password. You’ll use this password to log in to your Windows instance as the Administrator. Ensure that the password meets the Windows password complexity requirements. See the Windows Server documentation.

   • Custom Attributes: Enter any additional attributes that you want to store on the instance. This field allows you to customize your instance by providing additional information specific to each instance. You can enter arbitrary key-value pairs in plain text. The text you enter here must be in JSON format. This information is stored as user data on your instance.

     If you’re creating a Windows instance, the following required attributes are pre-populated for you.

     {
               "enable_rdp": true,
               "administrator_password": "Specify_password_here"
       }
     

     The Administrator password that appears here by default is the password that you specified when you selected the Windows image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. You can specify a different Administrator password for your instance, if required. You can edit these attributes either directly in this field, or by modifying the RDP and Administrator Password fields above.

     On Oracle Linux instances created using Oracle-provided images with the release version 16.4.6 or later, the OPC Agent is installed and enabled by default. This agent collects and reports memory utilization metrics on your instance. If you want to disable this agent, enter the opc_guest_agent_enabled attribute set to false.

     For information about user-defined attributes that can be used to automate instance configuration, see Automating Instance Initialization Using opc-init.

     Note:

     Solaris machine images don’t include the opc-init scripts. So you can’t use opc-init to automate instance configuration of Solaris instances. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

     After the instance is created, the attributes that you specify here are available within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/latest/user-data. For information about retrieving user data, see Retrieving User-Defined Instance Attributes.

8. On the Network page, select or enter the required network settings, and then click the button to go to the next page:

   • DNS Hostname Prefix: (Optional) Specify a DNS host name prefix. The host name is visible internally within your DNS space. It is referenced by other instances in the domain, as well as by the OS and applications running on your instance. The host name that you specify is suffixed by the domain name. If you don’t specify a host name, then a host name is generated automatically.

   • Network Options: (Optional) From the 16.3.6 release onwards, Oracle-provided Oracle Linux and Windows machine images support up to eight interfaces (eth0 to eth7). If you use a private image, you can set up the image to support multiple interfaces. When you create an instance using these images, you can add each instance to up to eight different networks, including the shared network. To configure the shared network or IP networks, select the appropriate option.

     • (Available only on Oracle Cloud at Customer) If you select the IP Network option, you must click Configure Interface to configure IP network interfaces to enable access to your instance and specify one of the IP network interfaces as the default gateway for the instance. If you don’t click Configure Interface to specify an IP network, then the instance is added to the default security list in the shared network.

     • (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) If you select the IP Network option, then the eth0 interface of the instance is added to the default IP network. You can accept the default values or if you want to specify the IP network options, from the menu, select Update.

       Click Configure Interface to configure the other network interfaces of the instance.

     • If you don't want to access the instance on the shared network, ensure that the Shared Network option is deselected. If you don’t select the Shared Network option, your instance isn’t added to the shared network.

     • If you don’t select the IP Network option, your instance isn’t added to any IP network. If you don’t select either option, your instance isn’t added to any IP network but it is added to the shared network. It is added to the default security list. This enables you to access the instance on the shared network after the instance is created. However, no public IP address is associated with it, so if you want to access the instance from the public Internet, you must first associate a public IP address with it. The shared network interface is automatically configured as the default gateway for the instance.

9. IP Network Options
   Click Configure Interface. In the Configure IP Network Interface dialog box, enter the following information and then click Save.

   • Interface: Select the interface that you want to add to the IP network. After you select all the interfaces that you want to add to IP networks, the first available interface is assigned to the shared network. You can’t add, delete, or modify interface allocations after an instance is created.

   • vNIC Name: Retain the default vNIC name or enter another name. The three-part vNIC name is generated using this name. It has the format /Compute-identity_domain/username/instanceName_vnicName.

     If you enter a vNIC name, ensure that the name is unique to the site.

   • IP Network: Specify the IP network that you want to add this interface to. When you add an instance to an IP network, the specified interface of the instance is assigned an IP address on the specified IP network. After the instance is created, you can view information about each interface on the Instance Details page.

     If you haven’t created the IP network that you want to add your instance to, you can do so now. Click Create IP Network. Enter a name and the IP address prefix for the IP network, select an IP network exchange that you want to add the IP network to, if any. Then click Create. The IP network is created and selected in the list of IP networks that you want to add your instance to.

     If an IP network belongs to an IP network exchange and if you have specified a host name, then that host name is resolvable by all IP networks connected to the IP network exchange.

     The same DNS server will be used that is part of the IP network and will be setup by DHCP automatically.

   • Static IP Address: Specify a private IP address for this interface. The private IP address must be unused and it must belong to the subnet of the selected IP network. Remember, too, that certain IP addresses in a subnet are reserved. For example, the first unicast IP address of any IP network is reserved for the default gateway, the DHCP server, and the DNS server of that IP network.

     If no static IP address is specified, an IP address from the specified IP network is allocated dynamically, when the instance is created. Dynamically allocated IP addresses might change if the instance is deleted and re-created.

     Dynamic IP addresses are allocated from the lowest IP address in the range upwards. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, dynamic allocation of IP addresses would start with 192.168.1.2 (as the first two IP addresses in the range, 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.1, are reserved).

     To ensure that a static IP address that you’ve specified isn’t already dynamically allocated, it is recommended that you specify static IP addresses from the end of your subnet range. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, start allocating static IP addresses from 192.168.1.126 downwards (as the last IP address in the range, 192.168.1.127, is reserved).

