Getting Started with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic

About Compute Classic

You can use Compute Classic to rapidly provision virtual machines on Oracle Cloud with all the necessary storage and networking resources, manage and scale your virtual machine topology in the cloud easily, and migrate your Oracle and third-party applications to Oracle Cloud.

Compute Classic is a secure, reliable, low cost, standards-based infrastructure service. For a brief introduction to the features of the service, watch this video.

The following graphic provides an architectural overview of Compute Classic.

Architectural overview of Oracle Compute Cloud Service

The graphic shows instances and attached block storage, along with IP networks in Compute Classic. Access to Compute Classic instances is possible in several ways. You can use a browser to access the web console, you can access the REST API directly, or you can use the command-line interface. Secure access is provided by protocols such as SSH and RDP. You can also set up a VPN tunnel to provide secure access to instances in your Compute Classic network.

Using Compute Classic, you can do the following:

Migrate your applications to the public cloud
- When you subscribe to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Compute Classic, you get an environment that consists of high-performance x86 servers reserved for your use. Depending on the configuration that you subscribe to, you get a certain numbers of physical cores (OCPUs) of a modern Intel Xeon processor with hyperthreading enabled. Because you're the only tenant on the site, you enjoy predictable performance in the cloud.
- You can also subscribe for Compute Classic – Compute Capacity. In this case, no servers are reserved for your use. The instances that you provision are placed on any available server on a site that's shared with other tenants. You can opt for a metered or nonmetered subscription.
  
  With either subscription, you can migrate your on-premises applications to the cloud and take advantage of the elastic compute, storage, and network capabilities that Compute Classic provides.
For details of the available subscription options and the prices, go to https://cloud.oracle.com/compute-classic and click the Pricing tab.
Use up to 2x of your allocated resources

If you have a nonmetered subscription, you can use up to double the resources that you've subscribed to. This is referred to as bursting. For example, if you've subscribed for 4 OCPUs per month, bursting allows you to use a total of up to 8 OCPUs. The extra resources are charged per hour, and you're billed monthly in arrears, using the Pay as You Go pricing model. For pricing information, see the current per hour price list. Go to https://cloud.oracle.com/compute-classic and click the Pricing tab.
Expand your account to include additional SKUs

If you have purchased a subscription for Compute Classic, at any time you can expand your account by adding another SKU of the same service to your order. This is called bursting out. For example, if you’ve subscribed to nonmetered Compute Classic – Compute Capacity, bursting out allows you to add a metered subscription of Compute Classic – High I/O Compute Capacity to your account. The extra resources are charged per hour, and you're billed monthly in arrears, using the Pay as You Go pricing model. For pricing information, see the current per hour price list. Go to https://cloud.oracle.com/compute-classic and click the Pricing tab.
Assign processor and memory resources from a range of resource profiles

While creating Compute Classic instances, you can assign CPU and memory resources by selecting from a wide range of resource profiles (called shapes), each of which is a carefully designed combination of processor and memory limits. In some sites, you can also select high I/O shapes. When you select one of these shapes, a nonpersistent NVMe SSD disk is automatically attached to your instance.
Automate your instance provisioning and management workflows

You can define all the attributes for multiple, high availability (HA)-enabled virtual machines of varying shapes and machine images in an orchestration. Using the web console, you can then easily create, remove, and re-provision all of the virtual machines and associated resources as required through the orchestration.
Create instances using Oracle-provided and custom machine images

You can use one of several Oracle-provided machine images to quickly provision robust virtual machines.

Images provided by Oracle partners are available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

You can also build custom machine images based on the operating system and disk size of your choice and use those images to create virtual machines.

Note:

The operating system and software that you use to build private images must have the required licenses. You’re responsible for purchasing the required licenses and ensuring support for any third-party operating systems and software that you run on Compute Classic instances.

You can automate instance initialization by using opc-init. The opc-init scripts are included in Oracle-provided Oracle Linux and Windows images. You can also install opc-init in the private images that you create.
Provide a persistent boot disk for your instance

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.
Clone your instances using snapshots

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.
Attach high-capacity block storage to instances

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.
Back up and restore storage volumes using snapshots

You can use storage volume snapshots to create snapshots of persistent data or boot volumes. You can then use these storage volume snapshots as a form of data backup, or to create multiple, identical storage volumes.
Implement shared object storage in the cloud over NFSv4

You can use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Storage Software Appliance – Cloud Distribution to provide highly scalable, low-cost, reliable shared storage in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage Classic for your Oracle Linux instances running in Compute Classic.
Set up IP networks and routes

You can create one or more IP networks and add instances to multiple networks, if required. You can also create IP network exchanges or specify IP routes to enable traffic between different IP networks. Using IP networks you can isolate your network from the shared network and ensure that you have complete control over the private IP addresses assigned to instances.
Exercise fine-grained control over network traffic

You can control network traffic among individual instances and also between specific groups of instances and external hosts. You can also control traffic to and from instances over specific protocols and ports that you can define.
Reserve and assign fixed public IP addresses

For an instance that requires access to the Internet, you can reserve and use a static public IP address.
Monitor and manage all of your resources through a unified interface

You can access, administer, and use Compute Classic through an easy-to-use graphical web console. The console provides a single interface that you can use to monitor and manage all your Compute Classic resources.

