Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Stopping, Starting, or Restarting an Instance

You can stop, start, or restart an instance as needed to update software or resolve error conditions.

If the instance is scheduled for infrastructure maintenance, when it is restarted, it is restarted on a healthy physical host.

For steps to manage the lifecycle state of instances in an instance pool, see Stopping and Starting the Instances in an Instance Pool.

For permissions, see Required IAM Policy for Working with Instances.

Shutting Down or Restarting an Instance Using the Instance's OS

You can shut down and restart instances using the commands available in the operating system when you are signed in to the instance. Shutting down an instance using the instance's OS does not stop billing for that instance. If you shut down an instance this way, be sure to also stop it from the Console or API.

Starting an Instance

    1. Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.
    2. Click the instance that you're interested in.
    3. Click Start.

  • Use the instance action command and required parameters to start an instance:

    oci compute instance action --instance-id <instance_OCID> --action START

    For a complete list of parameters and values for CLI commands, see the CLI Command Reference.

  • Use the InstanceAction operation to start an instance, passing the value START as the action to perform.

Stopping an Instance

When you stop an instance, billing for the stopped instance depends on the shape that you used to create the instance.

Stopped bare metal instances are subject to hardware reclamation when the instance is stopped for longer than 48 hours.

    1. Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.
    2. Click the instance that you're interested in.
    3. Click Stop.

    4. By default, the Console gracefully stops the instance by sending a shutdown command to the operating system. After waiting 15 minutes for the OS to shut down, the instance is powered off.

      Note

      If the applications that run on the instance take more than 15 minutes to shut down, they could be improperly stopped, resulting in data corruption. To avoid this, shut down the instance using the commands available in the OS before you stop the instance using the Console.

      If you want to stop the instance immediately, without waiting for the OS to respond, select the Force stop the instance by immediately powering off check box.

    5. Click Stop instance.

  • Use the instance action command and required parameters to stop an instance:

    oci compute instance action --instance-id <instance_OCID> --action SOFTSTOP

    To power off the instance immediately, use the STOP action.

    For a complete list of parameters and values for CLI commands, see the CLI Command Reference.

  • Use the InstanceAction operation to stop an instance, passing the value SOFTSTOP as the action to perform.

    To power off the instance immediately, use the STOP action.

Rebooting an Instance

    1. Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.
    2. Click the instance that you're interested in.
    3. Click Reboot.

    4. Force reboot: By default, the Console gracefully restarts the instance by sending a shutdown command to the operating system. After waiting 15 minutes for the OS to shut down, the instance is powered off and then powered back on.

      Note

      If the applications that run on the instance take more than 15 minutes to shut down, they could be improperly stopped, resulting in data corruption. To avoid this, shut down the instance using the commands available in the OS before you restart the instance using the Console.

      If you want to reboot the instance immediately, without waiting for the OS to respond, select the Force reboot the instance by immediately powering off, then powering back on option.

    5. Infrastructure maintenance: If the instance is scheduled for infrastructure maintenance, for supported shapes, you can control when the maintenance downtime occurs by proactively reboot migrating the instance to a healthy physical host before the maintenance due date. Depending on the shape, do one of the following:

      • Standard VM shapes: The instance is migrated when you reboot it. You don't need to select any additional options.

      • Dense I/O VM shapes: If you want to reboot migrate the instance now, select the Delete the local NVMe-based SSD and reboot migrate to a healthy host option. For information about other maintenance options for dense I/O instances, see Infrastructure Maintenance.

        Caution

        The NVMe-based SSD is permanently deleted. We recommend that you create a backup of the SSD before proceeding.
      • Standard bare metal shapes: Select the Reboot migrate the instance to a healthy host option.
    6. Click Reboot instance.

  • Use the instance action command and required parameters to reboot an instance:

    oci compute instance action --instance-id <instance_OCID> --action SOFTRESET

    To reboot the instance immediately, use the RESET action.

    For a complete list of parameters and values for CLI commands, see the CLI Command Reference.

  • Use the InstanceAction operation to reboot an instance, passing the value SOFTRESET as the action to perform.

    To reboot the instance immediately, use the RESET action.