   • Public IP Address: Select an available IP reservation for IP networks. When the instance is created, you can configure security rules and access control lists for your IP network to enable access to this IP address over the public Internet. If you don’t select an IP reservation now, you can associate a public IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

   • Cloud IP Address: Select an available IP reservation from the cloud IP pool. When the instance is created, this IP address can be accessed by other Oracle Cloud services without being accessible over the public Internet. If you don’t select a cloud IP address now, you can associate a cloud IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

   • MAC Address: Specify the MAC address of the interface, in hexadecimal format, where each digit is separated by colon. For example, you can enter 01:02:03:04:ab:cd as the MAC address but not 01-02-03-04-ab-cd. Ensure that the MAC addresses that you specify are unique within each IP network exchange and each IP network. If you specify a duplicate MAC address, each vNIC with that MAC address is disabled.

   • Virtual NIC Sets: Select the vNICsets that you want to add this interface to. Each interface is added to the default vNICset by default. If you select other vNICsets to add this interface to, you can remove it from the default vNICset. However, ensure that you add each interface to at least one vNICset, to enable communication to that interface. After the instance is created, communication with each vNIC depends on the vNICsets it belongs to and the access control lists that apply to each vNICset. While creating an instance, you can add a vNIC to up to 4 vNICsets. To add a vNIC to more than 4 vNICsets, update the required vNICsets after the instance is created. You can also remove vNICs from a vNICset after the instance is created.

   • DNS: Enter the DNS A record names for the instance. You can specify up to eight DNS A record names for each interface on an IP network. These names can be queried by instances on any IP network in the same IP network exchange. If no static IP address is specified for the interface, an IP address on the specified IP network is assigned automatically. After the instance is launched, the defined names are associated with the IP address that was automatically allocated to the interface.

   • Name Servers: Enter the name servers that are sent through DHCP as option 6. You can specify a maximum of eight name server IP addresses per interface.

   • Search Domains: Enter the search domains that should be sent through DHCP as option 119. You can enter a maximum of eight search domain zones per interface.

   • Default Gateway: Select this option if you want to use this interface as the default gateway. All network traffic uses the specified default gateway, unless a different interface is explicitly configured for an application within the instance.

10. Shared Network Options
    • Public IP Address:

      • If you want to connect to this instance over the Internet, then select either Auto Generated or Persistent Public IP Reservation.

      • If you select an autogenerated public IP address, the IP address persists while the instance is running, but will change if you delete the instance and create it again later.

      • To associate a permanent public IP address with the instance, select Persistent Public IP Reservation.

      • If you’ve already created an IP address reservation, select it from the list. Otherwise, to create one now, click Create IP Reservation. In the Create Public IP Reservation dialog box, enter a name for the IP reservation and then click Create. The IP reservation is created. Select this IP reservation from the list of persistent public IP reservations.

      • If you don’t want your instance to be accessed over the Internet, then you don’t need to associate a public IP address with it. In the Public IP Address list, select None.

      For more information about public IP addresses, see About Public IP Addresses.

    • Security Lists:

      • (Optional) Specify the security lists that you want to add the instance to. Click this field or start typing to see a list of available security lists. When you add an instance to a security list, you can control access to or from this instance by creating security rules that use the specified security list as a source or destination.

      • (Optional) If you haven’t created the security lists that you want to use, you can do so now. Click Create Security List. Enter a name for the security list and optionally enter a description, and then click Create. The security list is created and appears in the list of security lists that you want to add your instance to.

      If you don’t specify any security list, the instance is added to the default security list, default/default. You can use this security list as a source or destination in security rules that you create. If any existing security rules already specify this security list as a source or destination, those rules will apply to this instance when the instance is created. If you don’t want to use those security rules with this instance, or if you want to configure access to this instance separately later on, remember to remove the instance from the default/default security list after it is created. See Removing an Instance from a Security List.

      For more information about security lists, see About Security Lists.

11. The Storage page shows the persistent boot disk that will be created and used to boot your instance. You can retain this setting and attach additional storage volumes later, when the instance is running. Alternatively, you can update or remove the persistent boot disk that is created by default or attach additional boot or data disks now.

    You can attach existing storage volumes to your instance, if required, or create storage volumes and attach them to the instance.

    • To attach storage volumes that you’ve already created:

      Click Attach Existing Volume.

      Note:

      You can’t detach storage volumes that are attached during instance creation.

      In the Attach Existing Storage Volume dialog box, select or enter the following and then click Add:

      • Attach Storage Volume: Select the storage volume that you want to attach.

        Note:

        A storage volume must be in the online state before it can be attached to an instance. If a storage volume is already attached to another instance or if it is in an error state, it’s not displayed in the Attach Storage Volume list.

      • Attach as Disk #: Enter a disk index number. The disk number that you specify here determines the device name. The disk attached at index 1 is named /dev/xvdb, the disk at index 2 is /dev/xvdc, the disk at index 3 is /dev/xvdd, and so on. Make a note of the disk number. You’ll need it later when you mount the storage volume on the instance.

      • Boot Drive: Select this option to use the specified storage volume as the boot disk. The storage volume you select here must have the same image as the image that you selected on the Image page of the Create Instance wizard.

    • To create a storage volume and attach it to the instance:

      Click Add New Volume.

      In the Add New Storage Volume dialog box, select or enter the following and then click Add:

      • Name: Enter a name for this storage volume.

      • Size: The size is set automatically to accommodate the disk size that’s specified in the image that you selected earlier. If you want a larger boot disk than that specified in the image, then enter a larger size.