You can also access Compute Classic and manage resources by using REST API calls.
Ensure secure access to instances

You can configure your Compute Classic Linux and Solaris instances (virtual machines) to be accessed securely from remote hosts by using SSH, and you can configure your Windows instances to be accessed securely by using RDP.
Configure high-speed and secure connections to instances in your account (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer)

You can use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect Classic to access your Oracle Cloud services using a direct connection from your premises or colocation facilities. You can also configure a VPN connection to your multitenant or dedicated Compute Classic site.

Before You Begin with Compute Classic

Before you begin using Compute Classic:

Create and configure your account on Oracle Cloud. See Getting an Oracle.com Account in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud.
Understand the features of the service. See About Compute Classic.
Be familiar with the Compute Classic terminology. See Compute Classic Terminology.

How to Begin with Compute Classic Subscriptions

To get started with Compute Classic, sign up for a free credit promotion, or purchase a subscription. You can then access the web console and create users and assign roles.

Here's how to get started with Compute Classic promotions and subscriptions:

Sign up for a free credit promotion or purchase a subscription. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) See Requesting and Managing Free Oracle Cloud Promotions or Buying an Oracle Cloud Subscription in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud.
Access the Compute Classic service. See Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console.
Learn about user accounts and roles. See About Compute Classic Roles.
Create accounts for your users and assign them appropriate privileges and roles. See Adding Users and Assigning Roles in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud.
Get familiar with Compute Classic terminology. See Compute Classic Terminology.

Compute Classic Terminology

The following table lists and describes the key terms used in Compute Classic, arranged in alphabetical order.

For a visual overview of the dependencies and relationships between various objects, see Relationships Between Compute Classic Resources.

Term	Definition	More Information
Image List	An image list is a collection of Compute Classic machine images. Each machine image in an image list is identified by a unique entry number.	Maintaining Versions of Private Machine Images
Instance	An instance is a virtual machine in Compute Classic, created by using a specific machine image, with CPU and memory resources defined by a shape.	About Instances
Instance Snapshot	An instance snapshot captures the current state of the nonpersistent boot disk of an instance and creates a corresponding machine image. You can then register this machine image with your Compute Classic account and use it to create instances.	Cloning an Instance by Using Instance Snapshots
IP Network	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.	About IP Networks
IP Network Exchange	An IP network exchange enables access between IP networks that have non-overlapping addresses, so that instances on these networks can exchange packets with each other without NAT.	About IP Networks
IP Reservation	An IP reservation is a public IP address that you can attach to a Compute Classic instance that requires access to or from the Internet	About Public IP Addresses
Launch plan	A launch plan is a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)-formatted file that defines the properties of one or more instances in Compute Classic. You can use a launch plan to quickly start multiple instances in Compute Classic. The attributes in a launch plan include the instance label and name, the image and shape to be used for the instance, and so on.	Creating Instances Using Launch Plans
Machine Image	A machine image is a template of a virtual hard disk of a specific size with an installed operating system. You use machine images to create virtual machine instances in Compute Classic.	Managing Machine Images
Orchestration	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.	About Orchestrations v1 About Orchestrations v2
Private Gateway	A private gateway object allows you to set up a private peering connection between subnets in your premises and IP networks in your Compute Classic account, using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect Classic.	Connecting to Instances Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect Classic
Route	A route specifies the IP address of the destination as well as the vNICset that provides the next hop for routing packets.	About IP Networks
Security Application	A security application allows you to specify the protocol and port that you want to use to enable traffic between a source and a destination using security rules. In the API and CLI, security applications are called secapplications.	About Security Applications
Security IP List	A security IP list is a list of IP subnets (in the CIDR format) or IP addresses that are external to instances in Compute Classic. You can use a security IP list as the source or the destination in security rules to control network access to or from Compute Classic instances. In the API and CLI, security IP lists are called seciplists.	About Security IP Lists
Security List	A security list is a group of Compute Classic instances that you can specify as the source or destination in one or more security rules. The instances in a security list can communicate fully, on all ports, with other instances in the same security list using their private IP addresses. When you add an instance to a security list, the inbound and outbound policies defined in the security list are applicable to that instance. In the API and CLI, security lists are called seclists.	About Security Lists
Security Rule	A security rule is a firewall rule that you can define to control network access to Compute Classic instances over a specified security application. You can use a security rule to control network access, between instances in two security lists, or from a set of external hosts (a security IP list) to instances in a security list. In the API and CLI, security rules are called secrules.	About Security Rules
Shape	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.	About Shapes
Site	A site is a set of physical servers and the associated storage and networking resources in an Oracle Cloud data center. Each site has a distinct REST API endpoint and its network is isolated from other sites in the data center. When you subscribe to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Compute Classic, you get a site that’s dedicated for your use. When you subscribe to Compute Classic, you share sites with other tenants. Multiple sites are assigned to your subscription, and you can see the capacity available on each site at any time. This helps you pick the site that you want to provision resources in.	About Compute Classic Sites
Storage Volume	A storage volume is a virtual disk that provides persistent block storage space for instances in Compute Classic.	About Storage Volumes
Storage Volume Snapshot	A storage volume snapshot is a backup of all the data currently stored on a storage volume. You can use this snapshot to make a copy of or restore a storage volume.	Backing Up and Restoring Storage Volumes Using Snapshots
Virtual NIC	A Virtual NIC, or vNIC, is a virtual network interface card that enables an instance to be associated with a network. Instances created using Oracle-provided Oracle Linux or Windows images with the release version 16.3.6 or later support eight vNICs, enabling each instance to be associated with up to eight networks.	About IP Networks
Virtual NIC Set	A Virtual NIC Set, or vNICset, is a collection of one or more vNICs. vNICsets are useful when you want to use multiple vNICs for the same action. For example, you use vNICsets to specify multiple vNICs as a source or a destination in a security rule. You can also use vNICsets in routes to specify multiple vNICs as the next hop destination for that route.	About IP Networks
VPN Endpoint	A VPN endpoint represents a VPN tunnel between your data center and your Compute Classic site.	Setting Up VPN Using VPNaaS About Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking Classic – VPN for Dedicated Compute Classic