        Note:

        You can increase the size of a storage volume after creating it, even if the storage volume is attached to an instance. See Increasing the Size of a Storage Volume. However, you can’t reduce the size of a storage volume after you’ve created it. So ensure that you don’t overestimate your storage requirement.

      • Storage Property: Select a storage property.

        Based on your latency and IOPS requirements, select one of the following storage properties.

        Storage Property	Latency	Throughput
        storage/default	Standard	Standard
        storage/latency	Low	High
        storage/ssd/gpl	Lowest	Highest

        Note:

        SSD storage volumes aren’t available in all sites.

        The web console might show other storage properties. Don’t select any of them.

      • Description: (Optional) Enter a description.

      • Attach as Disk #: Accept the default disk number or enter a higher number. The disk number that you specify here determines the device name. The disk attached at index 1 is named /dev/xvdb, the disk at index 2 is /dev/xvdc, the disk at index 3 is /dev/xvdd, and so on.Make a note of the disk number. You’ll need it later when you mount the storage volume on the instance.

      • Boot Drive: Select this option to use the specified storage volume as the boot disk. When you select this option, the disk number is automatically set to 1.

    • To customize the persistent boot disk that is created by default:

      From the menu, select Update. In the Update Storage Volume dialog box, you can modify the disk size, storage property, or the description. You can also uncheck the Boot Drive option. The persistent storage volume will still be created when the instance is created, but it won’t be used to boot the instance. Instead, a nonpersistent boot disk will be created and used to boot the instance.

    • To create an instance that uses a nonpersistent boot disk:

      Remove the default boot disk. From the menu, select Remove. When you do this and you don’t specify another persistent storage volume as the boot drive, a nonpersistent boot disk is used to boot your instance.

      Note:

      If you want to create an instance snapshot to use this instance as a template for creating other instances, remove the persistent boot disk while creating this instance and use a nonpersistent boot disk instead. You can’t create an instance snapshot of an instance that uses a persistent boot disk.

      However, if you want to use a persistent boot disk to boot your instance, you can still use this boot disk as a template to create other instances by creating a storage volume snapshot of the boot disk and using that snapshot to create a new bootable storage volume. See Backing Up and Restoring Storage Volumes Using Snapshots.

    When you’re done, click the button to go to the next page.
12. On the Review page, verify the information that you’ve entered, and then click Create.
13. Monitor the status of the instance.

    • When you create an instance, the initial status is Preparing. Compute Classic allocates resources and prepares to create the instance.

    • While the specified image is being installed, the state changes to Initializing.

    • After the image is installed and the instance is starting, the status changes to Starting.

    • When the instance is ready, the status changes to Running. When an instance is in the Running state, you can connect to it. You can also attach or detach storage volumes and security lists.

    • When an instance is running, you can shut down the instance. Its status changes to Stopping. When the operation is completed, its status changes to Stopped. When an instance is shut down or stopped, you can either start the instance, or delete it.

    • When an instance is running or shut down, you can delete the instance. Its status changes to Deleting. When the operation is completed, the instance is deleted.

    • At times, an instance can have the Error status.

      For example, when you create or re-create an instance by starting its orchestration, if some of the resources required to create the instance aren’t available, then the status of the instance changes to Error.

    Note:

    If you get an error message Unable to place instance... it indicates that the site you’ve selected doesn’t have sufficient resources to create this instance. If your domain spans multiple sites, then use the Site menu near the top of the page to select another site and run the Create Instance wizard again.

After your instance is created, you can log in to your instance. See Logging In to an Instance.

Tip:

To ensure that Compute Classic instances provide a resilient platform for your workloads, make sure that the latest security patches are applied to the operating system running on the instances. In addition, before deploying applications on an instance, review the security configuration of the operating system and verify that it complies with your security policies and standards.

For security and patching-related guidelines, see the documentation for your operating system.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Creating Instances Using Orchestrations

An orchestration defines the attributes and interdependencies of a collection of compute, networking, and storage resources in Compute Classic. You can use orchestrations to automate the provisioning and lifecycle operations of an entire virtual compute topology.

To create instances using an orchestration, you define the orchestration offline in a JSON-formatted file, upload the orchestration to Compute Classic, and then start the orchestration. All the objects defined in the orchestration are created automatically.

At any time, you can delete and re-create all the instances in an orchestration just by stopping and restarting the orchestration. Storage attachments, security lists, and so on are re-created and associated automatically with the appropriate instances.

In orchestrations v2, you can achieve granular control over each object in an orchestration by defining the persistence of each object. If you want to delete instances in an orchestration but not the associated storage volumes, you can specify persistence for storage volumes and not for instances. That way, when you suspend an orchestration, all nonpersistent objects are deleted, while persistent objects continue to run.

To learn more about orchestration features, terminology, and concepts, see About Orchestrations v2.

To get started with creating instances using orchestrations, see Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2.

After your instance is created, you can log in to your instance. See Logging In to an Instance.

Tip:

To ensure that Compute Classic instances provide a resilient platform for your workloads, make sure that the latest security patches are applied to the operating system running on the instances. In addition, before deploying applications on an instance, review the security configuration of the operating system and verify that it complies with your security policies and standards.

For security and patching-related guidelines, see the documentation for your operating system.

Creating an Instance Using a Blank Orchestration v2

You can create a blank orchestration in the web console. Instead of defining the orchestration in a JSON-formatted file and then uploading the orchestration to Compute Classic, you can create a blank orchestration, and then add objects to it by updating the orchestration. While updating the orchestration, you can define attributes for a single instance or create complex topologies that consist of multiple instances and multiple networks.

Prerequisites

• To complete this task, you must have the Compute_Operations role. If this role isn’t assigned to you or you’re not sure, then ask your system administrator to ensure that the role is assigned to you in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. See Modifying User Roles in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud.

Procedure

1. Sign in to the Compute Classic console.
2. Sign in to the Compute Classic console. If your domain spans multiple sites, select the appropriate site. To change the site, click the Site menu near the top of the page.
3. Click the Orchestrations tab.
4. Click Create Orchestration.
   The Create Orchestration dialog box appears.
5. Enter the following information, and then click Create.
   • Name: Enter a name for the orchestration.
   • Description: Enter a description.
   • Tags: Specify one or more tags to help you identify and categorize the orchestration.

   A blank orchestration is created and listed in the Orchestration page.

6. Update the orchestration to add objects to it. Go to the blank orchestration that you want to update. From the menu, select Update.
   The orchestration details page appears.
7. To add any object type, go to the appropriate section and click Add. Let’s consider that you want to create an Oracle Linux instance which you want to access over the public Internet by using SSH and which you want to associate with an IP network. To achieve this: add an SSH key, create a storage volume, vNICset, IP network, an access control list (ACL), and set up the required security rules. To create a new IP network, click Add in the IP Network section. The Create IP Network dialog box appears. Enter the required information, and then click Create. Similarly, you can add all the other objects that you’ll require while creating the instance.

   The object is added to the orchestration with the status Inactive. The objects are created when you start the orchestration.

   Note:

   By default, objects that you define in the Orchestration details page are not associated with the instances you define in the orchestration. You’ll have to associate the objects, such as storage volume and IP network with the instance while defining the instance.

8. By default, the objects that you define in the Orchestration details page are not persistent.

   Note:

   Oracle recommends setting persistent to false for instances and setting persistent to true for the objects associated with an instance, such as security rules, storage volumes, and IP network. Objects that are not persistent will be deleted when you suspend the orchestration. This allows you to shutdown instances without losing data or breaking other instances. Generally, instances boot from a persistent boot disk, ensuring that any changes that you make at the operating system-level persist when the instance is re-created. If you create and customize an instance using a nonpersistent boot disk, you can use instance snapshots to use the instance as a template to create multiple identical instances but changes that you make at the operating system-level are lost.

   To make these objects persistent, perform the following task for every object that you have defined.

   1. Go to the object, and then from the menu, select Properties.
      The Object Properties dialog box appears.
   2. Select the Persistent check box.
   3. Click Update.
      The property of the object is updated.
9. To add an instance:
   1. In the Instance section, click Add. An instance with default configuration (/oracle/public/OL_7.2_UEKR4_x86_64 as the image and oc3 as shape) is added to the orchestration with the status Inactive. As this instance doesn’t have an interface on the shared network or on any IP network, when you start the orchestration this instance is automatically added to the default security list on the shared network.
   2. Update attributes of the instance such as image, shape, storage volume attached to the instance, IP network interfaces, shared network interface, and SSH keys. Go to the instance. From the menu, click Update.
   3. In the Information section, provide the following information for the instance.

      • Name: Enter a name for your instance, or accept the default.

      • Image: Select the image you want to use. The image specifies the operating system and disk size of the instance.

      • Shape: The shape specifies the OCPU and memory resources to be allocated to the instance. If you select a high I/O shape, an NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance. This is a local, nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk, which provides high I/O access rates. This disk is attached to your instance with the device name /dev/xvdz. After your instance is created, you can mount this disk and format it as required. The size of this NVMe SSD disk is fixed depending on the selected shape.

        Note:

        High I/O shapes aren’t available in all regions.

        For more information about shapes, see About Shapes.

      • Desired State: When you don’t set the desired state, the instance inherits this value from the orchestration. If you select Running, the instance is started. If you select Stopped, the instance is shut down. You can start the instance again later by updating the instance with the desired state specified as running.

      • DNS Hostname Prefix: (Optional) Specify a DNS host name prefix. The host name is visible internally within your DNS space. It is referenced by other instances in the domain, as well as by the OS and applications running on your instance. The host name that you specify is suffixed by the domain name. If you don’t specify a host name, then a host name is generated automatically.

      • Reverse DNS: If set to true (default), then reverse DNS records are created. If set to false, no reverse DNS records are created.

      • Custom Attributes: Enter any additional attributes that you want to store on the instance. This field allows you to customize your instance by providing additional information specific to each instance. You can enter arbitrary key-value pairs in plain text. The text you enter here must be in JSON format. This information is stored as user data on your instance.

        For information about user-defined attributes that can be used to automate instance configuration, see Automating Instance Initialization Using opc-init.

        After the instance is created, the attributes that you specify here are available within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/latest/user-data. For information about retrieving user data, see Retrieving User-Defined Instance Attributes.

      • Tags: (Optional) Specify one or more tags to help you identify and categorize the instance.

   4. Click Update to update the attributes of the instance.
   5. In the Storage Volumes section, click Attach a Storage Volume to attach an existing storage volume to the instance. The Attach a Storage Volume dialog box appears. Specify the following information, and then click Attach.

      • Attach Storage Volume: Select the storage volume that you want to attach. Ensure that the storage volume that you select is not attached to any other instance.