Relationships Between Compute Classic Resources

The following diagram shows the relationships between the resources that you can use to create and manage instances in Compute Classic.

Each block in the diagram represents a resource in Compute Classic.

The numbers at either end of each arrow and the text label on the arrow, together, indicate the relationship between the resources that the arrow connects. For example, the number 1 at either end of the arrow between IP reservations and instance indicates that you can associate an IP reservation with only one instance and an instance with only one IP reservation. Similarly, n at either end of the arrow connecting SSH public key and instance indicates that you can associate any number of keys with each instance and a single key with any number of instances.

Relationships between objects in Oracle Compute Cloud Service

Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console

You can manage and monitor your Compute Classic instances and the associated storage and networking resources through an easy-to-use graphical web console.

Sign in to your Cloud Account.
- For Oracle Cloud, see Signing in to Your Cloud Account in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud.
- For Oracle Cloud at Customer, click the Infrastructure Classic Console URL from the welcome email.
The Infrastructure Classic Console is displayed.
Click in the top left corner of the Dashboard.
Under Services, click Compute Classic.
The Compute Classic console is displayed.
(Optional) This step is relevant only if your domain spans multiple sites. To change the site, click the Site menu near the top of the page.

See About Compute Classic Sites.

Note:

For security, the web console automatically times out after 15 minutes of inactivity. To continue using the web console, log in again.

Accessing Compute Classic Using REST API

You can programmatically provision and manage Compute Classic instances and the associated storage and networking resources by using a REST (REpresentational State Transfer) application programming interface (API).

Each REST API call maps to an HTTP request: getting an object (GET), adding an object (POST), updating an object (PUT), and deleting an object (DELETE). The HTTP response code indicates whether the request was successful. Each object for which you can perform the GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE requests is identified uniquely by its URI.

To access Compute Classic by using the REST API you must use the REST endpoint URL that Oracle provided when your administrator subscribed to the service.

To find out the REST endpoint URL for your service, see Send Requests in REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic.

Accessing Compute Classic Using the Command Line Interface

Compute Classic provides a comprehensive command line interface (CLI) that supports all the actions you can perform using the HTTP REST API.

For information about the installing and using the CLI, see Preparing to Use the Compute Classic CLI in CLI Reference for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic

About Compute Classic Roles

The following table summarizes the roles you can use to administer and use Compute Classic.