      • Attach as Disk #: Enter a disk index number. The disk number that you specify here determines the device name. The disk attached at index 1 is named /dev/xvdb, the disk at index 2 is /dev/xvdc, the disk at index 3 is /dev/xvdd, and so on. Make a note of the disk number. You’ll need it later when you mount the storage volume on the instance.

      Note:

      It is recommended that you create a persistent boot disk from which instances can boot, ensuring that any changes that you make at the operating system-level persist when the instance is re-created. If you create and customize an instance using a nonpersistent boot disk, you can use instance snapshots to use the instance as a template to create multiple identical instances but changes that you make at the operating system-level are lost. If you don’t select a storage volume, neither a data disk nor a nonpersistent boot disk is attached to the instance.

   6. In the Shared Network Interface section, configure the shared network if required. Don’t select an interface on the Shared Network if you want to set up the instance for SSH access on IP networks. When you select shared network, the interface on the shared network is used as the default gateway even if you have created an interface on the IP network.

      Note:

      If you don’t add an interface to the Shared Network or to any IP network, then the instance is added to the default security list on the Shared Network. You can add it to other security lists and create security rules and assign a public IP address later; however you can't add it to any IP network later.

   7. In the IP Network Interfaces section, click Add IP Network Interface to add the instance to an IP network and then provide the following information.

      • Interface: Select the interface that you want to add to the IP network. You can select any interface from eth0 to eth7. You can’t add, delete, or modify interface allocations after an instance is created.

      • vNIC Name: Retain the default vNIC name or enter another name. The three-part vNIC name is generated using this name. It has the format /Compute-identity_domain/username/instanceName_vnicName.

      • IP Network: Specify the IP network that you want to add this interface to. When you add an instance to an IP network, the specified interface of the instance is assigned an IP address on the specified IP network. After the instance is created, you can view information about each interface on the Instance Details page.

      • Static IP Address: Specify a private IP address for this interface. The private IP address must be unused and it must belong to the subnet of the selected IP network. Remember, too, that certain IP addresses in a subnet are reserved. For example, the first unicast IP address of any IP network is reserved for the default gateway, the DHCP server, and the DNS server of that IP network.

        If no static IP address is specified, an IP address from the specified IP network is allocated dynamically, when the instance is created. Dynamically allocated IP addresses might change if the instance is deleted and re-created.

        Dynamic IP addresses are allocated from the lowest IP address in the range upwards. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, dynamic allocation of IP addresses would start with 192.168.1.2 (as the first two IP addresses in the range, 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.1, are reserved).

        To ensure that a static IP address that you’ve specified isn’t already dynamically allocated, it is recommended that you specify static IP addresses from the end of your subnet range. For example, if your IP network subnet is 192.168.1.0/25, start allocating static IP addresses from 192.168.1.126 downwards (as the last IP address in the range, 192.168.1.127, is reserved).

      • Public IP Address: Select an available IP reservation for IP networks. When the instance is created, you can configure security rules and access control lists for your IP network to enable access to this IP address over the public Internet. If you don’t select an IP reservation now, you can associate a public IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

      • Cloud IP Address: Select an available IP reservation from the cloud IP pool. When the instance is created, this IP address can be accessed by other Oracle Cloud services without being accessible over the public Internet. If you don’t select a cloud IP address now, you can associate a cloud IP address with this interface later by creating or updating an IP reservation.

      • MAC Address: Specify the MAC address of the interface, in hexadecimal format, where each digit is separated by colon. For example, you can enter 01:02:03:04:ab:cd as the MAC address but not 01-02-03-04-ab-cd. Ensure that the MAC addresses that you specify are unique within each IP network exchange and each IP network. If you specify a duplicate MAC address, each vNIC with that MAC address is disabled.

      • Virtual NIC Sets: Select the vNICsets that you want to add this interface to. Each interface is added to the default vNICset by default. If you select other vNICsets to add this interface to, you can remove it from the default vNICset. However, ensure that you add each interface to at least one vNICset, to enable communication to that interface. After the instance is created, communication with each vNIC depends on the vNICsets it belongs to and the access control lists that apply to each vNICset. While creating an instance, you can add a vNIC to up to 4 vNICsets. To add a vNIC to more than 4 vNICsets, update the required vNICsets after the instance is created. You can also remove vNICs from a vNICset after the instance is created.

      • DNS: Enter the DNS A record names for the instance. You can specify up to eight DNS A record names for each interface on an IP network. These names can be queried by instances on any IP network in the same IP network exchange. If no static IP address is specified for the interface, an IP address on the specified IP network is assigned automatically. After the instance is launched, the defined names are associated with the IP address that was automatically allocated to the interface.

      • Name Servers: Enter the name servers that are sent through DHCP as option 6. You can specify a maximum of eight name server IP addresses per interface.

      • Search Domains: Enter the search domains that should be sent through DHCP as option 119. You can enter a maximum of eight search domain zones per interface.

      • Default Gateway: Select this option if you want to use this interface as the default gateway. All network traffic uses the specified default gateway, unless a different interface is explicitly configured for an application within the instance.

        If the instance has an interface on the shared network, that interface is always used as the default gateway.

   8. In the SSH Public Keys section, click Add SSH Public Key and then select the SSH public key that you want to associate with the instance.

   WARNING:

   Remember to associate an SSH public key and a public IP address with every Linux instance that you will access over SSH. If you don’t associate an SSH key, you can’t access your Linux instance and you can't associate SSH keys later on.

   Note:

   You don’t need to do this if you’re creating a Windows instance, because you can’t log in to a Windows instance using SSH.