Role Description

Role	Description
`TenantAdminGroup` (Identity Domain Administrator)	Users who are assigned this role can perform all the tasks in the Infrastructure Classic Console, including user and role management tasks. Note that Oracle assigns this role to all trial users.
`service-instance-name.Compute_Operations` (Service Administrator)	Users who are assigned this role can view, create, update, and delete Compute Classic resources. The identity domain administrator can create additional service administrators, as required, by assigning this role in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console. For business continuity, consider creating at least two users with the `Compute_Operations` role. These users must be IT system administrators in your organization.
`service-instance-name.Compute_Monitor`	Users who are assigned this role can view Compute Classic resources. The identity domain administrator can create users with this role in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console.

TenantAdminGroup (Identity Domain Administrator)

Users who are assigned this role can perform all the tasks in the Infrastructure Classic Console, including user and role management tasks.

Note that Oracle assigns this role to all trial users.

service-instance-name.Compute_Operations (Service Administrator)

Users who are assigned this role can view, create, update, and delete Compute Classic resources.

The identity domain administrator can create additional service administrators, as required, by assigning this role in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console.

For business continuity, consider creating at least two users with the Compute_Operations role. These users must be IT system administrators in your organization.

service-instance-name.Compute_Monitor

Users who are assigned this role can view Compute Classic resources.

The identity domain administrator can create users with this role in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic Console.

See Adding Users and Assigning Roles in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud.

About Compute Classic Sites

A site is a set of physical servers and the associated storage and networking resources in an Oracle Cloud data center. Each site has a distinct REST API endpoint and its network is isolated from other sites in the data center. When you subscribe to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Dedicated Compute Classic, you get a site that’s dedicated for your use. When you subscribe to Compute Classic, you share sites with other tenants. Multiple sites are assigned to your subscription, and you can see the capacity available on each site at any time. This helps you pick the site that you want to provision resources in.

If your domain spans multiple sites, then when you log in to the web console, you can select the site that you want to access.
Remember, the web console always shows the resources in your domain in the site that you’re currently logged in to. You can’t see resources across all your sites.
You also can’t use resources from one site in your domain with resources in another site. For example, if you’ve created a storage volume in one site, you can’t use this storage volume with an instance that you’ve created in another site.

Note:

One exception to this rule is if you’ve created storage volume snapshots in another site. In this case, you can view snapshots created in another site. See Restoring a Storage Volume from a Remote Snapshot.
If your domain spans multiple sites, the web console allows you to view the aggregate resource usage by all tenants on the currently selected site. This is useful while creating instances and other resources. You can check which site has adequate capacity to create the resources you require. To view site utilization, log in to the web console and click the Site menu near the top of the page.
If you have multiple entitlements of Compute Classic in your account, you can use the Site menu near the top of the page to switch between different entitlements.

To access the Site menu, log in to the web console. See Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console.

Workflow for Using Compute Classic

Compute Classic supports multiple workflows for creating compute, network, 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 following table provides a sample workflow to get a Compute Classic account and start creating and accessing instances. Use this workflow as a guide to get started with Compute Classic.

Task	Description	More Information
Sign up for a free credit promotion or purchase a subscription.	Provide your information, and sign up for a free credit promotion. (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Alternatively, purchase a subscription to Compute Classic.	How to Begin with Compute Classic Subscriptions
Add and manage users and roles.	Create accounts for your users and assign them appropriate privileges. Assign the necessary Compute Classic roles.	Adding Users and Assigning Roles in Getting Started with Oracle Cloud
Monitor the service.	Check on the day-to-day operation of your service, monitor performance, and review important notifications.	Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud Services in Managing and Monitoring Oracle Cloud
Understand Compute Classic terminology.	Learn about instances, images, shapes, security lists, security rules, and so on.	Compute Classic Terminology
Generate SSH key pairs.	Generate the SSH key pairs that you plan to use to access your instances. 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.	Generating an SSH Key Pair
Access the service.	Access the service through the Compute Classic web console or RESTful API.	Accessing Compute Classic Using the Web Console
Add and enable SSH public keys.	Add the SSH public keys that you generated, and enable the keys.	Adding an SSH Public Key
(Optional) Build machine images and add them to Compute Classic	Build your own machine images, upload them to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage Classic, and register them in Compute Classic.	Workflow for Creating Instances Using a Private Machine Image
(Optional) Create boot disks.	Create storage volumes that can be used as boot disks for instances.	Creating a Bootable Storage Volume
(Optional) Create storage volumes.	Provide storage for your instances by creating and attaching storage volumes.	Managing Storage Volumes
Create instances.	Create instances with the required CPU, hard disk, and memory requirements according to the needs of your business.	Managing Instances
(Optional) Configure security lists and security rules	Set up firewalls for your instances by using security lists and security rules.	Configuring the Shared Network
Log in to the instances.	Access your instances securely.	Accessing an Oracle Linux Instance Using SSH Accessing an Oracle Solaris Instance Using SSH (Not available on Oracle Cloud at Customer) Accessing a Windows Instance Using RDP