10. Click Start to start the orchestration.
    When you start the orchestration, the status of the orchestration changes to Starting and then to Ready when all the objects defined in the orchestration are created successfully. The instance and other objects are created and their status changes from Inactive to Active.

Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

A launch plan is a JSON-formatted file that defines the properties of one or more instances. You can use a launch plan to quickly create and start multiple instances in Compute Classic.

Topics

• About Launch Plans

• Sample Launch Plan

• Launch Plan Attributes

• Instance Attributes Specified in a Launch Plan

• Prerequisite for Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Procedure for Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

About Launch Plans

A launch plan specifies the provisioning sequence and attributes of the instances that you want to create. Note that while you can reuse your launch plan JSON file to create new instances based on the attributes and provisioning sequence specified in the JSON file, the launch plan itself doesn’t persist in Compute Classic.

To understand how using launch plans differs from using orchestrations to create instances, see the FAQ How are orchestrations different from launch plans?.

Sample Launch Plan

The following is an example of a JSON-formatted file showing the attributes for two instances with different shapes and SSH keys but using the same image.

{
        "instances":
    [
        {
            "shape": "oc4",
            "imagelist": "/oracle/public/OL_6.7_UEKR4_x86_64",
            "sshkeys": ["/Compute-acme/admin/dev-ssh"],
            "name": "/Compute-acme/admin/dev-vm",
            "label": "dev-vm"
        },
        {
            "shape": "oc5",
            "imagelist": "/oracle/public/OL_6.7_UEKR4_x86_64",
            "sshkeys": ["/Compute-acme/admin/prod-ssh"],
            "name": "/Compute-acme/admin/prod-vm",
            "label": "prod-vm"
         }
        ]
}

Launch Plan Attributes

Parameter	Required or Optional	Description
instances	required	A list of instances. Each instance is defined using the instance attributes.
relationships	optional	The relationships between various instances. Valid values: same_node: The specified instances are created on the same physical server. This is useful if you want to ensure low latency across instances. different_node: The specified instances aren’t created on the same physical server. This is useful if you want to isolate instances for security or redundancy.

Instance Attributes Specified in a Launch Plan

Parameter	Required or Optional	Description
shape	required	The name of the shape that defines the number of OCPUs and the RAM that you require for the instance. For general purpose and high-memory shapes, you can select the block storage disk size, but for high I/O shapes, the size of the SSD storage is determined by the shape.
name	optional	The three-part name of the instance (/Compute-identity_domain/user/name). If you specify this parameter, then the full name of the instance would be in the format, /Compute-identity_domain/user/name_you_specify/id. If you don’t specify this parameter, then the full name would be in the format, /Compute-identity_domain/user/id. In either case, id is an autogenerated ID. Examples of Instance Names: When you specify /Compute-acme/jack/vm1 as the value of the name parameter: /Compute-acme/jack/vm1/300a7479-ec90-4826-98b9-a725662628f1 When you don’t specify the name parameter: /Compute-acme/jack/38ef677e-9e13-41a7-a40c-2d99afce1714 Although this is an optional parameter, specifying a meaningful name makes it easier for you to identify your instances.
label	optional	A text string to identify the instance. This label is used when defining relationships in an orchestration. A label can contain only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. It can’t contain unicode characters and spaces. Maximum length is 256 characters.
tags	optional	A JSON array or list of strings used to tag the instance. By assigning a human-friendly tag to an instance, you can identify the instance easily when you perform an instance listing. These tags aren’t available from within the instance.
attributes	optional	A JSON object or dictionary of user-defined attributes to be made available to the instance. If you’re creating a Windows instance, you must specify the following required attributes: { "enable_rdp": true, "administrator_password": "Specify_password_here" } For more information about specifying user-defined attributes that can be used to automate instance configuration, see Automating Instance Initialization Using opc-init. Note: Solaris machine images don’t include the opc-init scripts. So you can’t use opc-init to automate instance configuration of Solaris instances. The attributes that you specify can be accessed from within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/latest/attributes. For more information about retrieving user-defined attributes, see Retrieving User-Defined Instance Attributes.
imagelist	optional	The three-part name (oracle/public/imagelist_name) of the image list containing the image to be used (example: /oracle/public/OL_6.7_UEKR4_x86_64). You must use this attribute if you don’t specify a bootable storage volume by using the boot_order attribute. If you specify the imagelist attribute as well as the boot_order attribute, then the imagelist attribute is ignored.
storage_attachments	optional	If you specify the storage_attachments parameter, then specify the following subparameters for each attachment: volume: The three-part name (/Compute-identity_domain/user/object_name) of the storage volume that you want to attach to the instance. Note that volumes attached to an instance at launch time can't be detached. index: The index number for the volume. The allowed range is 1 to 10. If you want to use a storage volume as the boot disk for an instance, you must specify the index number for that volume as 1. The index determines the device name by which the volume is exposed to the instance. Index 0 is allocated to a nonpersistent boot disk, /dev/xvda. An attachment with index 1 is exposed to the instance as /dev/xvdb, an attachment with index 2 is exposed as /dev/xvdc, and so on.
boot_order	optional	The index number of the bootable storage volume that should be used to boot the instance. The only valid value is 1. If you set this attribute, you must also specify a bootable storage volume with index number 1 in the volume sub-parameter of storage_attachments. When you specify boot_order, you don’t need to specify the imagelist attribute, because the instance is booted using the image on the specified bootable storage volume. If you specify both boot_order and imagelist, the imagelist attribute is ignored.
hostname	optional	The host name assigned to the instance. On an Oracle Linux instance, this host name is displayed in response to the hostname command. Only relative DNS is supported. The domain name is suffixed to the host name that you specify. The host name must not end with a period. If you don’t specify a host name, then a name is generated automatically. The DNS name of an instance depends on its host name, as follows: If no DNS name is specified in the networking attribute, then the DNS name is set to the host name, and a reverse DNS record (PTR) is created for the host name. If the DNS name specified in the networking attribute matches the host name, then that record also creates a reverse DNS record for the host name. If the dns attribute under networking is set to an empty list ([]), then no DNS records are created even if a host name is specified. The instance still receives its host name through DHCP, and can perform a reverse lookup of its host name. However, no other instance can perform this reverse lookup. Note: If an instance has network interfaces defined only for IP networks and doesn’t have any interface on the shared network, then when hostname is specified, no DNS entries are set. In this case, DNS entries are set by the dns subparameter of the networking attribute.
reverse_dns	optional	If set to true (default), then reverse DNS records are created. If set to false, no reverse DNS records are created.
networking (attributes for the shared network)	optional	ethn: The interface that you’re defining. Oracle-provided images with release version 16.3.6 and later support eight vNICs. You can also create private images that support multiple vNICs. If the image you’ve specified supports eight vNICs, then you can specify up to eight network interfaces, from eth0 to eth7. Note: For each interface, you can specify parameters for either the shared network, or for an IP network. You can’t specify parameters for both networks for the same ethn interface. Only one interface on an instance can be added to the shared network. To add an interface to the shared network, you can specify the following subparameters: seclists: (Optional) The security lists that you want to add the instance to. nat: (Optional) Indicates whether a temporary or permanent public IP address should be assigned to the instance. dns: (Optional) A list of the DNS A record names for the instance. This name is relative to the internal DNS domain. model: (Optional) The type of network interface card (NIC). The only allowed value is e1000. name_servers: (Optional) The name servers that are sent through DHCP as option 6.  You can specify a maximum of eight name server IP addresses per interface. search_domains: (Optional) The search domains that should be sent through DHCP as option 119.  You can enter a maximum of eight search domain zones per interface. For more information about each of these subparameters, see Subparameters for a Network Interface on the Shared Network.
networking (attributes for IP networks)	optional	ethn: The interface that you’re defining. Oracle-provided images with release version 16.3.6 and later support eight vNICs. You can also create private images that support multiple vNICs. If the image you’ve specified supports eight vNICs, then you can specify up to eight network interfaces, from eth0 to eth7. Note: For each interface, you can specify parameters for either the shared network, or for an IP network. You can’t specify parameters for both networks for the same ethn interface. To add this instance to an IP network, specify the following subparameters: ipnetwork: The name of the IP network that you want to add the instance to. ip: (Optional) If you want to associate a static private IP address with the instance, specify an available IP address from the IP address range of the specified ipnetwork. address: (Optional) The MAC address of the interface, in hexadecimal format, where each digit is separated by colon. For example, you can enter 01:02:03:04:ab:cd as the MAC address but not 01-02-03-04-ab-cd. nat: (Optional) A list of IP reservation that you want to associate with this interface, in the format: "nat": ["network/v1/ipreservation:IP_reservation_name"]. Here IP_reservation_name is the three-part name of the IP reservation in the /Compute-identity_domain/user/object_name format. vnic: (Optional) The three-part name of the vNIC in the /Compute-identity_domain/user/object_name format. vnicsets: (Optional) A list of the three-part names of the vNICsets that you want to add this interface to. is_default_gateway: (Optional) If you want to specify the interface to be used as the default gateway for all traffic, set this to true. The default is false. If the instance has an interface on the shared network, that interface is always used as the default gateway. dns: (Optional) A list of the DNS A record names for the instance. name_servers: (Optional) A list of the name servers that should be sent through DHCP as option 6.  You can specify a maximum of eight name server IP addresses per interface. search_domains: (Optional) A list of the search domains that should be sent through DHCP as option 119.  You can enter a maximum of eight search domain zones per interface. For more information about each of these subparameters, see Subparameters for a Network Interface on an IP Network.
sshkeys	optional	A list of the SSH public keys that you want to associate with the instance. Note: You don’t need to provide any SSH public keys if you’re creating a Windows instance, because you can’t access a Windows instance using SSH. To access a Windows instance, see Accessing a Windows Instance Using RDP. For each key, specify the three-part name in the /Compute-identity_domain/user/object_name format. You can associate the same key with multiple instances. The keys that you specify are stored as metadata on the instance. This metadata can be accessed from within the instance at http://192.0.0.192/{version}/meta-data/public-keys/{index}/openssh-key. Oracle-provided images include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the keys, and adds them to the authorized_keys file of the opc user. In images that you build, you can write and include a script that runs automatically when the instance starts, retrieves the SSH public keys, and adds the keys to the authorized_keys file of the appropriate users.

Prerequisite for Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

Ensure that you’ve created your launch plan JSON file.

Procedure for Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

To create instances from a launch plan by using the CLI, use the opc compute launch-plan add command. For help with that command, run the command with the -h option. For the instructions to install the CLI client, see Preparing to Use the Compute Classic CLI in CLI Reference for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

To create instances from a launch plan by using the API, use the POST /launchplan/ method. For more information, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

Creating an Instance Using Visual Object Editor

This topic does not apply to Oracle Cloud at Customer.

When you create an instance using visual object editor, a single orchestration v2 is created automatically to manage the instance and its associated resources.

Storage volumes and networking objects used by the instance are created in the same orchestration. Instances are nonpersistent by default. However, storage volumes and other objects are created with persistence set to true, so that if you suspend the orchestration, instances are shut down, but storage volumes aren’t deleted. Terminating the orchestration, however, will cause all objects to be deleted and any data on storage volumes will be lost.

Note:

You can’t create Windows instances using the Visual Object Editor. Create Windows instances using QuickStarts or by using the Create Instance wizard.

Prerequisites

• You must generate an SSH key pair and upload the SSH public key to your Compute Classic account to access the instance from a Windows host using PuTTY. To generate an SSH key pair using PuTTY, see the section Generating an SSH Key Pair in Tutorial: Creating an Oracle Linux Instance Using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic Web Console. To upload the SSH public key to your account, see Adding an SSH Public Key.

• To complete this task, you must have the Compute_Operations role. If this role isn’t assigned to you or you’re not sure, then ask your system administrator to ensure that the role is assigned to you in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. See Modifying User Roles in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud.

• Create an IP network to which you want to attach your instance or you can use the default IP network. See Creating an IP Network.

Procedure

1. Sign in to the Compute Classic console. If your domain spans multiple sites, select the appropriate site. To change the site, click the Site menu near the top of the page.
2. Click Visualization in the top right corner.
3. In the palette on the left, expand Storage, and then and drag and drop Instance on to the canvas in the center pane.
4. Select or enter the following information in the Create Instance dialog box. Select the appropriate image. If you select an image from Oracle Cloud Marketplace, accept the terms and wait for the app to be installed before continuing.

   • Instance Name: Enter a name for the instance or use the default value.

   • Boot Image: Select the image you want to use. The image specifies the operating system and disk size of the instance.

     Only Oracle-provided images and private images are available. Oracle Cloud Marketplace images are not listed.

   • Shape: Select the shape that you want to use. The shape specifies the OCPU and memory resources to be allocated to the instance. If you select a high I/O shape, an NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance. This is a local, nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk, which provides high I/O access rates. This disk is attached to your instance with the device name /dev/xvdz. After your instance is created, you can mount this disk and format it as required. The size of this NVMe SSD disk is fixed depending on the selected shape.

     Note:

     High I/O shapes aren’t available in all regions.

     For more information about shapes, see About Shapes.

   • SSH Key: Select an existing SSH public key.

   • Storage Size: The size is set automatically to accommodate the disk size that’s specified in the image that you selected earlier. If you want a larger boot disk than that specified in the image, then enter a larger size.

     Note:

     You can increase the size of a storage volume after creating it, even if the storage volume is attached to an instance. See Increasing the Size of a Storage Volume. However, you can’t reduce the size of a storage volume after you’ve created it. So ensure that you don’t overestimate your storage requirement.

   • IP Network: Select the IP network that you want to attach your instance to.
5. Click Create.
   An orchestration v2 is created. For example, if you created an instance and specified the name of the instance as vm1, an orchestration v2 is created with the same name. While the instance is being created, you can monitor the corresponding orchestration on the Orchestrations page. When the instance is created, it is listed on the Instances page.

An instance is created with the following general configuration:

• Uses a persistent boot disk. You won’t be able to create an instance snapshot of this instance.

• In sites which support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks:

  • Doesn’t have an interface on the shared network.

  • Has one interface on the default IP network and is added to a vNICset of the same name.

  • Has one IP address from the /oracle/public/cloud-ippool IP address pool and another IP address from the /oracle/public/public-ippool IP address pool.

  • Has the required security rules and ACL set up to enable SSH access to the instance and all egress traffic.

• In sites which don’t support public IP address reservations, security rules, and access control lists in IP networks:

  • Has an interface on the shared network.

  • Is added to the default security list.

  • Has a temporary public IP address.

  • Has the required security rule set up to enable SSH access.

• Is nonpersistent. This allows you to update the instance by suspending the corresponding orchestration v2. When the orchestration is suspended, the instance status changes to Inactive and you can update any attribute of the instance.

• Has persistence specified as true for all other objects.

After your instance is created, you can log in to your instance. See Logging In to an Instance.

Tip:

To ensure that Compute Classic instances provide a resilient platform for your workloads, make sure that the latest security patches are applied to the operating system running on the instances. In addition, before deploying applications on an instance, review the security configuration of the operating system and verify that it complies with your security policies and standards.

For security and patching-related guidelines, see the documentation for your operating system.

See Also:

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image

• Workflow for Creating Instances Using Orchestrations v2

• Creating Instances Using Launch Plans

• Tutorial: Creating Instances Using Orchestration v1

Logging In to an Instance

After you’ve associated a public IP address with your instance, you can log in to the instance.

If you’ve enabled a VPN tunnel to your Compute Classic instances, you can use the private IP address of your instance to connect to the instance. To set up a VPN tunnel, see Connecting to Instances in a Multitenant Site Using VPN, Setting Up VPN Using VPNaaS, or Connecting to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Compute Classic Instances Using VPN. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

To connect to your Oracle-provided Oracle Linux instance using ssh, see Accessing an Oracle Linux Instance Using SSH.

Note:

If you’ve created your instance using an Oracle-provided image, then you can log in to the instance as the opc user. You can’t log in as root.

To connect to your Oracle Solaris instance using ssh, see Accessing an Oracle Solaris Instance Using SSH. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

To connect to your Windows instance using an RDP connection, see Accessing a Windows Instance Using RDP.